Subway Okays Homeschoolers

WorldNetDaily reported yesterday that homeschoolers can now participate in the "Every Sandwich Tells a Story" contest. Subway also sent out a letter of apology:

"We sincerely apologize to anyone who feels excluded by our current essay contest. Our intention was to provide an opportunity for traditional schools, many of which we know have trouble affording athletic equipment, to win equipment. Our intent was certainly not to exclude homeschool children from the opportunity to win prizes and benefit from better access to fitness equipment."

Yay!!! You have until August 31st to enter. Here is a link once again to the contest: http://www.subwayfreshbuzz.com/kids/contest.aspx

Every Sandwich Tells a Story!

...well, it does unless you are homeschooled.

Subway has a contest up and running now called Every Sandwich Tells a Story. The rules are simple (and this is directly quoted from the site):

• Have your child write a story that has a beginning, middle, and end. Or have fun writing the story together!


• Be creative! Let your imagination cook up a story that is as delicious to read as a Subway sandwich is to eat. If possible, include a few details that describe "Random Acts of Fitness (e.g. eating right, exercising, playing sports, living a healthy lifestyle).

Story starters for the contest are:

• The Mysterious Meatball - When the invitation to the Meatball came in the mail...


• Turkey Doesn't Live Here Anymore - There was a loud knock on the door, but when Salami Sam opened it...


• The Race to Red Onion Ranch - Everyone gathered in the center of town for the start of the race except...


• Nothing Better - The smell of fresh baked bread coming from the store was so good that...
  

Grand prizes include athletic equipment for your child's school ($5000 value); Scholastic gift basket (apparently good spelling is optional as they have it spelled "bastket" on the site); $100 Subway gift card; and story is published on http://www.subwaykids.com/ and in Scholastic's Parent & Child magazine. There will also be six runners-up who will get a Scholastic gift basket and $50 Subway gift cards.

Sounds like a great opportunity for any child, doesn't it? I know as a homeschooling parent, I am always looking for ways to encourage my children to write and I am sure parents with kids in public/private school feels the same way. And not only does the prize benefit the child, but he/she can perform a community service by being able to donate $5000 worth of athletic equipment to a school (possibly even a community park, youth group or maybe even an actual homeschool group...you get the idea).

But now for the fine print (and take note of the very humorous misspelling of "United" as it is posted on the Subway website):

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Contest is open only to legal residents of the Untied States who are currently over the age of 18 and have children who attend elementary, private or parochial schools that serve grades PreK-6. No home schools will be accepted.

I guess I can see why they might have excluded homeschoolers. After all, where would a homeschooler donate $5000 worth of athletic equipment? What use would a homeschooler have for a basket (or should I say bastket?) of Scholastic books? Why on earth would a homeschooled child want to see his story published on both a website and in a magazine?

Based on the fine print in this essay contest, though, I can definitely say that homeschoolers have no use for a Subway gift card. Certainly not those in the Untied States, anyway.

Subway sandwich contest: Homeschoolers not wanted

Subway Petition

Contact info:

Subway Headquarters
325 Bic Drive Milford, Connecticut 06461-3059
203-877-4281

Tom Seddon CEO, SFAFT
800-888-4848 x1370 seddon_t@subway.com

There's a feedback form:
http://www.subway.com/Applications/CustService/frmCustomerService.aspx

You can contact scholastic at:
P&CConnects@scholastic.com or CConnects@scholastic.com

Happy Spring!

Yay! After a long and bleak winter, I am finally starting to feel more like myself again. It seems that from the month of January on I go into hibernation mode and tend to neglect many of the "extra" things I normally enjoy doing. I do not have seasonal affective disorder or anything like that. I do manage to keep up with the necessary things like laundry, dishes, etc. I also still enjoy going out and socializing. I just need an extra push to get me out the door! I think everyone suffers from this to some extent during the winter and I am equally sure much of it is due to lack of sunlight. It just never fails to take me by surprise when spring rolls around and I immediately feel energized and ready to do things...such as updating my blog.

We went fishing a couple weeks ago at a wildlife management area that is just over the hill from our farm. We go there frequently throughout the spring, summer and fall (sometimes even taking our canoe), so I thought it would be fun to post pictures of it from season to season. Here is how it looked a couple weeks ago:




And of course I have to include a couple pictures of the kids...first Sydney:

And then the boys...Tucker (back) and Dylan (front):

Bipolar Kids or Bad Parents?

Below is a very interesting article from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that was recently posted on a homeschool list I subscribe to.

My older son was always very, um....shall we say, high-spirited when he was a toddler/preschooler and could have easily been diagnosed with ADHD or some such disorder. While I don't necessarily agree with the whole 'bad parenting' angle this article takes in every case, I can certainly see where this would be true in many cases. You see it every day at the grocery store. You know, the kid in the checkout line who repeatedly begs and pleads for a candy bar until mom finally caves in with an..."Ok dear, but just this once!". Often the mom rolls her eyes at others behind her as if it is somehow the kid's fault for being so belligerent, when she is really training her kid that if he just begs a few more times, she will eventually give in to his/her demands. While I am sure the others in line appreciate the kid no longer screaming, it will not take care of the problem on future shopping visits. I can definitely sympathise with the mom here because of her concern for the others in line (as parents we have all been in that situation!), but the overall outcome would be so much better if she ignored the kid's whining. It wouldn't happen overnight, but eventually the kid realizes that mom is a hardass and learn whining isn't the best approach.

I also think a lot of them are just high-energy, kinetic kids being forced to conform to what is expected from them. In many cases, especially if they are to go to public school, this means having them medicated so they can keep up with the rest of the class (or at least pay attention and appear to be keeping up). My son definitely fit this category when he was younger. Whatever activity he participated in, he had to be right in the thick of things...definitely very hands-on with everything (still is for that matter, but has MUCH more self control). He was never really one to want things when we went shopping, but instead wanted to touch and feel anything within his reach. He would often have tantrums when he was unable to have his way, such as not being able to hold the $200 vase tottering on the edge of a shelf, but he did eventually learn that he couldn't pick just anything up on a whim. Ironically, many of these ADHD traits he had have lead to the many leadership qualities he has now.

Anyway, on to the article!


Bipolar Kids or Bad Parents?
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Sunday, November 18, 2007
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07322/834548-109.stm

At the urging of parents, doctors are medicating far too many kids who just need a better upbringing, according to Dr. Elizabeth J. Roberts who is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and the author of "Should You Medicate Your Child's Mind?"

On Dec. 13, 2006, 4-year-old Rebecca Riley died, drowning in her own lung secretions. Her death was the direct result of psychiatric medications which had been prescribed to her for a presumed diagnosis of bipolar disorder -- a diagnosis first given to her when she was only 2 years old.

In September 2007, researchers at Columbia University reported that there had been a 40-fold increase in the number of children diagnosed with bipolar disorder from 1994 to 2003 -- an increase which has shown no signs of slowing.

Worse than the current frenzy to diagnose children with bipolar disorder is the practice of medicating kids as young as 2 with the kinds of psychiatric medications that were once prescribed only to psychotic adults. The shocking reality is that the use of these potent anti-psychotic drugs in children increased more than 500 percent between 1993 and 2002.

This dramatic rise in childhood bipolar disorder has spurred a raging debate in the mental health field. Some psychiatrists insist that this incredible increase is entirely due to the identification of mentally ill children who had been previously overlooked.

Yet a 4,000 percent increase in childhood mental illness, specifically bipolar disorder, is simply implausible and difficult to justify based solely on improved diagnostic techniques. To the contrary, in the 30-plus years that I have been treating, educating and caring for children -- half of that time as a child psychiatrist -- I have found that the approach to diagnostics in psychiatry clearly has deteriorated over time, not improved.

There was a time when doctors insisted on hours of evaluation with a child and his parents before venturing a psychiatric diagnosis or prescribing a medication. Today many of my colleagues brag that they can complete an initial assessment of a child and write a prescription in less than 20 minutes. Many parents have told me it took a previous doctor less than five minutes to diagnose and medicate their child.

How, then, is it possible that in 2007 doctors are now able to identify hundreds of thousands of previously missed cases of bipolar disorder in children by reducing the time they spend with patients from multiple hours to just a few minutes?

On the other hand, there simply is no possible way that the number of children who actually have bipolar disorder has increased from approximately 20,000 to 800,000 in a nine-year period. Yet the arguments of skeptics are being dismissed by academics in psychiatry. Research psychiatrists appear to be more invested in defending their research conclusions -- funded by pharmaceutical companies -- than engaging in a meaningful discussion to examine these preposterous demographics.

What I find more astounding than the claim that there are 800,000 American children with bipolar disorder is the fact that there are that many children whose conduct is so aberrant that their parents are seeking psychiatric treatment for them.

The symptoms, which are regarded as evidence of bipolar disorder, usually are what most people recognize as ordinary belligerence. Children who have anger outbursts, who refuse to go to bed, who are moody and self-centered under the current standard of care in child psychiatry are being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. To most rational human beings, these behaviors describe an ill-mannered, immature and poorly disciplined child. Nonetheless, the temper tantrums of belligerent children are increasingly being characterized by doctors as the mood swings of bipolar disorder.

The over-indulgent parenting practices of the past 20 years have created a generation of dysfunctional children who are becoming increasingly more entitled, defiant and oppositional. In a poll by Associated Press-Ipsos, 93 percent of people surveyed said that today's parents are not doing a good job when it comes to teaching their kids to behave. According to Dan Kindlon, a Harvard psychologist, 50 percent of the parents he interviewed described themselves as more permissive than their parents had been.

The permissive parents of spoiled children seek refuge from blame by using the excuse that their child's angry outbursts are the result of a chemical imbalance. Since a psychiatric condition is completely beyond a parent's control, a diagnosis of bipolar disorder is the perfect alibi. Once a child has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a parent feels absolved of guilt or responsibility for the child's misbehavior and therefore, the parents' discipline practices cannot be called into question.

Parents looking for a psychiatric explanation for their child's misbehavior will find an abundance of support in the media and on the Web for the conclusion that their child's temper tantrums are due to a psychiatric disease rather than the result of bad parenting. Psychiatrists, for their part, are more than willing to accept, without question, the assessment offered by a parent. Doctors have found it easier and less contentious to comply with a parent's wish to have their child diagnosed with a psychiatric condition than to confront the parent with the notion that their own weak parenting is the root cause of the child's aberrant behavior.

Using the diagnosis of bipolar disorder, doctors then justify the sedation of these children with powerful psychiatric drugs. Even though some children treated with anti-psychotics may be temporarily sedated, their belligerent attitude continues unchanged. Of the many children I treat every year who had been previously diagnosed with bipolar disorder, not one of them stopped throwing tantrums after being treated with psychiatric medications. Yet doctors continue to misdiagnose and overmedicate children to appease frustrated parents in spite of the many serious, permanent or even lethal side effects.

Tragically, as in the death of Rebecca Riley, her parents administered the multiple medications prescribed by their psychiatrist for Rebecca's "bipolar disorder" until the meds killed her. A few weeks ago, in an interview on 60 Minutes, Rebecca's mother told Katie Couric that she now believes that her four-year-old daughter had been misdiagnosed, had never been bipolar, and that Rebecca was simply mischievous.

When it comes to misdiagnosing and overmedicating children, doctors have an unwitting, though not unwilling, accomplice -- the parent. Ultimately, it is the parent who is the gatekeeper for their child's health-care delivery. It is the parent who pursues psychiatric treatment for their child, fills the prescriptions and administers the medications. Parents have a duty to protect their children from the folly of this disastrous approach to childhood behavior problems.
Instead of grooming, feeding and educating the next generation of Americans to be the fittest, brightest, most competent contributors on the planet, we have indulged, placated and spoiled our children into dysfunctional misfits. We are teaching our children to use a psychiatric diagnosis to excuse their antisocial behaviors. This will inevitably lead to a greater reliance on psychiatric medications, which unfortunately do not endow an individual with improved self-control or maturity.

Under the guise of treating childhood bipolar disorder, the spoiling of American children not only undermines their healthy social development, but it also puts them at great risk for the serious medical complications inherent in the use of psychiatric medications, including death.

Seneca Rocks

I was lucky enough to make a trip to Cabins, WV (10 miles down the road from Seneca Rocks) with a group of fellow homeschool moms over the weekend. We stayed in a really nice cabin and had a great time. The leaves were just past peak color, but there were still enough left on the trees to make the scenery take on gorgeous pastel tones. I think that part of the state would be beautiful any time of the year, though.

I took my mountain bike and even managed to get a couple rides in. The terrain is very rough around there, so even a small ride was a lot of hard work. It is possible we walked our bikes more then we rode them, but either way it was fun.

A couple of us hiked up to the top of Seneca Rocks on the last day we were there. The view up there was incredible! I regret I did not bring my camera because it was completely full and had no room for more pictures. We definitely plan to go back, so will be sure to get pictures from the summit then.

No pictures of the kids here because they were back at home with their dad. This trip was for moms only!

View from front of cabin (that's the North Fork River)