Tim Tebow Bill

Yesterday, I went to the capitol with my co-op to lobby about the Tim Tebow bill. I am for this bill and feel free to tell me in the comments if you are for this bill or against it once I tell you what it is. This bill would allow homeschool students to participate in the public schools' extra-curricular activities with a few exceptions. Homeschool students would have to pass an approved, national-standardized test in order to be eligible to participate. They would not take a STAAR test because the STAAR test can reflect on that particular school's curriculum, but they will need to take a test that matches their grade level. They will also not get to pick which school they participate with. They will participate with the school in their district. It is called the Tim Tebow bill because Tim Tebow was a homeschool student and he  participated in extracurricular activities in his public school in Florida and through that route he was selected for college scholarship and ultimately  went on to play professionally in the NFL (It stands for National Football League for those of you who don't watch football). Imagine if a homeschool student had that kind of potential as well. We would want to be noticed by college scouts and even by our community. I understand that a homeschool kid could be noticed, but think about how much more noticeable we would be in a public school. Here are the reasons I am for the Tim Tebow bill...

1. Travel

If we could participate in the extra-curricular activities in the public school of our district, it would save some of us a lot of time and gas money. I know that every Monday when I go to volleyball practice, it takes us at least 40 minutes to get there. But if I went to my public school for volleyball practice, it would take me less than 5 minutes. I could participate in YMCA volleyball, but  I am most interested in a more competitive level in my sport. ?

2. Facilities

I know that there are homeschool students who would love to play in a gym for sports instead of  outside in the burning hot weather, the freezing cold weather, or the rarely occurring perfect weather. Actually, in the case of perfect weather, we would rather play outside than in a gym. Now, we could probably find a co-op or open gym somewhere, but that brings us back to the traveling benefit. The only place I have found with an open gym is the YMCA, but as a shared facility for members and programs the availability to the youth recreation programs is more limited than the facilities at public schools dedicated strictly for this purpose.

3. Taxes

Technically, I don’t pay taxes, but my parents do. What do taxes cover? Well, they cover construction with roads, Some other stuff I don’t know, and PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Wait a minute… So we pay for public schools to have extracurricular activities and for our co-op sports, but we only get to participate in one of those things that we pay for? That doesn’t make very much sense. But what if we could? Then we could get our money’s worth out of it.

Thank you for reading my blog! You can ask questions about the Tim Tebow bill in the comments and I will do my best to answer them for you. The decision to pass the Tim Tebow bill or not will be decided tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

Christmas christmas time is here!

Hey guys! I have not blogged in a few days because I have been so busy with my presentation. Speaking of which, thank you for all of the feedback. I have improved my presentation a great deal because of you. So everyone know that christmas is coming. Yay! Our elf on the shelf (Holly Molly is her name) has come to our new house and we even made clothes for her (me and my sister). I would tell you what I am getting for my family, but I think my mom reads these so... sorry. We have a christmas countdown in our office that we have been updating every day. Okay, maybe not every day, but most days. We are going to spend Christmas at our new house, but before christmas, we are going to Colorado to visit my mom's side of our family. I am so excited! I also LOVE the food! And I genuinley love to give presents away. I mean don't get me wrong, I love recieving too, but giving is one of my favorite parts of Christmas. Another one of my favorite things about Christmas is that it is Jesus's birthday! What a day to rejoice about all of the blessings the Lord has given you; family, food, and the ability to love and be loved. Comment about what your favorite part about Christmas is. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Presentation

I haven't blogged in a few days because I don't have very much to blog about. But I have something that might intrest you. As you know, I am doing co-op and in my co-op, I do Extended Science. In Extended Science, I have to do two presentations by the end of that semester and my first presentation is due in one week. I am doing my presentation on Sir Isaac Newton and I will show my research paper below. I would love some constructive criticism in the comments. Thanks!

Sir Isaac Newton

By: Addie Force

 Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643 in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. He was small when he was born because he was born prematurely. Isaac was named after his father, Isaac Newton Sr. His father died three months before he was born. When Isaac was three years old, his mother, Hannah Ayscough, then remarried. Hannah and  Barnabus Smith and had three more children; Benjamin Smith, Hannah Smith Pilkington, and Mary Smith. Isaac Newton was unhappy with his mother’s remarriage. Isaac went to The King’s School from 12-17 years old. Then he went to college at Trinity College in Cambridge, England. He got his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in August of 1665. Isaac died on March 31, 1727 (age 84). But he will always be remembered.

 Isaac Newton achieved many great accomplishments during his lifetime. He is believed to be one of the most influential scientists of all time. He wrote a three volume set called Principia, constructed a famous prism experiment, formulated calculus, and came up with a different design for the telescope. Newton’s famous experiment with prisms shows that white light is really made up of the colors of the rainbow just overlapping. In the first volume of Principia, Newton proposed that a scientific law was useless if it could not be developed into a mathematical equation. He also wrote about the three laws of motion. The first law of motion is called Inertia. It means that an object in motion will remain in motion and an object at rest will remain at rest, unless either experiences an unbalanced outside force. . For example, if you kick a soccer ball, even if you kick it as hard as you can, it will eventually stop. When you think of Newton’s first law of motion, you wonder why it stopped because nothing was there to stop it. But there is something there to stop it and that is air resistance and surface friction.

Newton’s second law of motion is actually an equation. The equation is F=ma which means force equals mass times acceleration. So if you are driving in a car, you find the car’s mass and the car’s acceleration and you multiply them together in order to get the car’s force.

The third law of motion shows that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you have a bouncy ball and bounce it on the ground, the action is the ball hitting the floor, and the reaction is the floor pushing the ball back up.

 In the second volume of Principia, Newton wrote about the motion of fluids which was originally the work of Blaise Pascal. And in the third volume, Isaac wrote about his universal law of gravitation. Scientists thought that an object falling to the ground was one physical process, and the planets moving in the sky was a completely different process. Isaac Newton proved them wrong with detailed experiments and observations in the third volume of Principia. This volume of Principia concluded that the geocentric view of the heavens was false.

 Another thing that Isaac Newton did is formulate calculus. Calculus is the study of how things change. The two main types of calculus are differential calculus and integral calculus. Calculus is a part of modern mathematics education.

He also came up with an altogether different design for the telescope that we still use today. It consists of a concave primary mirror and a flat diagonal secondary mirror. Newton’s first reflecting telescope was completed in the year 1668. It is the earliest known functional reflecting telescope even though the idea didn’t belong to Isaac (the idea was invented originally by Galileo).                

 Isaac Newton was a Christian. The main reason he studied science was to learn more about God. He read the Bible daily and wrote about the Book of Daniel (his favorite book in the Bible). Newton actually wrote more about the bible than he did about math and science. He was born into an Anglican family and became a christian when he was about 30 years old.

After Thanksgiving

So how was Thanksgiving? Mine was pretty good, especially since the Cowboys won! We had a lot of fun and Sean (my mom's friend's nephew) had a good time too. we had a lot of food. Once I was full, I ate more because it was so good. I love my family. We played hide and seek, sardines, and balloon volleyball. We also played a game called 9 square. That game is like 4 square and volleyball put together. Even my dad played a little bit of 9 square. I don't actually have too much to say except that it was awesome, but it really was. Besides that, nothing has really happened. I hope your Thanksgiving was as swell as mine.

Another Thanksgiving

So now it is Thanksgiving break and I am super excited about it! Why? This Thanksgiving is going to be the first one in our new house. My uncle and grandparents are coming, and my mom's friend's nephew is coming as well. I have never met him but he seems pretty cool. For Thanksgiving dinner, we are going to have turkey, ham, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and bread rolls. My favorite is probably the sweet potatoes. For desert, we are going to have apple, pumpkin, and blueberry pie. I am thankful for family, friends, food, music, volleyball, and for being able to speak about my faith publicly without being punished. What are you thankful for?

Robotics

I forgot to tell you in my last blog that this is also my first year doing robotics. It isn't like one of those massive robots that you see, but it is like a mini one of those. Yesterday we had a scrimmage which was our first chance to see what the meets after that are going to be like, and it is a chance to inspect the other robots. My job pretty much the whole day was to scout. That means that I had to figure out what the other robots can do. I did this with a girl named Alyssa. She is really awesome. There are like about 15 other people in our group. That is all for now. 

Catching Up

I haven't blogged in a while. It looks like almost a year has passed since I have done this so I am just going to catch you up on what I have been doing. I probably have lost everyone who actually read my blog but I am going to try and blog more now. Instead of long blogs, they are probably going to be really short, but here goes.

This is my second year doing patriots volleyball and the season has already ended. Next season, I am going to move a level up and possibly be a setter. I hope I am a setter. I am really exited for next year!

This has also been my first year doing co-op as a homeschool kid. Me and my siblings are doing co-op with REACH. It is a lot of fun, except for the school part.

We also moved! It was just from Converse to New Braunfels. We didn't moved to like, another state or anything. When my friends tell me I should come over to their house sometime, I tell them that they should come over to our new house.

I think you know everything else that is going on with my life so that is about it. Goodbye!