Jump to content
IGNORED

Kristina (of Keepsakes) Starting to Homeschool


0 kids n not countin

Recommended Posts

Even if Kristina did want to send her children to school, public/private - any school, she also can only do that I assume, if her husband agrees. Her parents homeschooled her, and it's probable her husband also is on board with Kristina homeschooling their children. To her credit, Kristina is smart enough to know how lacking her own education was, but if everyone around her expects her to homeschool, she is in a very tough place if she even considered sending the children to school.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Meh. She is an actual grown up now. If she realizes she was handicapped by her parents terrible priorities she could start by improving her children's chances by not having anymore babies. She isn't improving their homeschool situation by adding more babies in the mix.

Honestly, as always she is playing lip service and trying to convince us that she meets some of our standards. (Why she cares about that I have no idea.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Honestly, as always she is playing lip service and trying to convince us that she meets some of our standards. (Why she cares about that I have no idea.)

Because having so many people think she's wrong, a hypocrite, and stupid damages her sense of innate superiority. Conforming to "worldly" standards she conveniently picks and chooses leaves her mental room to double down on religious standards (that she also picks and chooses for convenience). Like Zsu and zomg organic. And she still needs that sense of mental superiority to do stuff she wanted to do anyway- like have a few more kids. Her notoriously adjustable morality will ensure that the Pill secretly becomes acceptable well before they all starve, I suppose.

I assume her adjustable morality will learn to love public school as well. If you feel like your family might be upset with you, Kristina, you can always move somewhere with really stringent homeschool requirements, and then weep and wail and gnash your teeth and tell them that the evil government is oppressing you and you had no choice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Or she could stop playing grown up and actually, you know, be an adult. And if her family is opposed to her decisions, tell them to go jump in a lake because it's her life and her kids and her choice.

But, fundies aren't capable of that. I think they repress actual, honest thought and emotion for so long they lose even a glimmer of the ability to be independent adults with brains and ideas and thoughts of their own.

Being a responsible adult and involved mother is more than making the babies. It's using your brain to raise them.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I'm late to the party, but I just wanted to comment on home schooling and exposing kids to the 'ways of the world.'

I was raised in a family that followed Quiverfull and used the Advanced Training Institute curriculum set forth by Bill Gothard. When my aunt and uncle, who are not Quiverfull, rescued me after I was disowned ... I quickly learned how much my "education" did not teach me. I was dumb as rock and about as useful as one. I had just about enough education to allow me to become a broodmare, keep sweet, and obey my husband in all ways.

Thank GOD my aunt and uncle didn't give up on me and pushed me to pursue higher education. It took a while, but I caught up. It was utterly devastating and humiliating to actually grasp how far behind I was. Was I smarter than a fifth grader? Heck NO!

Most Christians who home-school do so because they don't want their children to be exposed to the world.

Let me make something clear:

I have learned more from living life and experiencing the world than I ever learned from my parents. Until you have to stand on your own two feet and make your own decisions ... you don't know anything about who you are. Life should be lived and felt. How much living can you actually do when you are existing in the fishbowl that your parents trapped you in and the only thing you see is their world view, not your own? You are effectively putting a blindfold on your child and telling them how YOU perceive the world when no two experiences are alike. You only reduce life that way and the result is a pretty one dimensional existence.

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

(Prefacing this with not a troll, just a long time lurker.)

The who Duggar scandal infuriates me and I don't agree with people defending it. However, asking someone with obviously different opinions than the general consensus of this board to give their opinion and then badgering them when they don't totally align leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Based on all of our life experiences, we have synthesized an opinion. Kristina has taken her life experiences and perspective and synthesized an opinion. Her opinion isn't "wrong" per se, just doesn't align with ours. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

Kristina, I'd love for you to stick around because I find your opinions and life experiences interesting.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

(Prefacing this with not a troll, just a long time lurker.)

The who Duggar scandal infuriates me and I don't agree with people defending it. However, asking someone with obviously different opinions than the general consensus of this board to give their opinion and then badgering them when they don't totally align leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Based on all of our life experiences, we have synthesized an opinion. Kristina has taken her life experiences and perspective and synthesized an opinion. Her opinion isn't "wrong" per se, just doesn't align with ours. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

Kristina, I'd love for you to stick around because I find your opinions and life experiences interesting.

Whether children are being properly educated or not is not entirely a matter of opinion. There are objective standards. If, for example, a parent is not capable of teaching math beyond the most basic arithmetic and is also unwilling to seek outside instruction for her children, those children are not going to receive an adequate education. That is fact, not opinion. If a child cannot write a grammatical essay, that can also be objectively judged as inadequate.

Opinions are not all created equal.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Update on Ronnie. It appears he and Jessica got remarried yesterday.

Their god is sounding the trumpets, I guess, but Jesus weeps.

I can't say I'm surprised. What choice did she really have? She and Ronnie have, what, 4 or 5 kids now? She doesn't have the education or skills to get a job that would pay her enough to raise that many children in addition to paying daycare costs. Her only options were to either remarry her cheating scumbag of an ex-husband or find herself a new man, which let's face it, was going to be hard. Here in the normal world, its hard to find a partner willing to take on a ready made family with a good number of children in it let alone in the world of fundamentalism where the divorced are ostracized. Its really very sad and should be an example of what happens to you when life throws you a curve ball and you are woefully unprepared to handle it. Her parents did her a huge disservice by setting her up to be dependent on another human being. Even if he was the greatest guy in the world, bad things like death, injury, job loss, etc. happen all the time. Its better to expect the best, but plan for the worst.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's interesting because Jessica's sister is not doing the fundie thing. She sort of started to by having a long term boyfriend with their parent's 'guidance' or whatever but that ended last year. Shortly thereafter she started DATING a guy who was a friend. She started online college. Now she's broken up with that guy because he wanted marriage and she doesn't. This sister is still home with the parents. Somehow, their choices for their second daughter changed from the chains they strapped on Jessica. Nothing wrong with that, but apparently the chains are part of Jessica since it doesn't seem her family is entirely into the patriarchy thing anymore. Unless the younger sister actually stood up for herself with her family.

Just more weirdness with these people that can't be explained.

I do hope Jessica's sister continues on the path she's on. School, dating, friends, a life, no marriage on the mind.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your opinions are better than her's because...?

I don't disagree that education is crucial. I don't disagree that the quality of an education can be objectively measured.

Baiting someone into writing here who's beliefs (I was referencing the Duggar scandal, but this applies to education too) differ strongly and then attacking their beliefs harshly isn't going to get you anywhere. It won't change that person for the better. It may even enforce their negative view of the outside world.

  • Upvote 1
  • Downvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your opinions are better than her's because...?

I don't disagree that education is crucial. I don't disagree that the quality of an education can be objectively measured.

Baiting someone into writing here who's beliefs (I was referencing the Duggar scandal, but this applies to education too) differ strongly and then attacking their beliefs harshly isn't going to get you anywhere. It won't change that person for the better. It may even enforce their negative view of the outside world.

I was the one who brought up the Duggars. I was and still am genuinely interested in how many dark crimes a family like this could commit before certain parts of the Christian community would finally stop supporting them. The fact that she has a different perspective and is friends with people who want to act like what the Duggars did isn't a big deal, well, I would like to know her opinion on the subject.

Kristina has been posting at Free Jinger longer than I have, she knows that this is a place where her beliefs will get challenged and no one is going to sugar coat it. She knows what she is getting into whenever she comes to post here.

ETA: and I was raised very, very fundie having people not sugar coat how awful my beliefs were went a long way in helping me change them.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hope Kristina still lurks here and will post here again one day. My hope is that the fact that she is getting older, raising five children and beginning to see that things in the world are not always black and white will open her mind further and make her continue to question things.

She certainly must question things, whether she admits it or not. A few years ago, her family was the perfect fundie family with courtships and daddy being a pastor and six-inch "no touching" rulers. Since that time, her father has left her mother (and returned?), her brother has left his wife (and crawled back), and her sister became pregnant out of wedlock (though now is married to a man who "keeps her in church"). On her FB page, K and her girls are wearing pants. I DO NOT want to get into a debate about how this shows no change (ala the Erin Bates thread); however, on her old blog K spouted some bullshit once about how it was a personal "conviction" to not wear pants. Well, her conviction has apparently changed since then.

I actually like K and hope that she continues to re-think things and make good decisions for herself and her children.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is Kristina the one who admitted to looking into eating certain foods that she heard would decrease her fertility, but wouldn't consider more effective forms of birth control?

I get people mixed up a lot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is Kristina the one who admitted to looking into eating certain foods that she heard would decrease her fertility, but wouldn't consider more effective forms of birth control?

I get people mixed up a lot.

Yep. That's Kristina. I believe it was yams.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whether children are being properly educated or not is not entirely a matter of opinion. There are objective standards. If, for example, a parent is not capable of teaching math beyond the most basic arithmetic and is also unwilling to seek outside instruction for her children, those children are not going to receive an adequate education. That is fact, not opinion. If a child cannot write a grammatical essay, that can also be objectively judged as inadequate.

Opinions are not all created equal.

Quite. Opinions are not all created equal. Some of us believe our opinions are better than others because our opinions are based on science-based and empirical evidence not woo-woo and faith-based bull crap.

Purplecats, if you have been lurking here for a while you should have realized that what we do is snark and criticize what Fundies put out there for public consumption. Sometimes unmercifully, granted. If you are incredibly uncomfortable with that, perhaps you should reconsider reading here. Also check out some of our other Fundie visitors. Ken and Cabinetman come to mind. :P

Kristina has been aware of us for years and has also been a long-term poster, on and off, since yuku days. She does not have to read or post here. She is a grown woman and mother of five and can make her own decisions.

Believe me, Kristina has experienced plenty of honey here. She is something of a pet Fundie for many FJ members. She has even tried to sell us her MLM stuff.

Kristina knows what she is doing when she posts here. As I said earlier in this thread, I don't think she is dim. I think she is really quite intelligent, if undereducated. Being quite intelligent doesn't mean that she will be a good teacher for her children, however.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hope Kristina still lurks here and will post here again one day. My hope is that the fact that she is getting older, raising five children and beginning to see that things in the world are not always black and white will open her mind further and make her continue to question things.

She certainly must question things, whether she admits it or not. A few years ago, her family was the perfect fundie family with courtships and daddy being a pastor and six-inch "no touching" rulers. Since that time, her father has left her mother (and returned?), her brother has left his wife (and crawled back), and her sister became pregnant out of wedlock (though now is married to a man who "keeps her in church"). On her FB page, K and her girls are wearing pants. I DO NOT want to get into a debate about how this shows no change (ala the Erin Bates thread); however, on her old blog K spouted some bullshit once about how it was a personal "conviction" to not wear pants. Well, her conviction has apparently changed since then.

I actually like K and hope that she continues to re-think things and make good decisions for herself and her children.

Kristina has changed her stance on the issue of pants, she just won't admit it. Originally when questioned on FJ she said the Bible said women could only wear long flowing skirts/dresses and that the Christian women who wore pants just hadn't had their eyes opened to that truth yet. Now that she has decided that she wants to wear pants she has tried to rewrite history to say that she never said the Bible said women shouldn't wear pants. I don't know why she doesn't want to admit she changed her mind on pants, especially since it is easy to look back and see exactly what she wrote.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your opinions are better than her's because...?

I don't disagree that education is crucial. I don't disagree that the quality of an education can be objectively measured.

Baiting someone into writing here who's beliefs (I was referencing the Duggar scandal, but this applies to education too) differ strongly and then attacking their beliefs harshly isn't going to get you anywhere. It won't change that person for the better. It may even enforce their negative view of the outside world.

My opinions on education are better than hers because I am extremely well educated and she is not. I also have a great deal more experience with education than she does, as a parent of two children who graduated with honors from high school and are now in college and as a college adjunct faculty member myself.

By the same token, an actual climatologist's opinion on climate change is worth more than mine is.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep. That's Kristina. I believe it was yams.

That's right. Inhibiting her fertility with hormones from yams was just fine, but inhibiting her fertility with hormones from pills was a terrible sin.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Best case scenario is that she has read, read, read to her kids from very early on, but likely that ship has already sailed, the train has left the station, the rocket has launched, the die is cast (did I miss anything?)

2nd best case is that the kids go to public school.

But, she's gonna home school, so hopefully she can learn along with her children IF they can afford decent curriculum.

At least she has gotten the kids excited about learning and she seems excited about teaching them, not like Teri Maxwell, who was overwhelmed and depressed from day 1.

If she can get in a home-school group, maybe she can learn something from other moms. Of course, the other homeschool moms might be completely whack-a-doodle, pig ignorant and mean.

Wishing the best for her.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Best case scenario is that she has read, read, read to her kids from very early on, but likely that ship has already sailed, the train has left the station, the rocket has launched, the die is cast (did I miss anything?)

2nd best case is that the kids go to public school.

But, she's gonna home school, so hopefully she can learn along with her children IF they can afford decent curriculum.

At least she has gotten the kids excited about learning and she seems excited about teaching them, not like Teri Maxwell, who was overwhelmed and depressed from day 1.

If she can get in a home-school group, maybe she can learn something from other moms. Of course, the other homeschool moms might be completely whack-a-doodle, pig ignorant and mean.

Wishing the best for her.

The horse has bolted?

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The horse has bolted?

Thanks Daffy, I knew there had to be more!

I read a little on one of her older blogs, talking about Debi Pearl and Created to Be His Helpmeet. She's capable of some level of critical thought, saying that she strongly disagreed with many of the points in the book, and was obviously openly discussing this with her husband and countering Debi's overall approach with verses that emphasized the husband honoring his wife.

Also, based on the fact that she blogs, she likes to write, and she reads, which I take as a good thing. We may not like WHAT she reads, we may not like what she writes, but the fact that she reads and thinks about the content at least somewhat critically I see as a good thing. Like I said, if she can find some type of decent curriculum for her kids.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On Kristina's "Everything Nice" FB page, she has posted photos of their first day. It appears that both Kloe and the twins are beginning kindergarten and the fourth child (Brianna?) will be doing pre-K. Also, twin girl fell and broke her elbow a few weeks ago, but appears to be healed now. K also mentioned having to have an impacted molar removed and that she is shopping around for a dental surgeon within their "plan". Are we to assume that Josh now valiantly covers his wife and kids as far as insurance goes instead of just taking some for himself?

K posted a picture of herself and the latest baby, and I think she looks good. Not tired or zombie-like considering the ages and amount of kids that she has. I do hope that she and Josh enjoy the brood that they have now and hold off on another baby for a while, if ever.

And boy, do those kids resemble their dad! I do think that Kloe is just adorable with her glasses.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Looks like Kristina has put her kids in school. More power to her for admitting she was in over her head. That's a lot of kids very close together. I've come to like her more now that she's less preachy than she was as a SAHD

  • Upvote 14
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, copyed said:

Looks like Kristina has put her kids in school. More power to her for admitting she was in over her head. That's a lot of kids very close together. I've come to like her more now that she's less preachy than she was as a SAHD

Can't say I didn't see this coming.  It was obvious she wasn't going to be able to handle it.  With a SOTDRT education herself, her kids are much better off in school.  I wish them the best and I'm glad they're getting it now.

Edited by Childless
Grammar. Ugh!
  • Upvote 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm glad she said it was all in the plan, and I hope it's really positive (rather than worrying she's failed etc).  Really happy for her kids, that they'll get the opportunities she was denied

  • Upvote 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Coconut Flan changed the title to Kristina (of Keepsakes) Starting to Homeschool

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.