Step on over to Miss Mellie Helen's Homeschool Spot to find some ideas to do during December. I'm adding a few for the unscheduled days, like watching "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "A Christmas Carol". We may even read "A Christmas Carol" this year. It sounds really fun! I'm off to hunt down links for craft ideas and I'll post what I find.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Scott was off that day so we went as a family to my mom's house. We had a fantastic meal then played my Scene It! game. Everyone seemed to have a great time and we played the game twice! I want to get the Scene It! Jr. version now because William and the other kids don't know the movies the way the adults do.

We are still on our holidays but I do plan to catch up on our reading lists. I have some more of Princess and the Goblin printed out and I need to work on Robinson Crusoe and This Country of Ours while here at work. I also need more printer paper and more of the plastic paper sheets. I should buy stock in the company that makes those, I probably have about 200 of those plastic sheets in my homeschool notebooks.

I'm also working at home in addition to working at my parent's business, but as you can see by the ticker up top I only have 1 more month to go! As of December 31 I will be strictly working from home. Yay!

So that's my update and I hope to update within the next week.

My neice did the following narration picture based on the Samson and Delilah Bible story. She was pretending to teach 2nd graders and included this story as her lesson. The drawing was supposed to be "drawn a by 2nd grader" she explained, so it's not her best :) She did change the arm and it looks pretty good. She has said
in the past she wants to be an author / illustrator of books. She is in 4th grade public school. Her teacher uses this method with stories as well, and calls it "script and sketch".

Yay, the holidays are here! William completed Chapter 2 in his math book yesterday and we are now on our holiday break. We'll pick back up with math and english in January and for the next 2 months we'll read and take part in adventure club. We have a lot of reading to catch up on!

My neice did a cute narration sketch of the Samson / Delilah story, so I asked her if I could put in on the website with William's narration sketches and she said yes. So it will be posted at the family website soon. I may post it here as well as it's really cute :)

I'll keep posting over the holidays but it may be few and far between. I hope all of you have a happy Thanksgiving!

We are trying to really push to finish chapter 2 in math before our holiday break. William did his review today and will take his test tomorrow. However he's still having trouble with telling time, especially word problems that say "If you start your homework at 6:30 and finish in 45 minutes, what time will it be?" He just cannot comprehend how it will be 7:15. We've used a lot of various clocks and one minute he seems to get it then the next he doesn't. I know it will click one day. I remember when my dad was trying to teach me to tell time on a "proper" clock as he called it. My great-grandmother had left me a watch and I wanted to wear it. He said I couldn't unless I could tell time on it. It look a while because he was teaching me "quarter hour" and "quarter till" and I just couldn't understand it. Then one day, maybe it was after I'd started learning about fractions, I finally got it. It just clicked. I was almost 12. Maybe it will click with William like that as well.

My husband gave me an example of the inmates at work (he's a jailer) asking him for the time and he said it was "a quarter after", and they didn't understand. So then it said it was "15 after." They argued and said that a quarter would be 25 minutes after because a quarter was 25 cents, not 15 cents. He gave up trying to convince them and just let them think whatever they wanted.

I have to do more formatting on the reading we are doing. We are going to continue reading over our holiday.

We watched a spider spin a web outside our house today. I guess the rain we had last night damaged the web. I almost walked into it while going to our mail box. The spider was kind of large so I didn't get too close to it, but it was neat watching it go around in a circle. It would let loose a piece of webbing then use it's back legs to attach it quickly to the anchor lines of the web. We watched it weave continuously, even when the wind blew and we thought it would blow off. Nature can be wonderful. That reminds me, I need to check on the turtle that was in our yard. I wonder if he's moved on?

This week starts our holidays so the only homeschooling we'll basically be doing is Adventure Club and reading until January. Then we'll go back to hitting the books in the new year :) I'll still be posting about our holidays and what's going on with the reading and anything else that strikes my fancy.

// posted by Admin @ 11/22/2004 03:16:00 PM

Okay, I would like anyone that happens by here and doesn't homeschool to open your minds a bit. All homeschoolers are not alike just like all families are not alike. The movie "Mean Girls" opens with a description of the heroine of the movie telling how she is homeschooled. It shows first a girl with braces and braided pig tails at a spelling bee and spelling these huge words. Then it shows a group of 4 or 5 boys misquoting the Bible in a southern accent, railing against government and talking about how they guard their guns. I'm a homeschooling parent and I know homeschooling parents, and no one I've met is even close to these extremes.
Then you have homeschoolers who believe in things like this:

The Becks want their children to go to college, but they have different aspirations for the three, depending on the gender.

Steve Beck would like his son to become an engineer and wants the girls to get liberal arts degrees so they are able to ``have sons and daughters and teach them to think.''

``I'm not keen on a daughter becoming a doctor and working 90 hours a week,'' he said.

Well, dude, what if that's what your daughters WANT to do? And it's their life - if they want to be a mom and stay home that's their choice. If they want to have a career and be a mom that is a choice as well. If they decide to never marry or have children that is another choice. I'm SO glad to live in a time where women aren't called "Honey" or "Darlin'" anymore and where women DO have the choice to follow whatever path their heart's desire.

I need to stop reading these articles, they're making me mad. It's not just the journalists that make the pledge to the Christian Flag seem wrong, but the other homeschoolers they interviewed are making me mad as well. However, I do know that reporters take words out of context and make things sound different than they were said, so I'm going to stop while I'm ahead.

Here is a link to the articles, thanks to Andrea at Atypical Life.

The articles cover a lot of information but what I find disturbing is that people are equating homeschooling with hiding your child, not educating your child, or endangering your child. One paragraph discussed a 7yo girl who crashed a plane with her father and flight instructor inside. A line read something like "Her parents believed in education by experience and not by books." That line made it sound like it was her parent's schooling choices to blame for the accident. I have to disagree. Now, I would NOT let a 7yo fly a plane or even take flying lessons, I probably wouldn't even let my 10yo take flying lessons, but many experienced pilots have accidents.

I also don't like the quotes given by a teacher:

In the eyes of many who don't home-school, this is fantasy. ``Taking your child to the museum and counting that as school -- my child goes to school, and we still go to the museum,'' a middle-school teacher said in a Beacon Journal focus group, where all participants were granted anonymity. ``My child goes to school, and we still do all of the things that these people are saying, `That's my child's education.' No. That is your parenting. Now, let's give your child some formal education.''
She said she is troubled that some parents think they're doing a good job. ``What makes people think they can just walk in and take a job that I spent... five years preparing to do -- and come in and just take it over?
``I guess you are relying on them to be responsible parents... but what percentage are responsible parents?'' she asked, and which ones are trying to complete the mandatory hours of instruction by, ``oh, doing 950 hours of grocery shopping?''

Yes, I do count museum trips as school time. So does public school when they have a field trip. This teacher may take her children to museums but the fact is MOST PARENTS DON'T. When I was in school my parents were working - my mom was a nurse until she quit to work with my dad at his own business. We were frequently on our own after school. They didn't attend field days, parent-teacher nights or any other type of extra activity. My younger brother was in band, but as the oldest of 4 children I wasn't able to do any type of extra curricular activity because I had 3 younger brothers to babysit. By the time my youngest brother was in high school I had married and moved away, so he was able to have the attention that I and my other two brothers did not get due to my parent's work schedules and their other interests. We never went to museums or had family outings. We were too broke and they were too busy.

I know that sounds cold and I am probably a bit bitter - okay, at times I'm a lot bitter, but that was the way it was and I'm wanting something more for my son. I want to be more involved with his life. I would be interested to know from the people coming from blogexplosion how involved they are in their child's school? Help with homework? Attend parent/teacher nights? Know what the curriculum includes? Take part in PTA or other type of parent organization? I'm not one to say that EVERYONE should homeschool. Since growing up the way I did I am more in favor of parents being INVOLVED in some way in their child's life. Believe me, it means a lot to them.

As far as this teacher saying that it took her 5 years to learn what she did and how can parents feel they can do better, let me tell how I believe I'm doing that.

I don't have 30+ kids to deal with, I have one. I don't have to have all the busy work that goes along with school. He doesn't have to do 5 pages of addition and subtraction problems when he already gets the process. I'm able to go right to the heart of the subject and not have all the extra information that sometimes gets thrown in, however when a subject seems interesting we are able to further explore it, like building a solar oven when studying the sun's energy.

I can also give examples from my experience and my brothers' experiences with problem teachers:

Teachers that mispronounced words where I couldn't understand them, like "deciduous" pronounced "disigious" and "talon" prounounced "taloon".
Teachers that taught false facts, such as Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. being states.
Elementary schools teaching that Columbus discovered America, only to find out the truth in High School.

Then you have the bullies and the "cool kids" and being left out and picked last. All of this made for a bad school experience for me and yes, I do want to spare my son all of that. Today there are a lot of silly rules to contend with as well. My snapping point with the private school he attended was the note saying he could no longer have a chocolate pudding cup for snack, but he could purchase chips or a honey bun from the school for a snack. How ridiculous is that? A pudding cup that I buy for .25 from the dollar store is a lot more nutritious than a honey bun purchased from the school for .50. You also have all the fundraising going on in schools. The FIRST day of school my neice brought home her Christmas fundraising information!

I do agree that there are some families out there that use homeschooling to hide and yes, some homeschooled children have been neglected. So have children in public schools. I firmly believe in following the homeschool laws in the state of residence. If a parent is supposed to be homeschooling and they don't follow the laws then they are breaking the law and should be punished. If I were to not complete my registration each year I would HOPE that someone would check to make sure my son was okay. The homeschool laws need to be enforced, but too many are ignored and that is when tragedies happen.

I've seen a lot of blogs talking about how they get hits from Google on some strange search terms. People are talking about it but aren't saying HOW they are doing it! I've searched all over the Google site and even found the hidden "cheat sheet" in the Google blog, but no information! So can someone leave a comment explaining this process?

Finally, a verdict!

This week has been kind of slow since William has been working on his report for Adventure Club, a kind of geography group where the kids do reports on any aspect of a country. This month was England. William chose to do his report on Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. I did work with him on this, but it was his work. He wanted to use the computer to do the program so I told him I'd show him how to do Powerpoint. I finished my Communication requirement in May at college and learned some tips on delivering an effective "talk" and using Powerpoint in my presentation, so I thought he'd enjoy learning it as well.

First we did google searches to find the website for Madame Tussaud's. We needed some pictures. We found the official site and read up on the history of Madame Tussaud's. As William read what he thought was relevant for the report I took notes. We had decided to do the report on the history of the museum, what figures were at the museum and how the figures were made.

We couldn't find a lot of information on how Madame Tussaud's makes the wax figures so some information was gleaned from other websites. After getting all the information together we sat down at the computer with Powerpoint.

William is pretty good with a computer already. He knows how to do basic things, and since all Windows programs are similar with the File, Edit, View, Insert, etc. buttons he picked it up quickly. We had saved the photos into their own file so we knew where to look for them. I showed him how to insert the photo into a slide, how to add text to the slide, then how to add a new slide for a presentation. When it was all done we went over how to save the presentation to the hard drive and to a floppy. We had to save to a floppy since he would be doing the report using my laptop. After showing him how to do 2 slides he worked on the rest on his own. The report had 6 slides.

When the slides were finished I showed him how to make the presentation run and how to press enter to switch slides. He practiced for about 3 days. This just wasn't about the Powerpoint, it was about public speaking as well. He's never done an oral report and I was scared he wouldn't do it. He originally wanted to tape record the report but when I told him he could read the slides he decided to do it differently.

I went over some things I had learned in various classes about speaking, like the proper way to read a story to an audience and how to jump right into your report without saying "My report is about xxx." He again practiced various techniques and got comfortable with the presentation. He asked me to print it for him so he could practice again on the way there.

He was the 2nd to the last one up. He was asked what the report was about while the computer booted and he was very polite and spoke well when asked questions. I left him alone while he loaded his program from the disk. He'd practiced opening the program a few times as well. He's done it before but was scared he'd forget when it came time to do the report. I heard some of the other moms say "He knows his way around a computer, that's for sure!"

He did the report VERY well and answered some questions about the museum. The leader of the group said he did a very good presentation and everyone applauded him. Many of the kids and even the moms want to learn Powerpoint now so I'll be doing a co-op in January to teach the program to them.

He really rocked, and he told me this evening that I gave him courage. I told him that the courage is inside of him, all I do is support him. He gave me about 3 long and tight hugs.

It's days like this that I am so happy to homeschool him. Whenever I'm asked "How do you know you do well enough?" I will have to look back on today. I don't know everything, and I did have some very good teachers in high school and, more recently, my communication teacher in college, which is why I was able to help him with the speech. If he can learn proper "college" technique now then there will be less bad habits to correct later on :) Another mom told me that she thought he was older than 10 because of how he did on the speech. That's not me, that's all him, but I'm sure any teacher feels pride when their student does well.

I also felt a big surge of happiness last night when he was practicing his speech. Normally when he reads out loud he'll run the last word of a sentence and the first word of a sentence together, not really getting that the period is a stopping point, even though we've been over it again and again. While he was practicing yesterday he realized what he was doing and corrected himself. I felt my heart give a little leap of joy, yelling he's learning! He's learning! He really is, and I'm able to be a part of that and see when something clicks first hand.

I'm really enjoying being a part of the co-op group and I wish we'd found a local one sooner. When William doesn't want to do something because I assign it he will do it for the co-op group :) All the kids really did their best. Some even dressed in costumes and really got into the report. We had an enjoyable afternoon and I'm looking forward to next month.

I got this from Andrea's blog and thought it would be interesting to put here.

Name 3 (or so) things you can't live without.

1. My computer
2. Tivo
3. My family

Name 3 (or so things) you can live without but don't want to part with.

1. My computer
2. Tivo
3. My pets

...things you wish to accomplish this coming week.

1. Finish decluttering the dining room.
2. Finish training for a new job.
3. Mail a package I promised to mail weeks ago.

...things you have accomplished this past week.

1. I made a dinner that wasn't take out or frozen.
2. We saw The Incredibles
3. We attended church

...things on your holiday wish list.

1. Gamecube (like I need something ELSE to take up more time!)
2. Money (I'm greedy)
3. A holiday where my family DOESN'T fight.

...things you would like to change about yourself.

1. weight
2. procrastination and inability to overcome it
3. my skin (roseaca)

...things you like about yourself.

1. my haircut
2. my eyes
3. my writing ability

...things you should be doing right now instead of what you are doing.

1. filing
2. sending a phone to repair
3. writing an article I've put off for 2 weeks already.

...in your life that needs more organization.

1. housework
2. homeschooling
3. anything and everything

PS. I asked Scott and William last night what 3 things were they couldn't live without. William said TV, his pets and Gameboy. Then he dropped TV and said his parents. Scott said his books and his pets, he couldn't think of a third. When asked what 3 things he could live without but didn't want do William's stuff pretty much stayed the same. Scott named off 3 kinds of beer :p

I had an appointment today to finalize my treatment from my accident in April. I had to go back to the neurologist recommended by my chiropractor. He'd ordered an MRI and had received the report, but the front desk person said I did have to go to this appointment for the doctor to see the films. "He wants to see the films to see if he agrees with the report," she said. Okay, I'm thinking. I know he's a doctor and all, but the films are read by trained (I hope) radiologists, so I hope the report will be correct. But you have to know this doctor to understand his reasoning. He's very abrupt and to the point. No small talk in his office. It's name, rank, serial number all the way.

I didn't want to go because it's about a 2 hour drive to get there, at least when I drive it, because I HATE driving in traffic. I live in a small town with less than 5,000 people. Our traffic jams occur when school lets out at 3pm and Main Street gets blocked, or if there is a really good yard sale down on Third Street. This doctor's office is in Riverdale, which is just south of Atlanta, so to me it's part of Atlanta, and I HATE driving in Atlanta. But I had to go, so William and I set off around 1:30 this afternoon. We dropped Scott off some McD's for lunch on the way as I had to get his insurance card in case I needed it. Then we headed north, making pretty good time and laughing our butts off to a Mark Lowry cassette.

I got into Fayetteville and for about 100 miles I'm seeing signs that say "Riverdale 8 miles". How incorrect those signs are. I guess the DOT drove it on a Sunday when no one was on the road. I got all the way to the end of Hwy 85 where it meets I75. I knew I'd missed the road but I didn't know how. By then it's 3:30 and I'm late. We went into a gas station and I used the pay phone to call. Yes, it's times like this I wish I had a cell phone. So I called, got directions and headed back down the road. I found the right turn off about 2 1/2 miles down. The road is apparently one name from one direction and a different name in the other, so the name I was looking for wasn't the name on the road. Whose bright idea was that?

I got to the office and checked in. I was called back almost immediately. The doctor wouldn't let my son come with me. William was upset about that but I told him that maybe the doctor just doesn't like children who aren't patients in the room and it's his office so it's his rules. He checked my films and agreed that I do have a slipped disk and a slightly pinched nerve. He then asked me to lay on the exam table so he could check my nerve something or other.

Without even mentioning what he was going to do he hooked electrodes up to my right hand then shocked me with a taser like device. As if that wasn't enough, next he took a 10" long needle (well, not really, but I don't like needles) and starting poking it into my right arm, my neck, then the palm of my hand. The palm hurt the most. He asked which was better - the shocks or the needle. I told him I was missing the electricity. He verified that I do have a pinched nerve on my right side and there is some weakness in my right side. Well, I could have told him that. Five minutes later and I'm done. I couldn't believe I had to do a 2 hour plus drive to Atlanta for that, but I'm glad I'm done.

Why is it that the drive is quicker going back? We were on the road by 4 and at Scott's job by 5:30. He was outside taking a break when we got there and William insisted on telling him about me getting shocked and poked with a needle. He still says he wishes he could have seen it. He probably would have asked the doctor if he could shock me :)

We went to see a matinee of The Incredibles today after church. It was fabulous! It was so much better than I thought it would, so much so that it's easy to forget it's an animated movie instead of live action. If you get a chance to see it check it out.

I'm not sure about Blog Explosion yet. I'm having fun surfing all the blogs and finding new people. I searched under "homeschool" but I only found maybe 5 other homeschool blogs, so that means people that are just surfing may find my blog and stick around for 30 seconds and just to keep going or some may decide to stick around. If you do let me know :)

I also don't know about the "rating" system on BE. I checked my ratings and some have me as a 10 and some as a 1. I'm trying not to take it personally about the 1s. I mean, how does someone judge a blog? Content? Pictures? Agreement on various topics? It's so arbitrary. A blog is someone's opinion, that is all, and since I am the last person that should be judging anyone's opinion I've pretty much stayed away from the rating system unless it's someone's blog I've read before and have gotten used to reading. And you guys rating me know it's not anonymous, right? I mean, I know who gave me a 10 and who gave me a 1, but just because of that I'm not going to run over to your blog and give you a 1 as well. I even read one of the blogs that gave me a 1 and I enjoyed it.

While surfing BE I've read many blogs of many different people. Some are good but they aren't a blog I would read all the time. I've found some interesting links from blogs that I wouldn't have found before, but I probably won't go back to those links again. I am enjoying the pros to blog explosion, such as finding some real gems out there that I don't find when I just use the blogger toolbar to surf, but I'm not sure I like the rating system, so I'm just going to stay away from ratings and just enjoy what I've been doing.

I'm not going to change my format in any way. My blog is mine, and Joe's blog is Joe's and Suzy's is Suzy's and we can all write what we want. I started this to keep a kind of diary of our homeschooling accomplishments and little adventures in life. I did this because I really couldn't find any journals about people that were just beginning homeschooling so I thought I'd start something. This blog actually started on my website as a full page until I learned about blogger and moved it here. I swore I'd never do an online diary but here I am :) It's fun and enjoyable and I'm going to keep doing it no matter how many 1s I get :)

Well, I went to find the notebook where I keep my list but it's not here, so I guess I left it at home today. I'll do this by memory, then.

In math he is breezing through chapter 2 of his Rod and Staff books. He's doing some review from chapter 1, including some of the subtraction problems he said he couldn't remember how to do, and doing subtraction with borrowing with 3 digit numbers. He's already familiar with this so we're only doing about 4 or 5 problems before moving on. The next concept is subtracting and borrowing with zeros then it's onto working with money.

We read more of Poor Richard and learned more about Ben Franklin. William asked me while reading the book if the author had known Ben personally. I told him no, it was a biography about someone, and some things may have been exaggerated, such as the lines talking about Ben's feelings. How could the author have known Ben's feelings unless he researched and found a first hand account of the incident that spoke of Ben's feelings?

We read more of Kon Tiki and it's finally getting interesting. They are getting ready for the expedition at this point.

We missed science co-op due to car trouble, but we did begin going over some of the things the class has done over the past few weeks, beginning with gravity. William is wanting to do some experiments, so he and Scott may do some tomorrow.

In English we are now on the report writing unit. I've gone over the steps on gathering information for a report. He's learning about using encyclopedias, which we have at home, but we're mostly using the internet. William is writing a report on Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London for Adventure Club. It's to be presented to the club this coming Friday. We've gone over what he wants to discuss and gathered some notes. I told him about doing a powerpoint presentation for my college communication class and he wants to do one, so I'm teaching him powerpoint now. William doesn't want to actually speak in front of the group, so he's planning to practice and tape record the report. It will be playing while he's changing the powerpoint slides. I'm not thrilled with the idea but I guess after seeing the other kids present their reports he may change his mind.

We really need to catch up on our reading. We haven't done any mythology or read Robinson Crusoe in a while. We are going to continue reading during our Christmas break so maybe that will finally be caught up.

On the home front, William has learned to make pancakes, coffee and tea. I had a database job I was working on for 2 nights last week so he and Scott were on their own. He made some good cinnamon and sugar pancakes.

Our Christmas break begins Thanksgiving week and will continue through December. We do this in order to have more time for holiday stuff. As I said though, school will continue with our reading but we'll drop math, english and science until the new year, unless it's requested.

Oh, I am editing this post to mention that we also went to see a play at the high school. It was called "Who Dun It And To Whom?" It was a very good mystery type play with a twist. The high school kids are very talented. I told William I wished there had been a drama class when I was in high school. I'm glad that William enjoys seeing plays as much as I do. We'd planned to go to the college to see "Little Shop of Horrors" over Halloween but we forgot :( I guess I need to make a point to check the Fine Arts site to see what is going to be performed. Last year we saw "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" there.

This is William during his blue belt test. More pictures are on our family website. Follow the links at the bottom of the page to travel to "karate" and find the rest of the photos. I made them smaller so they would load quickly but you can still see them okay.

Golly Blog Howdy is the newest blog added to my list after Mellie, the author, found me via Blog Explosion. It's going to take even longer now to read all my "must read" blogs, but I love it!

Here is an interesting map from a link over on Carol's Storybook. I think it shows that most Americans do agree with family values, no matter what the media and celebrities would like us to think. I was reading Wil Wheaton's blog the other day and in one of his rare political posts he states that he believes America is tired of lies told by the Bush administration. Some of what he says comes right out of Michael Moore's fabrication of a documentary regarding the Bush administration. I think this country is smarter than the media gives us credit for. I think it's a wonderful thing that George W. Bush was re-elected for another 4 years. I have hope again for this country. I don't agree with everything he wants to do, such as the chip implants for computerized medical records within 10 years, but I do believe he is a wonderful President and leader.

I began reading "For the Children's Sake" again tonight while William was at karate class. There was a section where the author was quoting Charlotte Mason about education and the question was asked "What is education?" I think that is what family means when they ask me "How do you know you can provide a good education for your child?" To most people today education means going to a school. I always knew deep down that an education had to be more than that. Education had to mean more than memorizing facts and figures and reading, writing and arithmetic. From the time my son was born I knew that I wanted something different for him, something that I didn't have growing up. I know my parents did what they could and they meant well, but I didn't have a very edifying childhood. I want my son to have an education that will prepare him for life, not just prepare him to make a living. I want him to know the important things that are taught in school, but I also want him to know that other things are important, like caring for a family and using money wisely. Everything in our life is an education, and just because an adult has "graduated" from high school or college or even recieved a Master's Degree shouldn't mean that education has stopped.

I read something recently that says when we do something differently, like brushing oru teeth with the opposite hand, that it helps our brain develop new synapses. This keeps our brain young and moving instead of slowing down and becoming sluggish. Learning something new does the same thing. Did you know that Ben Franklin started the free library system? Or that he made the post office the (kind of) efficient business it is today? I had no idea, but I have now learned this. Homeschooling with my son is like being in school all over again, but this time it's FUN!

Those of you with a business be on the lookout for this new scam. I know that we are aware of the scams online, such as the Nigerian 419 letters where some unknown official of a foreign country says you can have a cut of $30 million dollars if you use your bank account for them to hide money. We know all about the chain letters and we know that if anyone purchases something from you on ebay for more than the cost of the item to refund and not follow through with the sale. But I've been hit with another twist on the Nigerian 419 scam.

I was at work the other day and received a relay call from Sprint. Now relay calls ARE legitimate. A deaf or hard of hearing person using a TTY device on a phone will go through an operator in order to call someone who doesn't have a TTY device on their phone. The TTY device allows the person to type their end of the conversation and the relay operator will read the conversation to the person on the other end. This is a legitimate service and it's what WE pay for on our phone bills via taxes.

Some of the companies that offer these services have begun using a free relay system over the internet, and it's this part of the service that has been hit with prank callers and scam artists. I've received 2 of these calls so far. I'd heard of relay calls but had never had one. The caller asked about GSM phones. I answered questions as I normally do and nothing on the first call tipped me off that it could be a scam. The operators may know it's a scam, but they are not allowed to be engaged in conversation. The second call, for some reason, tipped off my radar, especially when the person responded to a question inaccurately and wanted to purchase a phone without service over the phone. We usually deal with local customers in the store - we're not a catalog store. I googled "tty phone scams" while on with the operator and found this site : Nigerian Scams using IP Relay .

MCI is now allowing merchants to "opt-out" of IP Relay calls, but Sprint and AT&T are not at this time. This is a legitimate service for the deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired and it's being misused by scammers and prank callers, and that's wrong. If you or another business person recieves one of these calls you can do the following:

Play along if you like. Include the words "Mugu" (thief or the equivalent in Nigerian), the numbers 419, Interpol and FBI.

Tell the caller that you cannot accept phone orders.

Tell the caller that you will gladly help them if they call back through their state-run TTY service. If they are a truly a deaf or hard of hearing person with a tty machine they will do this.

Let other business owners know of this scam. Many people are not familiar with relay calls and while we don't want to be rude to someone who really needs this service we also don't want to be scammed.

Eliza Jane found my blog at Blog Explosion. I've added her blog to my list, so stop by and read up on her homeschooling life as well.