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As you no doubt can see, we're going through some changes here at Joyful Momma...most of the older articles are going to be back up momentarily. :-)...but Lord willing, when I get done with these updates, the site will be better organized, and easier to use.

 

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Just Don't Confuse Them with the Facts

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Written by Kimberly Eddy Tuesday, 09 March 2010 14:18

I read, with great interest, a MSNBC story (and the accompanying poll) about homeschooling textbooks not teaching evolution.

The arguments were set forth about how wrong it is to keep kids in ignorance, and how they need to learn about scientific facts, and not be short changed in their education.

I couldn't agree more.

I hate it when people only give one side of the story. It's a pet peeve of mine when you only get a one sided view of a controversial topic, and you aren't allowed to make up your own mind. I really dislike it when you get mocked for a well thought out, scientifically backed argument all because others can't let go of their ignorant faith.

I speak of evolution and most public school education, of course.

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Web Filters (a reader question)

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Written by Kimberly Eddy Monday, 31 August 2009 13:02

I got this email from April this week:

I found your site through your article on Above Rubies. I've wondered something. We don't have an internet filter of any kind on our family's computer, but everyone says we should. I feel like I should trust my kids and husband enough to not have one on there. I noticed the Safe Eyes banner on your site you just added, and was wondering what your thoughts were. Thanks.

I do think trust is a big issue, and I know that for a while that is why we didn't bother with the cost of an internet filter. We have a few computers (hubby is good at taking. spare parts from friends' old computers and mashing them into machines that work...very handy!), and to me it just seemed silly.

Our one earlier internet filter was with a company that I really didn't like, and I felt like it was too restrictive. It wasn't that I wanted to go to bad sites, but even most news sites were blocked, blogger sites used to be blocked, I had restricted FTP control (a big issue given that I am a web master, and I have to work with whatever server my client is using), and even a total ban on You Tube. I agreed with the guy running this that there's a lot of bad on You Tube (we don't allow just general surfing on You Tube in this house) but sometimes there are educational and useful things on there, and sometimes my husband had instructional videos he needed to watch for work that were hosted there. We also felt like our system ran slower with the filter on. Years after we canceled our service, it was still on our system, and we had to have this (VERY RUDE) guy explain to us how to remove his software.

I didn't need a filter. I trusted my family.

However, I soon realized that some wicked people often buy domain names that are similar but not exactly like common children's site domain names or common informational/educational site domain names, in the hope that someone will misspell and land on their pages. I was thankfully in the room, and moved faster than I think I ever had before to turn off the monitor. Other times, a seemingly innocuous search query can yield some very, very bad results. I mean, REALLY bad. With a teenage son especially, I felt it was time for a filtering system, though we wanted one that would work well for us, and our needs. We wanted it set to high for the kids, but able to be loosened when I am editing a website or uploading things.

Around this time, we got a year's subscription to The Old Schoolhouse (great magazine by the way!!) and with it came some free gifts, including a free one year subscription to Safe Eyes. It was good for up to 3 computers, which worked well for us. We installed it on one computer first, just to test drive it, and I was impressed.

Here are the features I love the most with Safe Eyes:

1. Customizable for each user. In other words, Mom can use FTP software, visit You Tube, and forums (which I use for web design quite a bit), but my children can't without me overriding it on a case by case basis. You can customize exactly what kinds of sites are blocked for each person, too, including blocking news sites, ecommerce sites, gambling sites, etc.

2. Doesn't noticeably slow down my connection.

3. Alerts me (as administrator) via Text Message when someone exceeds their daily attempts at accessing banned sites.

4. Allows me to set the hours someone is allowed online.

5. Allows me to ban or allow virtually any program.

6. Has special filtering capabilities for sites like You Tube.

7. At first I balked at the cost ($50 a year), but I have come to the conclusion that it is worth EVERY penny, and is much cheaper than other, similar software!