However, my sisters, let me impart to you yet another culprit that is on the rise and gaining quite a bit of momentum in our community. To continue reading about this serious issue click here.


image: flickr

A very poor shot from my phone of the awards he received

His journey at this school hasn’t been without its hiccups and a few bumps. I’ll be posting about some of the more gray experiences at this school in days to come. However, for the most part I really can’t complain about how it all worked out. When we first started researching schools to enroll him in, it was a challenging process. Public school wasn’t even a consideration. For the most part, public education in our county leaves a lot to be impressed with. Furthermore, I feared what he would be learning from the students and I was also concerned about peer pressure. With the problems of school violence and bullying out of control in local public schools, the thought that he would subjected to such situations was enough to hurdle the public school system out of the running.

When the time came for us to choose a school we opted for the private Christian Non-Denominational school our church operates. I absolutely love our church. We have truly found a home among its congregation. I was very enthused to place my son in the academic hands of the church because I already felt comfortable with the spiritual training he has been receiving in the children’s ministry. We enrolled him and my son loved every minute at the school. I, unfortunately, was not happy with the administration of the school. Their lack of appreciation for science and how it interrelates with creationism concerned me. Although, their reading and math program was exemplary, I felt their curriculum greatly lacked inclusion of scientific theory, much of which goes hand in hand with Biblical thinking.

At the end of the school year we were left with the dilemma of finding another school for Kindergarten. We wavered back and forth about whether or not we should consider another private school and if so, should it be a Christian school or a secular school. Finally after much deliberation, we decided to try a charter school that had a strong science, math & reading curriculum. At first, my son was bored and unenthused about the school and wanted to go back to the private Christian school. His teacher pulled me aside one day and told me that he was quite advanced in the class. She started giving him 1st grade level work and immediately she saw a change in his attitude toward school. From this point on, my 8 year old began to soar and he’s done amazingly well at the school.

So here we are, finding ourselves at yet another junction. We are quickly approaching a new adventure for our family and this means we will be looking for a new school for my 8 year old. Once again we are confronted with the public school question - to enroll or not to enroll. From my research, the public school that he would be enrolled in, should we choose, is nationally recognized and has received quite a bit of buzz. This is encouraging, however, on the flip side, the school is HUGE – maybe 1000 students for all elementary grades combined. My son is used to a school population of about 160 students. My head is overloaded with questions and concerns about whether or not he will adjust quickly to such a big school setting. Will he feel lost? Will it be too intimidating and overwhelming for him? With so many students the possibility of bullying, mean kids, peer pressure, etc increase exponentially. Most likely sending my son to public school is going to be our most convenient choice to make and I am just praying that it won’t end up being the most regrettable choice.

I’d love to hear thoughts, stories, advice on making the transition from a small school setting to a large public school?

A girlfriend of mine works for a marketing/pr company that has recently started an online education division. This new subsidiary develops and helps to implement online educational departments for brick & mortar colleges and universities. Right now the company is in a ramp-up campaign with some new colleges/univ and my friend ask me if I'd like to help out for the summer to make some extra money. Who am I to say no to extra money? Of course, I was willing! I adjusted my work-at-home schedule and committed to helping out for 6 weeks.

What I didn't know is that the current campaign is centralized on promoting online educational programs to Historically Black Colleges & University (HBCUs). It has been an incredibly interesting project to work on because my familiarity and knowledge of HBCUs has been mostly limited to the show A Different World. Do you remember that show from the 90s? I used to love that show!

Anyway interacting with school officials and educational leaders from HBCUs has been an eye-opener. I imagine it's like interacting with school officials from Ivy League colleges/universities. They are a very unique pedigree of individuals.

Here a video by the marketing company on the Hip Hop Summit:



I don't think this vid was for promotional purposes, but it's interesting all the various events they are involved in...from celebrity marketing to brand marketing and everything in between, they company is doing it all. And now they have added educational online development for brick & mortar school.

It's giving me ideas to start my own brand marketing company....LOL! Who knows....although, if I did start an agency my concentration wouldn't be online education.

Thanks to the attention given to the environmental movement by celebrities and Fortune 500 companies, going green has become quite mainstream  in our conversations. However, Hollywood and Wallstreet aren’t the sole reason that environmentalism has been thrust into our common dialogue. It’s efforts by  consumers and everyday chatter at the kitchen table or the water cooler that have played the most integral part in leading the green discussion.

One of the main reasons this conversation has gained tremendous momentum is due to it’s economic impact. Consumers have been demanding better, safer products because it means improved health and a higher standard of living while permitting them to keep more of their hard earned income.  Huge corporations quickly gave their attention to unrelenting requests  for improved products when it had the potential to effect their bottom-line. This cause and effect relationship between consumers and  businesses is the foundation of our capitalism and the driving force behind much of the green initiatives.

However, the question begs whether or not people of hue, families of hue and more importantly  women of hue are being represented in the environmental round table. The importance of understanding the contributions that women of hue are having in these discussion is due to the fact that our dollars are having the greatest impact in the black community. According to the US Census Bureau in 2006, 56 percent of African-American families were single parent households. Black mothers with an overwhelming 91.4% where the head of households in these statistics. Women of hue have the greatest ability to change the financial mobility of the black community and hence why it’s vital to know the impact their voices have in the environmental discussions.

Please click here to continue reading.

Dear Blog,

I haven't forgotten about you. Yes, I am a fickle friend #thankyouverymuch for reminding me of this. However, my excuse is that I am very busy right now. Alright. Alright. Stop giving me the *side eyes*. I can hear you now "What mom isn't busy that has kids, work, family, life, blogging projects...you name it?!"

I really don't need your attitude, dear blog. I get you, but I'm not most moms. You know I'm special...and not necessarily in a good way. I'm trying my best, but life is a little overwhelming right now and while I plan to share all the details in posts to coming, you've got to be patient. How's that for a tease...hehehe

In the meantime, I had a wonderful Mother's Day. My three men made it very  special with a lovely meal and handmade cards. So sweet! Hmmm...what else has been going on? Working from home has been going well. I can't complain about that. If ever I thought I couldn't do sales, I've learned that I can. Yeah, it's called shameless self promotion. LOL I do it well and definitely have been honing that skill. Why let someone else get a gig that I deserve as much as they do, that's my motto.

The kids are doing quite well. Tiger's school year is quickly coming to a close and then it's summer break for him. Summer is always super busy on the home front. Camp, beach, pool, vacations, beach, pool, and more beach & pool. Did you see the common trend? Yeah, we tend to live at the beach and pool during the summer. I'm not looking forward to the hideous Florida heat, that's for sure. 

Anywho, my dear blog that's about it for now. I will be back hopefully soon with more happenings around our world. But since you made me feel so guilty for not writing I decided I better post something.

Your faithful author,

Quiskaeya

If  you haven't been to my blog in a few days, you probably thought you stumbled upon a new rare find...hehe! Isn't she a beauty? My blog that is. I absolutely LOVE it. For sometimes now, I've been disenchanted with the look and feel of my little piece of blogosphere.

It didn't feel right. It didn't really represent me and it was far too cluttered. About 7 months ago I started looking for a web designer who could spruce things up around here and give my baby a new look and appeal. However, most importantly I wanted designer who could conceptualize an image that reflected the complicated, changing and evolving person that I am. I came in contact with a lot of great designers that I'm sure could have created amazing works of art. As matter of fact, I'd seen some of their work and it was fantastic.

However, what I was looking in a designer was someone who would be able to make sense out of my crazy ideas and would bring life to these concepts. This is exactly what my amazing friend Kristina was able to do. You may know her as Mom on the Rise or as the brilliant mind behind the distinguished site Moms of Hue.  First of all, I am probably the most difficult client anyone could ever have. As I said before, I have crazy ideas that aren't always easy to articulate; let alone comprehend if you are the person hearing them. Secondly, I'm incredibly indecisive so I tend to throw out way too many ideas that probably contradicted each other. Somehow, call it a miracle, Kristina was able to maneuver through my muddled thoughts and bring about coherence.

I gave her full reign to do as she felt fit and she blew me away with the final design. She is in the midst of preparing for the launch of her new design studio, Beautifully. Artful., slated to open in June 2010. The good news is that you can subscribe to the site by email now and be abreast about the site's happenings. She is already taking appointments for web design, print design and much more so check her out. I'm thrilled about my new blog look and Kristina was awesome to work with.

Often times the picture painted of the multiracial family is one replete of doom and gloom. Interracial couples entering into marriage are aware that they may face unique challenges that mono-racial couples do not experience. Racism continues to be alive and well in our nation and when it comes to miscegenation this seems to annoy some people at an even greater level. Interracial couples must also consider the impact ignorant views have on their children. They have to strengthen their families to ensure their children are prepared and empowered to deal with judgmental perceptions about their identity.

Despite the different challenges multiracial families may experience, the vast tales of the mixed race family
aren’t drenched with grim. Quite the contrary. There is great strength in the multiracial family and some of these strengths are:

• Miscegenation helps to rid racial stereotypes of the individuals in the union
• Parents of multiracial families are more like to teach diversity and how to treat people who are
  different from themselves.
• Parents of multiracial children make greater effort to expose their children
  to both cultures and to preserve both heritages.

Miscegenation enables the couple to uproot racial misconceptions each person may have of the opposite race. Racial stereotypes are perpetuated because people refuse to venture out of their racial comfort zone to explore the point of views of other races. In a interracial marriage, it’s imperative that each person examine and dismantling inaccurate opinions in order to maintain a unified body. I am black and my husband is Caucasian. I can remember a time I made an inappropriate joke about Caucasians to my husband. I took it for granted that even though he is my husband, we are of different races and therefore he might not appreciate a joke about his race. I’ve made this same joke about Caucasians to my African American
friends and all of us enjoyed a hardy laugh......Click on this link to continue reading my guest post at MixedandHappy.com


Also a few weeks ago my family was featured over there! Check us out!