Quick Updated + added resource for Iditarod Unit

I just wanted to provide a quick update on the new safety laws regarding Children’s toys, clothing etc. On Jan. 8th a clarification was released. At this point the lead law will not be affecting the resell of infant / children’s items. There are still lots of hoops to jump through regarding safety issues and recalls.

The laws still stands as written for crafts persons of children’s items and new products – including those from Europe. So, this is still a huge issue.

For the Jan. 8th clarificaiton click here.

I also added a new resource to the Iditirod Unit study. It’s a free book from Currclick and is at the bottom of the list. Don’t miss it! It’s free and one you need to download to save if you plan on studying Alaska in the future.

New Regulations by the Consumer Products Safety Division

Mikah got a beautiful new doll for Christmas. It’s a Berenguer doll made in Spain. She is a 21 inch doll and extremely life like. We get stopped several times a day by folks who think “Alex” is real! Mikah treats her baby really well. Today she took her Christmas money and went shopping for some clothing for “Alex.” It’s great, because 21 inch dolls wear newborn clothing and Mikah was able to get some great deals at our local Kid to Kid resell store. It’s a good thing Mikah got Alex this year, because on Feb. 10, 2009, all the laws for children’s toys are changing.

As of Feb. 10th many European manufactures will not be selling their products in America. That means all those great wooden toys made overseas will not be available here. The doll Mikah got for Christmas probably will not be sold here anymore… Why? Because of the intensive testing that is now required for products made after Dec. 22nd to be sold here in the USA. This cost manufactures a lot of money to get each product certified and the smaller companies just can’t afford it. But now, all toys coming into the USA must be tested and certified at a high cost. This means smaller companies would have to raise prices on items sold in the USA. One company estimated it would raise their prices 50% on wooden toys and that would more than likely make them too costly and deplete the US market for the toys. The irony? Europe has much higher standards already in place for Children’s toys.

Remember the baby clothes Mikah got today for her doll? Well, the new law also includes the resell of children’s clothing! Do you shop resell? Goodwill? Yard Sales? As of Feb. 10th it will be illegal to re-sell any used children’s products including toys and clothing.

Do you buy used books? games? DVD’s, textbook etc.? Yep, you guessed it… not under the new law. Goodbye homeschool book sales, used book stores, Ebay deals…..

Do you or someone you know handcraft or sew items intended for children? Without paying out big bucks to have each item certified, not anymore.

Think of the lost jobs… the lost wages, for store owners and artisans who sell children’s products. Think of all these items now going into landfills as opposed to being loved by a second child. Think of the families who depend on the savings buying from second hand shops.

I am all for protecting my children. I made sure the doll Mikah got for Christmas was safe and free of phthalates. But, I also know its a European toy and tested under strict guidelines.

According to online news sources “ Adding to the confusion and frustration is the fact that the U.S. Consumer Products and Safety Commission is not returning calls or e-mails to the countless re-salers and even journalists who have tried in vain to get clarification on what the law means to garage sales and how it will be enforced.”

So, the question is, how will the new law effect homeschool book sales, yard sales, etc? Will there be barter parties in our futures?

For more information go to US Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Webhosting Update

Well, we got everything moved. When my husband called IX yesterday about our refund he was able to talk to someone there that understands customer service. They set our account back up where we could get our backups. We were able to get the backup and reinstall them on the new hosting server. So, Goalongs is back up and looking better than ever with it’s new “looK” The only problems are the pictures and internal links to files. (All the links that take you from my site seem to work fine. It appears the file arrangement is different at my new hosting which is changing the file name paths. I am going to mess with it some today – but no promises. If you came looking for something specific please leave me a comment and I will fix that link for you asap. The pictures on my scrapbook site fixed themselves – but so far, no luck here. So, I need to figure out where the problem is. I had intended to start posting lots of goodies this week… Hopefully, that will happen soon Got to get it all running again first….

Problems with Web Hosting

The last few days I have been dealing with problems with my now former web host, IX Hosting. If you use them as a web host I suggest you RUN, Run away fast! They are not focused on customer service – at least not from our dealings with them. They are less than honest also – and in my opinion that says more than anything else.

To be fair to IX we did violate their TOS (Terms of Service) Somehow hackers got into an old database Tyler had set up for a web forum, doesn’t use anymore, and had forgotten about. I don’t fully understand what was going on – but if you do a search on IX Web Hosting you will find they have had on ongoing issue with hackers over the past few months. Hackers cause the CPU usage to go up – and the TOS states that if you leave holes that allow hackers in its your fault. The CPU usage is what the TOS addresses and it doesn’t matter what causes it to spike. The concern is the shared servers and how your spike adversely effects others. At any rate, because of their TOS, and because this same thing happened in our account almost a year ago, and because Tyler caused a TOS by having “higher than normal” CPU usage due to a shoutbox he installed in April as well – we had 3 strikes – and for IX than means you are out. PERIOD. Do not pass go – you lose your files, your time … everything. Their TOS states this will happen and they will not give you access to your stuff – and they were unbending on this rule. We lost a whole website we had created for our homeschool group. (a non profit group – and we did the website for free… spent hours on it – but didn’t know how to back it up because it was a Joomla site. I know… our responsibility… ) So, bottom line, you get hacked? Your fault… oh well. … no sympathy.. nothing… The main thing is that at IX they don’t seem to value their paying customers. Just my opinion and view based on how we have been treated over the past 2 years with them…. and then there is that hacker thingy… do a search… wish we had!

So.. the content of Goalongs is gone…. but I will be rebuilding it. Lucky for me that Google has most of it cached! Granted all the links from other sites will not work right and that will mess with things some – but at least I can easily get some of my stuff back up.