It's Only Been, I Don't Know, Forever?

We're back!  We're moving!  And it's about time to start school again.  No, I'm not kidding, we start school tomorrow.  I already have the stack of books sitting beside my chair for the first two weeks and everything.  All we need now is the schedule to be tacked to the wall and we'll be good to go.

So what's coming up for us this year?  Well, I'm glad you asked.  This year we're going to be starting a whole bunch of things on the homeschool front.  We've kind of scrapped our old unschooling ways in favor of more involved pursuits.  However, it's going to be a really fun year and I think the kids are going to absolutely love it!

But before we get to that, I'm going to talk about Pinkie.  This year is going to be Pinkie's sophomore year in high school.  Yes, high school!  She's studying landscaping at our local vocational school, and she's in love with it.  Part of that was being able to drive a tractor, but most of it is her love of working outdoors and being involved with plants.  It's always been a thing of hers, ever since she was pretty little.  She's always been into plants and animals.

But what about the homeschooling crew?  We're checking out a new program (well, new to us) called Build Your Library.  It's a secular literature-based curriculum, so basically everything we need.  I found it through a group called Secular, Eclectic, Academic.  I don't remember how I encountered them, but I used them to vet out other literature-based programs available.  While I have to say I wasn't worried about "truly secular" curriculum by their definition, I think I definitely found my home with Build Your Library.

So, why did I choose this one?  I'll be honest, I loved some of the book selections and I got excited that the creator chose things like The Hobbit and some other more modern titles.  It also helps that it wasn't a small fortune to purchase the books (though my aunt did do us a huge favor and got most of them for us used!)  As I explored the curriculum and learned more about the creator, I got more and more excited.  The woman who put it all together is really my kind of person.  She loves to read, but she's also into fantasy and science fiction, and we even watch some of the same shows.  She reads comic books, too, and goes to the local Comic Con.  There's definitely something appealing about a curriculum written by someone that's my kind of people.

Truth be told, I wasn't even looking for a curriculum when I started finding them.  People just started referencing them and I got curious.  This resulted in me checking them out, and then finally starting to really get drawn into the idea that these kinds of curricula even exist!  Next thing you know I was trying to figure out in the budget how I was going to afford to provide one for my kids, and then the whole idea of unschooling went right out the window.

Against what everyone recommends, I've decided to do a different level for each of the kids.  This is in part because of my own personal discomfort at the idea of having them work off "grade level" and instead having to modify the whole thing to make it appropriate for all of their skill levels.  On top of that, there's something nice about being able to give them each the individualized attention of their own plan and assignments.  Yes, it's more work, but I think it will result in each one of them getting a little bit more individualized attention.

So this year Bear is going to be in level 1.  That means we're going to be studying the ancients in history.  This is paired with some great literature, including a couple books that actually tie into the history, something that must have been challenging to find.  It's hard to find a book that appeals to that age level and matching that period of history.  There isn't a ton of lit written in that period.  This is all put together with a nature study, which seems like a really good "introduction to science" kind of thing.  Finally, we'll be adding our own math and phonics, sticking with what we're already doing, since it works so well for us.

Creeper gets to study the middle ages, though we're going to be including a little bit of a gloss-over for the ancients.  We've done it before, but it's been a little while, so this will be a review.  More than anything I wanted to get the timeline figures up there for him so he can have a full timeline when he's finished.  He's also got a great lit selection, which I've really been enjoying.  Science for him will be broken up into Earth science and space.  It should be a fun year.  Also, he'll be doing the same math and phonics, just like Bear.

Finally, there's Link.  He's doing the first level of American history.  I could have had him work on grade level, but as one of the things they learn is the 50 states, half in each year of American history, I thought we should start at the beginning.  His books are pretty good too, and they provide the link between his history and science.  For science he's doing biology, and it seems like there's a little bit of emphasis on diseases, which should be fun because I'm highly interested in infectious disease.  It all just packages together so neatly!  This is also going to be his last year in the elementary math books, as next year he's going to be doing pre-algebra.  We're also going to be working on finishing out his phonics curriculum, so that should be one thing to mark off the list.  I still can't believe he's already in middle school!  They grow up so fast!

And we're not homeschooling in isolation during the day either!  My aunt is getting some time in with the kids via Skype this year, which is huge.  Now, I'm not excited about this because it means I have a little less to worry about every day.  Yeah, she's taking some of the burden on history and poetry and almost all of lit.  However, this is a chance for her to build a strong relationship with the kids!  When they grow up and think back about their family, they're going to remember all those times working on the computer with their aunt.  She's a great, engaging reader.  She's always ready with funny comments to keep things lively.  The help with homescooling is just an added bonus.  It's also great to be able to have a resource who used to work in education and knows tips and tricks that I'd never even thought of before.  I don't know what we'd do without her insight.

Okay, time for a little nostalgia...  Thinking back about my aunt helping me out, I keep going back to the same thought over and over again.  Years back, when I was still pretty young, she made me a collection of poems.  She illustrated the book and everything.  I had that thing for years, and my parents might even still have it in their basement somewhere.  It was my favorite thing to pull out to read, and I still have one of the poems, a very short one, memorized.  It's one of those things that stuck with me for years.  Having my kids work with my aunt, it feels like it's that kind of thing, only less physical and tangible.  They may not have had a book to pull out and look at, but they get to see and talk to their aunt daily, which is great.  When they grow up they may not have memories of a collection of poems she made, but they'll remember reciting the poems they memorized to her.  They'll have memories of the books they read together and all the conversations they had.  They're going to be close, and that's wonderful.

But that's basically it for our planning this year.  I'm sure I'll have more to write after we've kicked off the year, which is tomorrow!  I still have things to do to get ready, like writing up narration cards and getting all of that sorted out, but we're almost there.  It's down to the finer details now, and anything that doesn't come along perfectly smoothly will be sorted out as we get rolling.  These first couple of weeks are going to be a challenge, but we'll get there, and it's all going to be so much fun!

Winter Break

What is winter break for?  In this house it's not for a break.  I decided to take some time out of our leisurely boring schedule of lazily doing nothing of any consequence to work on some stuff with the kids.

Creeper has really been struggling with school.  He does really well with the math, but the reading and writing is a little more trying for him.  Instead of having a carefree winter break, we've been working on some school stuff.

Of course, this really makes me think about the whole situation with school.  If I'm having the kids do all of this work at home, would it be possible to just homeschool them again?  Would this be the best option?  It's something that's been really tugging at the back of my mind.

Since it's winter break, I'm not worrying about that too much right now.  My main goal is to get Creeper back on track, which seems like a productive use of this break from school.  I'm glad he's able to get some work done, even though winter break is half over.  It's good to feel like we're accomplishing something for all this time off.

Then there's Bear.  We've been doing some work together outside of the computer.  I've got to admit, Bear has been trying my patience on the peaceful parenting thing.  I'm trying to get away from using tactics like time out, but it's not easy when Bear is so worked up over the past week.  It's been pretty crazy around here.  It makes it hard for Bear to concentrate and focus.

Still, Bear has managed to get some good work in.  We've started working with the workbooks Bear got for Christmas.  This has been trying with the lack of focus and the suddenly hyper behavior.  We've had to work hard to keep focus and stay on task.  Overall, I'd say we're making some pretty good progress.

Today we worked with some tracing lines, drawing lines along a path, and (as you can see here) tracing letters.  Bear seems really eager to learn these skills.  If Bear could keep a little more chill and focused, I think we'd be making some pretty good progress, but that wouldn't be Bear, now would it.  Instead we've been plugging away, trying to work on focus and attention span along with getting the work done.  I think that's maybe the hardest part of this whole thing, the attention span aspect of it all.

This whole thing has me considering the homeschooling thing with Bear too.  So far we've been doing pretty well.  Most of what we've been doing has been on the computer with Time 4 Learning.  I'm also considering Starfall, which Bear loves the free version of, and it can be played on all of our devices.  Now we're adding in more workbooks.  The whole thing is coming together pretty well.

All of this has my mind set to homeschooling.  There are a lot of reasons for this, many of which I don't feel belong in this blog, but the root of it all is that it doesn't seem to be working out for my family.  The long and the short of it is wondering if perhaps this is where our lives are taking us again.  It's a lot to consider, and definitely not a path I'm ready to jump onto now.  For now I'll be happy with doing our vacation work and calling it a day.

Lazy for Homeschooling, Yet Somehow Still Productive

You know what we did for homeschooling today?  That's right, nothing.  We didn't work on writing.  We didn't work on reading.  We didn't talk about math.  Link didn't even read the e-mail from his grandma about the cool stuff she's got to say on the subject of germs.  We did absolutely nothing, yet I think it was perhaps our most productive homeschooling day ever.

Why do I think that?  For starters, my daughter actually read.  She didn't really read much, but she was sitting next to the baby I take care of after just having fed her (because she loves being helpful) and my youngest brought her one of those boxed sets of books.  He wanted to "read" them.  However, I guess he decided they were boring when they were no longer in their box, so he just walked away.  That's when my daughter decided to do something incredibly out of character for her.  She picked up the first book and started reading the first chapter quietly to herself, asking questions when she came across something she just didn't get.

What was this book that had her so captivated?  The book was Flat Stanley: His Original Adventure! from The Flat Stanley Collection Box Set.  We'd parts of the books before, though most of the time we'd never finished them because she just wasn't interested in finishing stories back then.  She liked to read half a book and then start something new.  However, this time she was plowing through it like a champ.  Who knew she'd just pick it up and read it for no reason at all?  I'm so proud of my Bunny!  She's actually reading!

Link didn't do anything overly educational, but he did a lot of "creative writing" type practice.  He was sitting by himself just making up stories.  I'm not entirely sure who he was telling or if he was telling anyone at all, but it was amusing to see him sitting there, quietly telling stories without any toys or physical action going on.  I wouldn't be surprised if I had peeked in to see him holding a book, but I didn't bother to check on him.  I didn't want to interrupt him.

My littlest one decided today would be a good day to color.  He finally started using his Easel and his Crayon Rocks that he got for his birthday.  I can't tell you how much he loves them.  It took him a while to actually start using them.  Crayons weren't so much his thing, but he's discovered that these are just perfect for him to hold.  He had to ask the other kids what colors each crayon was before he could draw with it and was incredibly proud of what he'd done.  He's finally starting to sink in to something a bit artistic.  We knew it wouldn't be long!

It was a very relaxing day, aside from the points with a cranky baby, but it was nice.  It's good to feel like we've really accomplished something, even if we haven't really done much at all.  Even I got to do something since the book I'd ordered came in today.  I'd ordered Theatre Games for Young Performers to help me with my theater class at the co-op.  Since I just got it, I couldn't resist paging through it and came up with some great new ideas for my theater class, and a few things I'd forgotten from my own theater games from when I was in school.  Even I couldn't avoid learning without even really meaning to!  It's wonderful.

I kind of wish every day could be like today, casual and relaxed, yet everyone is filling their day with incredibly educational things.  It would be perfect.  I keep hoping that some day my kids will really take control of their own education, but that's still a while off, I think.  However, it's days like these that really make me think that letting the kids work towards their own educational goals, even if it's just half the time, could be a realistic goal for our family.  It's amazing how productive time that's not scheduled for work can be when you just let it happen.

Theme for the Year, Useful Gifts

It's that Christmas time of year again.  Everyone is out shopping.  In our family we don't really do much of a gift exchange with the adults.  I usually exchange gifts with my partner, but that's about it.  However, kids are a very different story.

This year we've decided to go for a break from traditional.  I was originally going to hand-make all of my gifts this year, but that ambitious goal turned out to be too ambitious for me.  I figured that would cut down on consumerism, but the truth is I'll still end up buying things to make the present.  It's not like I have a sheep to sheer, then wash the fleece, card it, spin it, knit with the yarn, and some time in the process, dye it with home-made dyes that I grow at my own home.  The consumer process does happen in there, and while home-made gifts are typically the best, I honestly think there should be a some value placed on time.  Right now, it's something I just don't have enough of.

That being said, I wanted our Christmas present theme to be useful items.  Now, I know I'm going to be expecting some toys for family.  No matter what you say, nor how much you beg people not to, there are always going to be people who insist on giving toys to kids.  I've decided I'm not going to fight it.  More importantly, it's good for kids to receive toys for holidays and birthdays.  How else will they end up with new toys as they outgrow the old?

Every year my aunt has always been fantastic with flooding our house with useful things.  She sends us crayons, markers, and pencils.  There's been drawing paper, workbooks, and coloring books.  There's been crafts to decorate with and lots of other stuff to inspire creativity.  She sends books, which are always good to have.  There's so much variety, but I noticed that most of it has been useful, at least for the older two, even with a good number of toys sprinkled throughout.

Because of my aunt's inspiration and looking at my children's insane number of toys, I decided this year it's time for something different.  Last year Santa was a huge hit for bringing games to the whole family.  This year he's planning the same.  They encourage family time, togetherness, and fun.  However, this year our family is focusing on things that can inspire outside interests, and we're going to carry that through birthdays and everything.  It means knowing a lot more about my kids than what a kid of their gender and age would like.  However, it's totally worth it.  This is what makes gifts that wow.

Taking my daughter as an example, we can see what appeals to her quite easily.  Archery would be a good direction to choose.  She loves it.  She's been begging me for her own bow and arrows ever since she shot her first arrow.  She's all about art, always wanting to draw, paint, color, or otherwise create masterpieces.  I want to pick something that will appeal to those interests of hers.

My older son is really into art and music.  He likes to sing and make music on anything he can make noise on.  He loves to draw and paint too.  I want to encourage him in those fields because he needs to have interest in something other than toys.  He's got to start developing his own tastes.  He also loves science, but finding science stuff for his age isn't something I'm particularly good at.

The littlest one is really only into making messes right now, so it's hard to pick things he'd like.  He's good with coloring and seems to like the idea of painting.  Anything he can squish in his fingers is also good, so soft clays may not be a bad choice either.

I'm starting to realize that my kids have very limited interests.  They haven't experienced life as much as I might wish.  They don't really have much of an idea of what they might like to be when they grow up because they haven't experienced enough to know.  My daughter wants to be an artist and my older son wants to be a rock star, but how do they know for sure?  They haven't really had a chance to dabble in other areas of life.  Maybe my older son will always want to be a rock star, or a musician of some kind.  Maybe my daughter will always want to be an artist, but at least I hope I can open up some other options for them so they know for sure.  More importantly, if they do decide to keep those career choices, at the least maybe they'll know what direction within those careers.  Maybe my daughter will decide she wants to be a painter, an illustrator, or a potter.  Perhaps my son will want to grow up to be a classical guitarist or a musician with the orchestra.  We won't know until they get there.  All I can do is take this time to give them as many opportunities to explore as possible, and Christmas is just as good of a chance as anything else.

I feel pretty good about this Christmas.  I feel like I'm finally doing something better than just getting toys and leaving it at that.  I'm hoping that they find it as wonderful of a Christmas as I'm planning it to be.  After all, if I can't get away from consumerism, I might as well use the holiday season as a time to help my kids advance their own goals or find new areas of exploration in life.  There are plenty of people to make sure they have toys.  I know them better than anyone else, so it really should be my job to pick out the things that will inspire them this year.

Our Second Library Visit (or the Things You Learn about Your Kids at the Library)

We went to the library again today.  Our books were due, so we didn't really have much of a choice.  I (of course) hadn't finished reading any of my books, and Bunny Boo (that's what she asked me to call her on my blog) hadn't either.  She'd finished two of her books, but not the third, so she requested we hang on to it a little longer so we can finish it.  We've got ten books to read together between now and November 16th.  I'm sure we can do it!  We already got through two today!

The whole family went to the library today.  Chesh decided he wanted to get his own library card.  We went to the children's library, but he enjoys books written for teens and they're short enough that he actually has the time to read through them with his busy schedule.  We actually stopped in between his interviews and errands.  We've all gotten a lot done this week!  We thought it would be a fun break from all the crazy running around to kick back and take the family to the library, all of us, as a family.

As I said, Chesh actually picked out some books!  I'm glad he did because I think I would have had my hands too full to enjoy the library without him!  My littlest decided he wanted to run around crazy.  There were so many books that he didn't know which one to pull down and look at first!  He mostly just wanted to turn the pages like the older two were doing.  I think he was a little overwhelmed by the shelves and shelves of books.  He found a chair to sit on that spun around (he's never sat on an office chair that he remembers).  He discovered they had a whole table and chair set that was just his size!  He even yelled at Chesh when he went to see what the little one was up to.  He held his hand out and screamed as if to say, "No, Dad!  You can't sit in this chair!  It's just for kids!"  He even learned that sitting at a desk can be pretty cool, especially when they have a little keyboard drawer to pull out, even if there's no computer or keyboard at it.  Leave it to him to come up with a million and one ways to enjoy exploring the library!

My older son was very interested that they had a whole library book all about "his birthday".  He knows April Fool's Day isn't a holiday just about him, but he's convinced he's special because no one else in the family has their birthday on a holiday every year.  He says he's a fool because he's an April Fool, and that means it's his job to make everyone happy all the time.  Thankfully, he does that by being very silly and rarely serious (unless he needs to be) so he doesn't even have to work too hard for that, and when he can't cheer someone up, he doesn't feel bad about it.  He knows he tried and that's good enough for him.  As he puts it, "People just need a sad day sometimes."  What wisdom for a four-year-old!  He also wanted to get out every book on Halloween and a book about Native American fables.  I really wanted to tell him he could take out the book on my card, but I know he's not ready for the responsibility of a library book, so I'd have to watch it like a hawk for him.  With everything else we have going on right now, I just wasn't ready for that added responsibility.  I told him if it's still there next time we visit (which may be sooner rather than later!) we'll get it out for him.  He's already excited for his birthday.  I promised him that as soon as he turns five, we can take him to get his own library card.  He's already putting together a list of things he wants to get books about!

However, it was Bunny Boo that surprised me today!  Originally she said she wanted to renew one book and pick out seven more, since she can have ten books out at a time now.  She decided she would keep two slots on her card open for movies.  Then, when we were counting her books so we could leave it turned out she had eleven books!  She decided to put one back (it was about voting in America) and we'd get it next time.  Since she was so thrilled about her book selection, I decided to get a movie out on my card for her.  She was thrilled!

What surprised me more than her ambitious selection to take out so many books (that I would have to read with her because she's getting good at reading, but still prefers I read the long books to her), were the books she selected.  The book she wanted on Halloween wasn't there, not surprising since Halloween is just around the corner, but she did pick out Halloween by Dennis Brindell Fradin and Halloween: Why We Celebrate It the Way We Do by Martin Hintz and Kate Hintz.  I know my daughter and her love of holidays, so that didn't surprise me.  Given Thanksgiving is not that far after Halloween, she decided to pick up Thanksgiving Day: A Time to Be Thankful as a part of the Finding Out About The Holidays series and The True Story of the First Thanksgiving from the What Really Happened series.  She also thought P Is for Pilgrim: A Thanksgiving Alphabet would be fun since she enjoys M Is For Mayflower: A Massachusetts Alphabet so much.  Both of my older kids seem to love the Alphabet Books Series.  It combines a holiday with Pilgrims!  What could be cooler?  None of these selections really surprised me, not knowing my daughter the way I do.

What I didn't expect my daughter to select were a couple books from two different parts of history that we haven't talked about.  One was only a little surprising. The other was a huge shock, given we'd talked about the subject before several times and she thought it was the most boring thing in the world every time we tried to bring it up, even recently. The first two books that weren't such as surprise were Let Women Vote from the Spotlight on American History series and You Wouldn't Want to Be a Suffragist!: A Protest Movement That's Rougher Than You Expected from the series of books bearing similar names.  The kids have all been watching Mary Poppins (almost to death) and Mrs. Banks just so happens to be a Suffragette.  I have to admit, I kind of expected her to find interest in the Women's Suffrage movement eventually, what with her mother being a feminist and all.  We read You Wouldn't Want to Be a Suffragist already and she had a lot of opinions about it.  We talked about the feminist movement, how some people to this day think women aren't as good as men.  She asked about why I changed my name when I got married, then we talked about how in some states, such as Texas, a baby born when a woman is married is required by law to take the husband's last name, whether the wife wants the child to have her husband's last name or not.  For example, if my last name was hyphenated, like...say...Smith-Adams, and my husband's last name was Adams and was never hyphenated, all of my children's names would have to be Adams unless I went through a legal name change to have it changed to Smith, or Smith-Adams.  We also talked about the way some people think jobs, like being a scientist, doctor, or engineer, aren't women's jobs, and sometimes women have to work twice as hard to prove they're just as good, if not better than the men.  I had personal experience with that in my robotics class in high school.  Several times the teacher asked one of the boys to help me because "they were stronger" or  he "didn't want me getting hurt".  The boys didn't want to work with me because no one wanted to be put on a build team with a girl.  It was frustrating.  She didn't think that was very fair at all.  We talked about how the Women's Suffrage Movement actually paved the way for a lot of the progress more modern feminists have made.  It was a wonderful conversation and I can't wait until we can sit down with that other book.  I'm even learning something too!

Now that I've gotten way off track, the subject my daughter was never interested in before, no matter how much we tried to get her interested?  Mummies.  Bunny Boo isn't really interested in much about Ancient Egypt, but mummies are a sudden fascination of hers.  Perhaps it's because there are mummies in so many cultures from all over the world, even modern mummies.  Of course, it's also Halloween, and that might have something to do with it.  The first book she picked out before we even got to the section where the Halloween books would be (since she said that was the first place she wanted to look) was Mummies: Truth and Rumors from the Truth and Rumors series.  Shortly after she picked out the holiday books she wanted, she saw a binding with a word she definitely knew how to read Mummy from the Eyewitness Books series.  I could have sworn we had that book at home, but she swears we didn't.  Only thing I can think is maybe I'd seen it before, either when I was in school or when I was working as a nanny.  We haven't read through the Eyewitness book yet, but she loved the Truth and Rumors book.  She had a good time trying to guess if each story was true or a rumor.  It contained some really fun facts and some fancy new words that she'd never heard before, like cholera, cryonic freezing, cremate, asphalt, embalmer, and resin.  She was thrilled to know that the oldest mummy known in existence was actually a dinosaur, not a person, and that there was a mummified baby mammoth too.  She's decided that mummies are now the new cool and interesting thing to know anything about, as well as archaeologists.  She thinks the most fascinating thing about archaeologists is trying to put together ideas about what people they've never met are doing from clues like the things they used, the pictures they drew, and the monuments and buildings they left behind.  I think her interest in mummies is going to take us far beyond the realm of mummies and into a whole new realm of discovery about history, learning about things that happened because there's some great mystery to solve.  You don't know anything about the people.  You can't talk to them.  You just have to solve the mystery.  Now that I think about it, a friend of hers did have a live action/role play mystery birthday party, so maybe that's where she picked up her new love of mysteries.

While my daughter isn't a strong reader, I really do hope that reading to her about subjects that interest her will show her all she can learn from books and will encourage her to read more.  She's got the skills, and she's got the ability, now all she has to do is find a reason to apply herself.  We've had both good days and bad days, so I'm hoping that it won't be long before she's realized that books and the library are her passport to anywhere she might want to go.  If she learns to read on her own, she won't need to wait for me to sit down and read to her.  She'll be able to read anything she wants whenever she wants, whether it's a fun story, or something she can learn from.  I can only hope that she'll learn to love books just as much as I do!  Thankfully, I don't think her brothers will have near as much of a problem.  They both love books and can't seem to keep their hands off of them.  Both of them already love the idea of reading, so maybe I'll be lucky.

When Kids Ask Why?

I was thinking the other day about philosophy.  How many people actually study philosophy at some point in their lives?  It's come to my attention that not many have.  If so few adults study philosophy, then why would I ever imagine kids would get the same experience?

Philosophy for children may not sound like a brilliant idea.  Given many adults I know haven't studied philosophy, one can imagine that children wouldn't either.  They certainly don't teach it in the school systems around here, at least not at the elementary level.  It's just not really viewed as a child's subject.  It's not what people expect their children to be learning.  The focus should be on more useful things, like reading, writing, math, and science, you know, stuff they need in the real world.  Those subjects prepare a child for college or university some day, but philosophy?  It just doesn't seem to fit the bill.

Once upon a time, philosophy was considered a great topic for all ages.  Philosophy encourages the student to think deeper on any subject at hand.  Of course, "the student" really referred to any philosopher, given the general concept of philosophy encourages the constant pursuit of learning and greater, deeper understanding.  The whole subject is about expanding one's consciousness, learning to look deeper.  It's not so much about learning what to think, but how to think.  You can never stop learning new ways to think!

Looking at philosophy that way, it's not surprising that children would take naturally to it.  By nature they are rather curious creatures.  Many children, especially those that haven't been indoctrinated into a strict structure of expectations, want to know the details of everything.  They're likely to want to know how things work, why people do the way they do, and what the greater meaning of things in the world around them is.  Can you blame them?  Everything is deep and interesting to them, and the study of philosophy just appeals to their natural curiosity.  They're encouraged to think for themselves, come up with new ideas, be creative, and explore things as deeply as they possibly can.  I'm surprised so few people are interested in teaching philosophy before university and college!  It's something I would think could appeal to many parents!

Of course, allowing kids to question "why" all the time opens the door to very frustrated and annoyed parents.  Constant questioning from children can be daunting.  It can be frustrating to adults to have constant pestering about why this works or why people do this in the way they do, but it's good for the kids.  If we want creative and innovative children, which most people do, these aspects should be encouraged.  There does come a point where the parent is so tired and frustrated that they just need to put an end to the questions for their own sanity, but I have to wonder if that's as common as many parents seem to think it is.  I can't count the number of times I've heard parents gripe at their children to just go play and stay out of their hair.  We're not the most interactive culture.  Many parents are more focused on their own needs than the needs of their children, which isn't all bad.  Unfortunately, the more acceptable that behavior becomes, the more we stunt our children's ability to learn, question, and be genuinely curious.  We want our children to be innovative, creative, and successful, but how can we do that when we're constantly putting our kids off to meet our own needs?  Perhaps kids need another outlet, a philosophy forum or other engaging group activities that will allow our children to expand their own minds and feel comfortable with questioning and coming up with new ideas.

All of this stemmed from something my daughter's philosophy teacher said.  (Yes, my daughter is only eight and studying philosophy!  Isn't homeschool wonderful?)  She was talking about an exercise they did about being nobody.  Being somebody means having all these labels and expectations put on you.  Being nobody removes you from that pressure and allows you to spend your time going through your life and doing what you believe is right pretty unharassed by society.  My daughter was one of two kids that thought perhaps it would be better to be nobody.  I have to wonder if any of their thoughts on the subject will change by the end of class.  Then she mentioned that my daughter asked a really good question, "What does happy really mean?"  I had to stop and think about that one myself.  What does happy really mean?  I think I'd have a difficult time expressing that myself.  How many eight-year-olds would think to ask that question?

Perhaps this is something that warrants more thought.  I might just have to start thinking about getting more philosophy books myself so my daughter and I can keep having intelligent conversations on the subject.  I think it's time to change my Amazon settings over to store credit!  I have a feeling I've got a lot of learning to do in order to keep up with her curious mind!

Today's History Lesson

My daughter has finally found a love of history!  It's inspired her to read!  Yesterday I mentioned that my daughter had come home to read Sam the Minuteman.  Today she asked if there were any more stories about Sam.  Unfortunately, there are none that I know of.  We decided to take a step further and branch off into other books about the time period.

Today we searched my daughter's book shelf and found a couple of books that she might find interest in.  She decided she wanted to learn more about what life was like for someone like Sam.  Right now she's reading about what girls did in colonial times.  We found that in If You Lived in Colonial Times.  She's found a couple things in that book that she wants to know about in that book.  I have a feeling this is going to inspire a whole lot of learning about history, which is extra exciting for me.  This is a subject I care a lot about.  On top of that, If You Lived in Colonial Times has plenty of information broken down into nice, easy segments.  My daughter can pick and choose what she's interested in finding out about at any given time and only read the parts she feels like learning about.  It's an excellent way for her to find something that's interesting to her.

I have to say, I really like this series.  The kids only have three books from it that I know of, but I'm thinking we may have to try and find more.  I know they have a whole number of books, some of them overlapping in time periods a good deal.  It seems like a good way to give just enough information on a period of history to encourage curiosity without going into too much detail.  The focus on daily life and normal things also makes these books a great supplement to other books about similar periods of history.  It's a great help for our history lessons, and I love it.

I'm thinking since we're working with colonial history and the American Revolution, it might be time to start looking into other books that would inspire my daughter to keep reading.  The American Girls have Felicity, which is about colonial times and the American Revolution.  I'm sure we could find those books at the library.  I though we had them, but apparently we don't.  I'm sure the library would have at least a few more books that may be of interest, though from everything I hear the Killeen Library doesn't have the greatest selection when it comes to American history, at least beyond Texas.  Still, it's one more adventure that can come out of all of this history love.  Perhaps we're going to have to make weekly or bi-weekly trips to the library.

Finally! The Homeschool Co-op!

Today was the first day of the homeschool co-op.  I have to say I'm a little disappointed that it's now only down to one day every week and a play group that's moving to Fridays.  It would be great for the kids to get out and see their friends from the co-op more often than simply three hours one day each week for class and however long the play group lasts.  Even so, it's good for them to be out with other kids, especially other kids that homeschool.  I'm sure they won't feel so strange once they're no longer the only homeschooling kids they know!  It's good to feel like maybe you've got somewhere you belong!

We had a pretty good day, in all honesty, all of us, not just the kids.  I had no idea what to make of anything when we arrived.  Being a pierced, tattooed (okay, so it's only one) mama with dreads I'd already felt pretty out of place, especially not being Christian.  The whole thing sets up in a church and apparently a large number of the older kids are all in choir at the church together.  I felt like I might not find a good place to be myself here, but at least the kids would have a good time.  Isn't that what mattered?

As we walked in we were greeted by another mom that directed us where to go.  There was a pretty sizable group there.  I felt very out of place with all the other moms there, and my kids seemed so unprepared.  All of the kids had backpacks.  They'd all brought their lunches.  I had no idea I was supposed to have them bring bags, lunches, or any of that.  I'd thought about packing lunches, but I'd decided better on the idea since we had places to go afterwards.  I didn't realize that they ate lunch at the playground and played for a good while afterwards, otherwise I definitely would have been more prepared.

Off on one side of the room there was a gaggle of girls playing hand games and doing other things I found quite familiar from my days in Girl Scouts.  My kids stuck by me, which I was grateful for because I didn't know anyone either and I felt just as lost and out of place as they did!  The other kids were mingling in the room and some of the oldest of the bunch moved out into the hall being overwhelmed by the chaos of it all.  It was kind of nice to see so many kids out and playing.  It looked like my daughter's group was mostly girls, which was good for her, and my son's group was a small number, four boys and one girl.  We got a look at the class sheet and I tried to figure out where I belonged in all of it.  It was highly confusing, but I figured if we'd just wait, everything would come to order.

As the families started to evacuate the room I felt a little concerned.  Someone had asked me if I wanted my youngest to be taken to the playground for outdoor play.  She assumed I would.  I told her I'd be okay with taking him myself.  I was pretty free to wander around that first period, so I wanted to make sure I was there until he really got into his comfort zone.  He's never really spent much time at a playground and he didn't know any of these people, so I'd help him feel comfortable.  I had almost given up hope on finding where the older two belonged when it seemed like the only group left was made up of the groups my older son and daughter were in.  Those two groups went together to the gym, which was great because my older son, who is normally as timid as a mouse and quite the loner, would at least have his sister there until he was a little more comfortable, and I would be with him by the second class.

So off my older two went to the gym while I went out to the playground with my youngest.  He was surprisingly timid, given the usual boldness with which he usually takes to playgrounds.  He's usually ready to run around and investigate everything.  I let him go do his own thing and tried to take his sippy cup so he could play, but he clung to it with a death grip.  I attempted to pry it from him, but decided to give up hope as soon as I realized it wasn't going to work without him crying.  Thankfully it wasn't long before he'd ditched the cup to climb on a car made of wood, metal, and old tires.  It wasn't long before he was proving just what an adventurer he could be.  He climbed all over the structure and even went down the tallest slide (though it was on my lap) and seemed to have a grand time of it.  We just found out the other day that he's still a bit chunkier than he is tall, so I think all the exercise of climbing and running around outside every week will do a good bit to make sure he's just a chunky baby and doesn't end up on the unhealthy side.  It might also do good for his constant desire to eat every time he so much as thinks there might be food nearby.  At least now maybe he'll be more inspired to adventure than eat us out of house and home.  He's going to be a strong one with all of that getting out and playing.

Apparently P.E. in the gym for the other two was a good deal of fun.  I just feel it's too bad I didn't get to see the games they were playing.  From the sounds of it, they all had a lot of fun.  My poor older son looked absolutely exhausted by the time he met us inside for the sign language class.  It was a sure sign that he didn't get enough sleep last night.  We need to tailor our schedule to getting them to bed on time a little better.  They all looked pretty wiped when I got them out of bed.

The sign language class was short, and I guess we're going to combine it with the kinder-music class for the littlest ones, so I'll be able to spend that time with both my boys that period, or at least for part of it.  The kids in the sign language class seemed to think it was pretty fun and wanted to be in on the music and songs too.  I thought the sign language was great.  I think we might start working on using it a bit more around the house.  As much as my littlest is a little too young to be working with baby sign and I should be focused on language skills, I think it couldn't hurt.  Sign language is a useful skill and you never know when it might come in useful.  It never hurts to know a different language because you never know when you might need to know it.  Well, in their case, it may not truly be seen as another language, especially since deaf people aren't incredibly common, but it's always good to have the knowledge.  Plus, as the teacher pointed out, it's a great way to be able to ask the kids if they need to use the potty or anything else from across a crowded room or across the playground.  It's definitely got it's uses.  My poor son didn't really seem to be paying attention.  He looked around like a zombie while eating his snack and didn't even try most of the signs.  I thought he was just tired and he would probably be like that all day.  I was a little disappointed, but it was understandable.

After that I watched the littlest kids play while my older son was learning about the body and my daughter went to chemistry.  I felt bad because I didn't get to sit in on what both of them were doing, but I got reports in on my older son.  They were singing, dancing, had show-and-tell (which I wasn't prepared for in the least, so I felt a little bad), and they made little paper bag puppets.  They apparently had a great time.  I also apparently didn't have to worry about my shy, exhausted middle child.  I guess he was participating and was quite involved in everything.  Here I was thinking he would be spacey and exhausted the whole day, but apparently he just needed a bit of a snack to perk right up!

My daughter through all of this didn't seem interested in telling me anything.  At the end of it all she showed me her folder where she had two poems by Emily Dickinson and an imagination drawing they did.  She was supposed to write a poem, but her writing skills are definitely lacking.  She's got a lot of work to do there!

We decided to stay and play when everyone was having lunch.  Most of the kids just got up and played instead of eating.  My kids had a blast.  My son did have an accident in the playground, but he wasn't the only one in his class to have an accident.  It's hard.  They're still so young and they've got so much to distract them from using the bathroom when they need to.  I can't entirely blame them.  Next time we'll just have to remember to work on it, and work on making sure there's always a spare set of clothes packed, just in case.

After it all I found out just what an impact the homeschool co-op had.  Not only do I feel different, but so do the kids.  I'd met some really cool moms that are involved with things I wish I could be involved with.  They raise their kids the way I wish I could raise mine.  It was a huge breath of fresh air and felt like a step in the right direction.  On top of that, my exhausted middle child proved he learned something in his sign class by showing his sister all the signs he learned in class today.  My daughter said she needed help writing for her class, so she decided to come home and read a book.  She picked up Sam the Minuteman, read it, and had all kinds of questions.  More importantly, she actually retained a lot of what she read!  She wants to work on writing too, so I think we may do some of that after dinner while I'm cleaning the house.  I've never seen her sit down and read an entire book without complaining, never mind cruise through it!  I guess she didn't have the right incentive!  On top of it all, both my younger two came home exhausted.  My youngest son tried to climb into his own playpen to sleep, so I picked him up and put him in.  My middle child climbed up on his bed while we were gathering the laundry up and pulled a blanket over him.  He said he was tired and needed to take a nap.  He took a nap when he was tired without me even having to ask him!  And me?  I'm cleaning the house, got the laundry together, and it feels like my life is finally going to start going in the right direction.  I'm so incredibly calm right now, even with everything going on.  I can't wait until next week to do it all again!

So now it's time to start dinner, a little later than planned, but that's okay.  All the kids need baths and showers, because they got pretty dirty playing that hard, especially outside.  I think they may all sleep well tonight and tomorrow we're going to be off to a brilliant start again.  I already know my daughter has a million questions about the American revolution, which is good because it's going to be so much easier for her to learn about it now that she's starting to find drive to read.  My aunt sent her a lot of books on colonial America and the Revolutionary War, which is fantastic because that's something my daughter and I can really share a love of.  She's branching out and isn't as stuck on just one thing, art!  I have a feeling my middle child is going to be a lot more inspired to branch out and learn new things too, and we can keep practicing his sign language.  Hopefully we can get into doing a lot more and really start getting into a routine that makes all of us happy, something we can all gladly work with, and get a lot more done in our days!

Reading Poetry

We've finally made progress!  My daughter actually likes reading some things.  We're still playing the game of her trying to convince us to let her read the shortest piece she can possibly read for the least amount of work, but she's found something she likes reading, which helps.  It also helps that she's going to need to read for the homeschool co-op this year.  I'm starting to like the idea of this co-op more and more!

So what has got my daughter reading?  Years back we got a copy of A Light in the Attic.  I haven't done much with the poetry in it because, well, I'll admit it, I hate poetry.  I write poetry now and again, but I hate reading it.  As a result, I didn't put much thought into reading it to her.

Don't get me wrong, I'm good with poetry.  I understand it.  Unfortunately, it just doesn't captivate my interest.  I find it rather boring.  It's just not something that inspires me.  At this rate, she's going to be reading well enough for the co-op in no time!

Kids and Arts: Teaching Kids What They Want to Learn

We've been having this reading battle with my daughter for...well...longer than this blog has been in existence.  I've decided that, since the summer's still upon us, maybe I won't do the conventional push for reading.  Maybe we'll do something that interests her, see if we can foster some creativity.

I've been trying to encourage my daughter's love of art.  She's always said she wanted to be an artist, though she doesn't really know anything about art.  We used to have some art books around the house to help her with drawing, but somewhere along the lines they disappeared right along with my sock knitting book and some other things.  She really didn't have much opportunity to study art, nor a lot of artists.  The best I could do was set her to drawing and let her go.

Just the other day Marrok decided he was going to sit down with her.  He was going to work on sculpting, so he wanted to give her a chance to do it with him.  He talked to her about clay, about art, and everything else.  They both worked at making their own sculptures.  Corde made up two different pieces, one with some help, the other without nearly as much.

When they were done they baked the clay in the oven.  She was so excited about her own piece of art turning into something beautiful.  It wasn't enough that she thought it was good, she was just so proud of herself!  I feel bad that she's not going to get a chance to display them in her room until we can get a shelf high enough that her brothers can't access.  She's so proud of her work.

After that she's decided the only thing in the world she's interested in is art.  It's going to be quite the challenge to help her find other interests, but she's interested in something!  I hope this is just going to be the first start to many more interests of all varieties.  My child with no real imagination or drive to be interested in something has found something she loves so much that she's actually asking to read about it!  It's exciting to see that impact and that change happening!

Lessons from Life: Cooking Fried Potatoes

Given my push to get away from anything I'm allergic to, it's been a challenge to get up in the morning and cook for myself, especially if I'm feeling run down and low on sugar.  I asked Chesh to cook me some breakfast this morning, the fried potatoes he always makes, without the meat and eggs.  We had to switch from vegetable oil to olive oil so I can escape the soy too, but we're still adding a soy-based butter.  It's been an adventure to try and figure out what I can eat, and sometimes waiting to eat has left me so exhausted that the last thing I want to do is cook.  I'm blessed to have someone that actually cooks for me.

Today my daughter decided she wanted to learn about the process of cooking.  She's always been interested in cooking.  It's been a favorite subject of hers.  I wasn't surprised that she wanted to be his little assistant, even though there wasn't much for her to do.

From the kitchen I heard all kinds of questions.  Why do we use a butter substitute?  Why are the potatoes red?  She thought all potatoes were white on the inside.  Why weren't these?  In return she got answers.  I'm allergic to dairy so we can't put regular butter into it.  Potatoes come in yellow, brown, and red on the outside, occasionally even white.  They're just different kinds of potatoes.  As you cook a potato it sometimes changes color.

Isn't this what learning should be about?  Shouldn't kids learn about everything in their world?  Won't it drive them to be interested in other things?  Won't they expand their own knowledge on their own?  Or is better not to expose them to these things in place of a standard education?  Personally, I think my kids are learning just fine the way they are!

When Do Kids Learn Multiplication?

I have to say, I'm really tired of my kids being compared to other kids their age.  They're being held to the standard of public schools.  They're expected to keep on track with what other kids their age are doing.  The funny thing is the people who question me on it, who question my kids, then turn around and ask me what kids are doing in their grade level anyway, like I somehow know that?

When it comes to my kids, I have no idea what "grade level" they're on.  When they truly apply themselves and enjoy it, they're definitely advanced, but when it comes to a subject that bores them, they're probably behind.  Then there's the problem with schools and grade level.  I'm constantly questioned on what kids do in any grade level, and my first thought is, "In what school?"

This is something a lot of people don't stop to consider.  Just because one school teaches multiplication in second grade doesn't mean all of them do.  I've heard (though I wouldn't know personally) that around here they teach multiplication in fourth grade.  My oldest daughter, the age of a second grader, already knows some basic multiplication.  She also understands the concept of money better than most children her age.  Why?  Because we actually use it.  It's a daily life thing and she's learning from the world around her.  Isn't that the best way to learn anyway?  She's come upon it naturally.  In schools, you don't get that.  I've known many a school child to be bored in class or totally left behind because they switched schools and their old school doesn't teach at the same pace as their new school, so obviously school isn't this infallible standard that all kids should be measured up to.

It's funny that our society should get stuck on some kind of standard like grade level.  It allows parents to be competitive over their children, whose kid stayed back and whose is in some advanced program.  It's all decided by their age level, not their interests.  Isn't that some kind of false means of measuring intelligence, talent, and skill?  Some of the brightest people I know are high school drop-outs or did very poorly in school because they were bored, disinterested, and just didn't apply themselves.  Does that mean they're really dumb, or should that be a sign that school just doesn't work?

What about this whole idea that you only can learn certain things based on your age?  How does that model a real-world environment?  Once children reach adulthood the game changes on them.  They don't have to learn anything if they don't want to.  Many of the people I know don't read books, don't research information, and in general don't do anything one might consider educational.  Adulthood hits and they quit learning.  Why?  They're not in school anymore.

Maybe it's me, but I just can't get in the minds of people who don't believe in life-long learning.  Many of these people consider themselves highly intelligent because they were in advanced classes in school or they got a high GPA in college, but they don't make an effort to educate themselves.  Learning is left behind in the classroom, except for the necessary and challenging lessons that life brings.

Somehow I don't think that standard of learning is creating productive and innovative society.  Instead of people who are driven to be intelligent and learn something new every day of their life, there are too many people who slack off and do nothing with their time.  They watch television, play video games, and aren't terribly involved in their family life.

So, when you look at the difference, your average school child learns a whole bunch of determined facts, while your unschooled child learns from life and is set up for a long life of learning.  Which is better?  Does it make more sense for my kids to focus on fitting in with some grade level that's not even going to matter when they hit adulthood?  Does it make more sense to let my children learn from life itself so they will continue to educate themselves and grow straight through their adult life?  Personally, I'd rather see the life-long learning direction than see my kids turn out like so many of the adults I know today.

The Reason We Do It

I have a very small child next to me right now.  He's humming, eating a cracker, and tossing his head from shoulder to shoulder.  His average day is spent toddling around the house, learning everything he can about everything.  He looks at us like he's thinking, "What?  I'm doing science!"

That's the way a small child views the world.  Everything is an opportunity for something new to learn and explore.  There's no such thing as sitting around and playing too much or not doing something educational enough.  Everything is a chance to learn and grow.

Thinking about it, adults do the same thing.  If I want to know about something, I ask questions, read a book about it, or hop online and do some research.  I can make my own choices on what I want to learn and what's important to me.  I'd like to think most adults are the same way.

In school, however, kids don't get that freedom.  Everything they learn comes prepackaged in this box and they aren't allowed to deviate, aside from on their free time.  Even their free time is taken up by school with homework.  It's not even close to the model of learning your standard adult or preschooler uses.  It's so incredibly foreign and different that it almost doesn't even make sense.

Unfortunately, there are articles like this one by ABC talking about unschooling families and any family that doesn't use a "school at home" approach to learning.  True, this family may not be the perfect example of unschooling, especially as their children don't have any interest in going to college, but they're trying to make a point.  Unschooling is unhealthy and damages a child, giving them too much ego and not allowing them the structure a child needs.  They even go so far as to say one of the children doesn't like sports, not that he'd know because he's not exposed to sports through a PE class.

That last statement gets under my skin.  Not everyone finds out they like sports through PE class.  Actually, in my experience PE class usually gets met with kids who mock the gym teacher and do everything they can to avoid going.  They hate the games that they play and most kids lose their love of sports, at least that's my experience.  PE class doesn't teach kids to like sports.  That's not even what it's there for.  PE class is to make sure kids get a healthy amount of exercise each day.

Further, homeschooled and unschooled kids love sports!  Well, maybe not all of them do, but they do take the opportunities to try them out if they're so inclined.  For example, I'm planning on starting both my older kids on soccer in the winter.  Unfortunately, youth soccer is about the only sport that's available and well known about in this area.  Even so, they've both expressed an interest in soccer as well as martial arts.  How can that be bad for them?  It's definitely an opportunity to learn, grow, exercise, make new friends, and have fun.  Isn't that what being a kid is about?

All too often I've seen it portrayed that unschooling families, whether radical or not, are giving their children too much power and in return their kids don't learn anything.  Given the opportunity their kids will do nothing but eat junk food and play video games all day.  Well, that's something to consider, yes, but as a parent, I can do something about that.  If the kids are hungry and want a snack, I can make sure healthy snacks are available and keep the junk food at a distance.  If they want to watch television all day, I can suggest something really interesting to watch, like a documentary on my child's favorite subject, or give them some other option that's so fun and irresistible that they're not likely to want to watch television at all.  If they don't want to do it, well, what harm is there in watching a little television?  More often than not, when the suggestion of something more fun and interesting comes up, the television goes off without a problem.

Somehow it strikes me as odd, and a little bit fishy, that big media corporations paint such a dark light on those who choose to raise their children in an alternative way.  Even shows like Mom Swap, or whatever it's called, are prone to showing alternative families in a very bad light when they pair them up with some very normal seeming family.  It's striking that somehow these corporations seem to think that non-standard families are somehow a threat to society.  After all, if they were showing them in the positive, healthy light that they're seen by the families that choose it, perhaps more people would choose to do it too.

When it comes down to it, I'm noticing more and more each day that we prefer to unschool around here rather than teach formal lessons.  We tend to learn things on the fly and focus on what the kids are interested in.  It's almost freeing not to have to worry about what I'm going to teach the next day and how I'm going to get my kids involved in lessons they have no interest in.  Instead of all that, I'm finding myself more and more capable of introducing my own interests to my kids.  It's a more natural way of learning.

Why I Do It

Today I decided I'm fed up with my daughter and her "I can't read!  It's too hard!" game.  I can't tolerate it anymore.  I'm seriously tempted to put her in school so she knows exactly how nice I'm being.  She screams at me daily that I'm mean because I expect her to read at the level I know she's capable of reading at.  She'll tell me she can't read a word she reads ten times every day because it's "too hard" and she "doesn't get it".  I'm just so fed up!

A friend of mine told me that I might be better just to put her in public schools, let her find out the hard way how easy she's really got it.  He has a point.  Being in school and having to work six hours out of every day, get up before the sun rises, and then come home to have homework on top of it all would be a great way to show her exactly how easy her two to four hours of homeschooling on a normal day really is.  She'll recognize how nice it is to eat when she wants, nap when she's tired, and take breaks whenever the mood suits her.  She'll start to understand how nice homeschool play dates really are.  There's a lot to be said about public schools in that regard.  She'll have so much less time to screw around the way she does.  It'll be nice for her to see that I'm not really being so mean after all!

That's when he added the part that made me want to scream with frustration.  This one phrase, no matter how who says it, always makes me want to scream.  They seem to think that this is such an easy and logical conclusion that everyone must simply agree!  "It will free up a lot of time too."

Really?  So, instead of getting up when my older boys get up, around eight in the morning, I'll have to drag myself out of bed at five am to get dressed, make sure my daughter eats breakfast, is dressed in an appropriate way, and has all the supplies she'll need.  After that I'll have to walk her down to the bus stop, or drive her down to the school myself.  Once she's done with that, I'm a little more free for a while.  I've got the rest of the afternoon, mostly, to homeschool my older son and manage to run all my errands,  Then I have to make sure I'm there to pick her up.  This means I have to give up homeschool play dates and field trips because I have to be home in time to pick up his sister.  If I was going to send them all to school, then I'd have two school drop-offs to worry about with an elementary school student and a preschool student.  I'd have to drag out the baby for both cases.  Then it would be time to bring the kids home and my daughter's incredibly frustrating fights over homeschool would start again with her homework.  By the time that was done I'd have to cook dinner and it would be time to send all the kids to bed.  I'd have to go to bed not long after that.  My life would be run around school schedules, days off, summer vacation, and everything else.  Then there would be possible calls about grades, behavior, getting my children into the programs they needed to be if they don't get into them.  Over half my day during the week would be run by school.  My whole life, in truth, would revolve around school.

Let's look at the flip side of this scenario.  As things stand I can get up with my kids around eight.  We spend the morning doing our school work.  In reality, homeschooling takes an average of two hours out of any day, though sometimes we push it and go for four.  We generally do that before lunch and the rest of the day is pretty free.  We rearrange our schedules as need be for appointments and homeschool events.  Sometimes we even skip school during the week all together because the time gets made up on weekends or over the summer.  We tend to work more in the summer than we do in the school year because it's just too hot and miserable to go out here in Texas.  We'd all rather just stay in when it's cool.  I go run my errands when I need to during the day, sometimes I even wait until after dinner so I can go by myself.  If I really need to I bring the kids along because it's a good place to learn some life skills.  You can learn a lot at the post office, grocery store, or wherever else.  We just take our lessons on the road those days.  Typically our home schooling is done while we're running errands rather than at home, so I end up being able to kill two birds with one stone.  I have more time to knit, write, relax, and I feel less stressed about everything because the only schedules I have to keep are those of my own making.  It's positively freeing to be a homeschooling family because I end up spending very little of my time dedicated to educating my kids.  On top of that, I end up getting a lot more "homeschooling" done than I intend to on any given day because we end up doing arts and crafts, play games, or get into discussions.  In truth, I only spend two to four hours actively educating my children on any given day, but my children are probably being educated close to twelve or thirteen hours on any one day.  Of course, it's hard to prove or estimate for certain because a lot of it is things none of us really spend much time thinking on, but there's no way to deny it's happening if you take a good look at our family life.

Then there's the cost of homeschooling.  Everyone says homeschooling is so expensive.  Many curriculums will cost you nearly a thousand dollars per child.  If you've got two or three kids to worry about, that's a lot of money!  That's a cost you incur every year, though in some cases you can get away with passing the books and assignments down if you're thrifty.  You just don't get any of the help with the costs from the company providing the materials.  There's the cost of arts and crafts supplies and other things that might not be included in your program as well, travel for homeschooling events, maybe the cost of a local co-op.  Community sports, art classes, and everything else that many homeschooling students do for socialization come at a cost as well.  If you think about it, homeschooling isn't always cheap, though there are some families that manage to be thrifty enough.  The truth is, you're never going to be able to homeschool for free.  There will always be costs for travel and supplies, but you can make do with a lot of things that are really inexpensive or all together free.

Public schools, on the other hand, are not as "free" as everyone thinks they are.  Public school comes with a lot of hidden costs.  School supplies in this area are more than a little insane.  Children are required to have two sixty-four color boxes of crayons last I saw.  They had requirements on glue sticks.  There's always going to be pens, pencils, sharpeners, and erasers.  I think they were required to have markers as well.  Each student was required to bring a box of tissues and Clorox wipes as well.  The Clorox wipes bothers me because I know what's in those chemical cleaners and I'm not comfortable with my child using them as though they were nothing.  There's the obvious need for backpacks, notebooks, paper, folders, and all of that as well.  Many of these items can't just be carried over from last year.  They need to be replaced yearly.  If you catch everything on sale you're easily looking at over a hundred dollars in school supplies to start the year for each child.  This always drove me nuts because I didn't understand why a child couldn't come in with a tin of last year's crayons and call it good.  It seems so wasteful to just replace the crayons every year because last years crayons work just as well as new ones and generally aren't all used up.  They don't even do anything productive with the old ones, such as use them to color wax for candle making.  It just seems very wasteful.

Yes, that still seems like a low cost in comparison to a homeschool curriculum, but if you look at it, a homeschool family can get along just fine with less than that.  After all, there's no real need for new backpacks, folders, and all of that.  You buy it when you run out or have a need for something you don't have.  All of that money spent on two boxes of new crayons of a specific count or higher every year could be put towards an inexpensive arts and crafts project or be put towards admission to some field trip.

Schools charge for field trips too, so school supplies aren't the only expense.  If the kids are doing something outside the classroom they have the cost of field trips, possibly lunch out, and other sorts of things.  That is, if a child is lucky enough to have their class go on a field trip.  It seems like down here most students spend their whole day in the classroom.  My kids go on far more field trips than your average school student!

So, after all of those expenses, you then have the cost of new school clothes.  Yes, kids need new clothes pretty much every year, but homeschool kids can get away with a lot more.  If my daughter wants to wear her nightgown to homeschool every day, she can.  If she only wants to wear hand-me-down stuff from her friends that's all ripped up, she can.  If she decides for whatever reason to shave her head or get a mohawk (which I kind of hope she never does!) she can without the school telling me I have to make her wear a wig.  Her clothes don't risk becoming a red-flag for the school's dress code if she's wearing jeans that were all ripped up, or that she or one of her friends have decided to draw all over because they felt like it.  There's no pressure to buy brand name clothing or something with Hannah Montana plastered all over it because it's trendy.  As a result, most of our new clothes have been hand-me-downs in all kinds of condition, and I don't care that my daughter's style seems to dictate "the more used and abused, the better".  It also means that I don't have to worry about having "school clothes" and "play clothes" for my kids because I don't care too much if they beat up their clothes.  Rips can be patched.  Stains aren't something to worry much about and in some cases almost seem to be badges of honor.  Clothes get retired when they're worn out, but it takes a lot of wear to put them into the retirement pile.  They see some great use before that.

In truth, I think I'm better off with my kids not being in school.  I get more out of all my time and energy spent.  My kids learn more even when I'm not trying to teach them.  The schedule is super flexible.  I spend significantly less money.  In the end, I think we're all happier about it!