Out Of The Mouth Of Babes

While I was trying to get some help cleaning up today, Matthew piped up, "Just be glad that God blessed you with a family and never mind about the messes we've made."

Doubt

[Fall is incredibly busy for me and I apologize for my lack of posting the last few months. Hopefully I'll be back to my normal routine and blogging more regularly again.]

I am a pretty good self-doubter. I admit it. I second guess nearly every single decision I ever make. And even when things go as well as I predicted they could, I still second-guess that something else could have made it better. Is that my inner perfectionist or just being human? I'm not sure. However, I can honestly say that I've never really doubted our decision to homeschool our kids. Oh sure, there are days when ever fiber of my being screams, "That's IT - I'm signing them up for school tomorrow!" but those moments/days of frazzled frustrations pass and I realize I wouldn't change this lifestyle for anything, even on those really bad days.

But I also must confess that I doubt our method of homeschooling from time to time. Is unschooling the best way for us right now? This usually only comes up when a friend mentions what their children are doing in school and I realize my kids haven't even touched that subject matter yet. Sometimes, the realization comes through other channels.

Matthew had some Christmas money that has been burning a hole in his pocket. We looked through the Bionicles (the Christmas toy of choice this year) at Wally World and Target but they didn't have anything he wanted. So he got online, looking through Amazon's selections and suddenly that hole in his pocket was a flaming fire. He was looking at things that, I thought, were pretty well out of his price range.

So on Monday night, I caught a glimpse of a Time and Money workbook that had been passed to us at some time. [Why is it that they usually teach those two concepts together anyway?? I remember having trouble remembering which one was based on 60's and which was based on 100's. Math. ick.] I made a mental note to get the workbook out the next day to teach Matthew how to count his money, and promptly fell asleep.

But Tuesday morning was off to a jump start as I realized it was the day of my annual MRI and I was quite nervous and totally forgot about the workbook. I had my scan in the early afternoon and by that evening, I was still wiped out and not feeling well. I laid down on my bed while the girls played in my room. I dozed off and on and at some point, Matthew came in to ask me how much a dime is worth. I answered and when I was feeling better, the girls and I headed downstairs.

I found Matthew on his computer. He was searching Amazon's toys again, having stumbled across the marketplace where people sell them second-hand (and at reduced prices). As I looked behind him at the kitchen table, I saw his bank dumped out on the table. He had different piles and a tally sheet in the middle of it. He had actually counted every quarter, nickel, dime and penny. And he'd found out that he had $3.42.

What if instead, I'd woken up that morning and shoved the workbook at him? He might have enjoyed it but I'd be willing to bet that his own method of discovery about money is something he enjoyed more and will be something he'll remember for a long time. It was important to him at that moment in time and I bet he won't forget it. Whereas a forced lesson might not have been interesting in the least, this was all his idea and something he enjoyed discovering on his own. I did show him the workbook for follow-up material and he said, "Wow, Mom, thanks! This will be great for me to refer to next time I need to count my money."

Silly me, for doubting our real-time learning lifestyle.

Brightest Full Moon of 2008 Tonight!!

Another great moon shot, taken from my beloved Olympus E500...


Science@NASA: Not all full Moons are the same. This Friday's is the biggest and brightest full Moon of the year.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/09dec_fullmoon.htm?friend

Wii Love Our Wii

We've had our Wii for quite a while now and are just learning that there's a way you can go in and download (for a fee) the old 'classics' to play on the Wii. Games such as Zelda and PacMan and Galaga and Super Mario. The Wii comes with a built-in wireless network so it's pretty easy to get up and running. And if you have a husband who is in the computer security profession, it's even easier. ;)

As Hubby was setting up the optional router, he asked us what we should name it. Matthew replied, "Call it 'wii love our wii'!"
Hubby chuckled and said, "Well, that tells people what we are using the network for and we don't want to do that."
Matthew asked, "Why don't you want people to know what we're using it for?"
"Because people will snoop and some people will try to hack in and do bad things to our game and computers."
I added, "They already know we have computers just by our connection - we don't want to broadcast that we also have a Wii to strangers."
Matthew paused as he pondered that and then laughed said, "Mom, that's ridiculous - how would *anyone* live without a computer?"

Great Early Reader Chapter Books

Somewhere between picture books and chapter books, there is a category that's not totally named. If you go to your local bookstore, they probably have bright numbers on certain books like "Step 1 Reading" or the like. But I find that there are better ones out there. Here is a list of books and/or authors who have chapter books that are heavily illustrated so they're great for those kids who want to step out of picture books but find chapter books just a bit too daunting...

And as a side note, you might check your library for "Jim Trelease's Read Aloud Handbook" - this is a book full of reviews about children's books. He reviews the storyline, tells you what age would like it, how it's illustrated, etc. I've gotten a lot of good ideas out of that one.

Suggestions...
The Cynthia Rylant books (Mr. Putter and Tabby)
Zach's Alligator
Magic Tree House series
Beatrix Potter books
Alice in Wonderland (Try the one illustrated by Alison Jay, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.")
Marguerite Henry's books
Beverly Cleary books
Jigsaw Jones mysteries
Nate the Great series
Pixie Tricks series
Rainbow Fairies and Weather Fairies
Barbara Cooney books
Brian Wildsmith books
Horrible Harry
Ramona Quimby series
Bunnicula Tales (which is an early reader form of the Bunnicula books)
Amelia Bedelia books (for homeschoolers, this is heavily centered in school)
Junie B Jones books (for homeschoolers, this is heavily centered in school)
Little House books, I believe, have younger versions.
I've heard the Incredible Journey books are great - and just might spin you off into studying geography or history too. :) ijbooks.com
The series by Gerinomo Stilton - I just found these myself and they're *very cute* and lots of colorful small pics throughout the books (20+). You can view a few pages on Amazon.

And don't forget comic books and graphic novels!!! Like Peanuts, Bone, Garfield, etc.

For a little bit older (or if you are reading to him/her), there's a really great series by Bill Myers (he co-wrote the McGee and Me series if you're familiar with that). It's very funny Christian stories for kids. Both my newly 8yr old son *and* I have been howling reading the series. We're on "My Life As Reindeer Roadkill" right now - a great Christmas story where the main character gets invited to Jesus' bday party by an angel in a dream. He spends a while trying to determine if it was real...and if it was, what in kind of a birthday gift could you get for the Son of God??? It's an older series but if you have a big church, it might be in their library.

I googled "early reader chapter books" and some good lists hanging around. You might try that too. Here's one that looked good http://www.bellaonline.com/subjects/10465.asp

If you have any to add to my list, please add it in the comments!

Happy Reading!!

Christmas Conversations

Last Saturday, Hubby was gone hunting. So my mom and I decided to take the kids 'hunting' too. We hunted at that big store with lots of toys in it that has a famous giraffe on the logo. We were putting together their Christmas wish lists.

I'm one of those cheap thrifty frugal moms who refuses to purchase a toy for my kids on every shopping trip. First, I'd be flat broke in all of seven days because you know that with my scattered brain, I'm at Wallyworld at least 12,743 times a day. Second (and most important), I believe that if gifts are given *all* the time then they're never special. So in this house, gifts are saved for birthdays and holidays. Of course, Christmas is probably the biggest gift receiving event in our family. We know that the true reason to celebrate Christmas is to remember that God sent his son to Earth to die for our sins...the *ultimate* gift that could ever be received by anyone.

Our MOPS group made Advent candle wreaths today. I've never done Advent, unless you count the Santa-centric "25 days of chocolates" cheap cardboard thing, which I don't. They turned out beautifully. The youth pastor then talked to us about Advent and different ways to keep Christ in Christmas.


So when the kids were talking about what they wanted for Christmas this afternoon, I interjected with, "I can't wait until Jesus' birthday!" They all stopped mid-sentence as they pondered that for a moment. Rose was the first to break the silence as she asked with profound sincerity, "How old is he gonna be?"

************************************************************************************

Back to our hunting story...
Grammy arrived on Saturday morning and as we were excitedly getting our coats on, Matthew stepped forward, with a sad looking face and said, "Grammy, I'm sorry but I'm just afraid I won't get to buy anything today, what with the economy and the election and all." Classic. "Kids these days."

We get in the car and the three oldest kids are all chattering about making their Christmas lists. Even though I'm properly prepared (for once) with a notebook and pen, they've each brought something to write on (the back of an old Christmas card, a Hello Kitty mini-notepad and a piece of construction paper) and a writing utensil (a pink pen in the shape of some creature with rubber-band sprays of hair coming out the top, a teeny crayon stub and a watercolor pencil...I've learned not to ask and so should you).

Rose (5.5yrs) is reading signs outside and Matthew starts spelling them after she reads them. That's all it takes for Grammy (The Ever-Teacher) to ask.
"Matthew, can you spell Christmas?"
"Ummmmmmm...." he trails off.
"Just try it - I bet you can spell it!" she encourages.
"Well, it's just 'Christ' and 'mas' put together," he says.
I think that's a great answer. It probably also means he has a photographic memory like his mom does. But Ever-Teacher wasn't satisfied.
"OK...so how do you spell it?" she continues.
He reluctantly whines and says he can't do it. She sighs, guessing he probably can but just won't. I stifle a laugh to myself, knowing he probably can but just won't.
In the rear-view mirror, I see Rose whisper something to him (the two of them whispering is never good so I pay attention).
After a moment, he declares excitedly, "OK! I'll try it!"
Delighted, Ever-Teacher exclaims, "Great!"
I can see what's going on but I stay silent. I'm *almost* not sure that I'm correct in what I think is happening.
"C...h...........r...i......s..........t...............m...i........s," he slowly says.
Ever-Teacher gushes, "That was really good! It's actually m..a..s but you did a great job getting that close!"

At this point, I can't keep quiet anymore.
"Mom," I hysterically laughed out, trying to hold back the tears now streaming down my face, "Rose found the word written down on something back there and he was tricking you into believing that he was really sounding it out."
Grammy, humiliated that she was bested by an eight year old, said, "That wasn't very funny," despite the guffaws emanating from the van that proved otherwise.

Mom

No matter how old I am, Mom can still 'make it all better'. When I was young, Mom was the one I went to when I forgot how to pedal backwards to stop my bike and instead, ran my out-of-control bicycle down the hill straight into a tree, giving myself a concussion. The time we were on vacation in Florida and the heavy hotel door slammed on my foot and I lost my toenail, Mom was the one I wanted. Even at the age of thirty-three, when I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, my gut instinct screamed, “I want my mommy”.

What makes Mom so unique in her ability to comfort me? Perhaps, after thirty five years, she just knows me better than anyone. Perhaps I really am 'just like her' as I have heard often in my life. How is it that when things go wrong, I still yearn for her comfort first?

This is my third year in MOPS. I have four children ages one to eight, who I home school. My husband works from home as well so all six of us are here all the time. For the past two weeks, my group has been preparing for an early Holiday Bazaar. We invited vendors to come and sell their goods and donate a percentage back to us as a fund raiser for our group. I decided to make gifts in a jar. The $5 S'Mores Bar mix and scented bath salts sold like hotcakes last year so I thought it would work great again this year. I spent two weeks price shopping (with four kids), purchasing (with four kids), mixing (with four kids), filling (with four kids), decorating (with four kids), tagging (with four kids) and lugging jars to my van (with four kids). I also made items for the bake sale, crocheted bookmarks and made a display board as I'm the Publicity Coordinator for our group. My house was neglected, we ate prepared meals more often than usual and my patience level was lessening each day as I worried over the display board and measured more marshmallows than I ever want to again in my entire life. Finally, the big day was here.

By the time our first customer arrived, the bazaar was beautiful! Christmas tablecloths and decorations abounded, holiday music played in the back, the smell of hot cider hung in the air. Appetizers were warm and the bake sale was filled with goodies you can only dream about. We were ready to make some money for MOPS!

However, I'm sure in no small part to the current economy woes, we didn't have many shoppers that evening. In fact, I didn't sell one single jar. What was I going to do with these jars that I'd put so much money into? A friend told me about another local MOPS bazaar nearby for the following weekend. With a renewed zeal to get the jars sold, I signed up for a booth on Saturday. The booth cost $35 and I sold $27. Eight more dollars in the hole...and the worst part was coming home with all those jars to a house that needed cleaning, kids who needed their mom's attention back and a husband who'd been covering extra for me the last few weeks. Depressed and worried about how to sell the jars, I tried to vent to my husband. Bless his heart, he gave it a great shot but after about twenty minutes, his eyes started to glaze over. I called my coordinator but she was out of town. So I turned to Mom.

“Hey, are you busy?” I asked her on the phone.
“Well...I just walked in the house. Why?” she answered.
“Do you have time for a coffee?”
“Sure,” she said.

After we settled ourselves in the corner donut shop with a couple of coffees, I poured my heart out about my jars. I was beating myself up because I'd taken this risk with my money upfront and it hadn't worked out like I'd expected. Our bazaar hadn't turned out like we expected and I'd wasted my Saturday away digging myself deeper in debt at the second bazaar. Mom listened patiently and added empathy at just the right moments.

“So how many jars did you actually sell?” she asked.
“Only six S'mores, two salts and three bookmarks,” I replied sullenly. “And that was only after I lowered the prices down to two dollars on the salts!”
“But that doesn't equal twenty seven dollars.”

After replaying the day in my head, I realized I'd forgotten about a check someone had written me. When I recalculated, I had actually made four whole dollars for my Saturday efforts! Four dollars wasn't anywhere near what I'd spent making the jars but somehow, I felt better. She got our her checkbook and told me that she needed four jars for Christmas presents herself.

“There. Now you've made twenty-four dollars today!” she said. Seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, our conversation shifted for a few minutes. Then she casually asked me what I was serving for dinner. When I admitted that I hadn't even thought about it yet (and it was already 6pm), she said she had a frozen pizza that I should take home. I tried to refuse but Mom wouldn't let me. So when I dropped her off at home, she ran inside to get the pizza for me and returned with our prior MOPS fund raiser...frozen pizzas that we sold last month. Catching the look in my eyes, she said quickly, “I can't eat pizza anyway – it messes with my stomach. I really only bought it to support your group.”

On my way home, life seemed so much brighter in the dark skies of the evening. I had made twenty-four dollars back already. I had gotten my depressed thoughts off my chest over a good cup of coffee. I had a free dinner with me. And I had a mom who could *still* make it all better.

You had to be there...

After telling the docent at the zoo an earful until she looked at me bewildered and asked how old he was, Matthew told me enthusiastically on the way out, "Mom, all you have to do to be smart is just READ MORE! You can learn ANYTHING from books!"

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Pictures of our Springfield trip

Sorry! Brain death has occurred here, I suppose. Here are the pictures that were supposed to accompany the below post (thanks, Pam!). ;)

The indoor New Salem pictures are much brighter (due to my flash) than they actually were. The interior of the buildings were so very dark and dim. I was amazed at how dark the school was - all they had for lighting was the fireplace, about 5 taper candles on the chandelier and the tiny row of windows you see. Since this was the only spot that had a desk type surface, I assume that was the only place they actually read and practiced writing. The rest of the class engaged in repeating their teacher. They called this a "blab" school. You can read more about the school here.

New Salem, Onstot Residence:


New Salem #2:


New Salem's school/church:


Lincoln's Home in Springfield:

Fall is Officially HERE!!

Yippeeeeeeeeee! Did I tell you that this is my absolute FAVORITE season?? I can't pick a favorite fall activity (as I asked you to do in my last post) because I just love them all, though my fall allergies do make things like hay rides and bond fires a little less fun.

I know I've been quiet lately and I have lots of things to share so let's get started:
First, some housekeeping...I need to correct a couple things from the post about my grandfather. In WWII, he was actually in the Army. He didn't join the National Guard until he came home. Also (my mother was very quick to point out), his car of choice was ALWAYS a Chevy. I'm not sure why I put down 'Ford' except maybe that's what I used to drive?? Anyway, he was a genuine Chevy guy through-and-through.

So onto new business...
It's been a crazy busy month. Matthew turned eight years old in the beginning of September and I got into one of my crazy organizing moods. These moods don't strike often at all so I had to jump at the opportunity. So I was busy planning and organizing up to his birthday. Meanwhile, it struck me that Hubby was turning the big ol' 4-0 near the end of Sept and that I should do something a little extraordinary. At first, I was planning a surprise party but then remembered he didn't seem overly pleased with the one I threw for him at 35 so I scratched that idea after about a week. But what to do?? I still wanted something special and it slowly dawned on me that hey...for the first time in 9 years, I wasn't pregnant and/or nursing anyone! We could actually take a romantic trip...just the TWO of us! So I got busy coming up with ideas on places to go. We wanted to keep the trip semi-local for various reasons. Since we've both seen many places in Missouri, when the idea of Springfield, IL, came up, it seemed like a great idea.

Springfield, IL, is the hometown of Abraham Lincoln, mostly thought of as our 'best' President. He was born in Kentucky and spent most of his childhood moving around. His mother died when he was nine years old and his father re-married. It is thought that his step-mother was influential in prompting him to read but he did teach himself. At age 22, he left his family and set up near Springfield in the town of New Salem, IL. He was hired by a man to carry goods on a flatboat from New Salem down to New Orleans. Imagine the adventure he must have had! He tried out several different trades in New Salem including serving in the Black Hawk War (he saw no action), Postmaster of New Salem, running a store for a few years, surveyor, rail splitting (hence his nickname of "Rail Splitter"), helping at the mill, and running as a candidate for State Legislator (an election which he lost). His interest in the law (which started as a boy in Indiana), led him to start studying it more thoroughly. He worked up legal documents for friends and argued some cases. He traveled 20 miles to Springfield to borrow legal books from a friend's law office. In New Salem, he was granted his law license and granted admission to the bar.

What a great unschooling way of life! Trying your hand at many different careers, traveling to the deep south where the way of life was *much* different in that time, teaching yourself. He taught himself all he needed to know about law. He didn't have any formal law training. I know it was a simpler day back then but imagine so immersing yourself in something you loved that you could make a good living at it without colleges and loans you pay forever and dorms and all the extra headaches we have associated with it today. It's fascinating to think about.

After his roughly six years in New Salem, he saw the dying town for where it was headed and moved to Springfield. There he met his wife (who also has an interesting story herself), married, started a family and ran for more political positions. Twelve years later, running on a third-party ballot (yes, EVERY vote does count!), he was leaving for the White House lawn.

I've told you before that, in school, history was my most hated class. It was boring and just a memorization of dates, names, parties and wars. I understood the premise of learning from the past so you wouldn't repeat the same mistakes but history was taught in a very dead way to me. I did what I *had* to do to keep my mother happy content from raking me over the coals (I got C's in history classes) but I loathed history. In my lack of foresight, I took a history class as zero-hour one year in high school. [This was an optional class that ran an hour ahead of 'regular school' so that I could choose an additional elective class that year...music was that important to me.] As you can imagine, an extra early class on a subject I loathed was not a good choice and I remember sleeping through quite a bit of class time (Mom, please don't yell at me now - there's no point. ;) ).

We toured the restored New Salem ghost town, we toured Lincoln's home in Springfield and we visited the *totally awesome* Lincoln Library and Museum (2005) in Springfield (which, unfortunately didn't allow photos). In the museum, they had amazing scene after scene of pieces of Lincolns life, from the White House bedroom scene of the death of one of their boys (they lost 3 out of 4), to the recreated Ford's Theater assassination. If you're ever driving through Springfield, it's definitely worth a few hours (though it took us five hours to get through it all - of course, we took our time).

Before this trip, I knew roughly what most other American's know about him...he was President during the Civil War, he ended slavery, he is revered as our 'best' President in most circles and he was one of two Presidents assassinated in office. But this weekend, Lincoln came alive to me and I doubt I'll ever think of him...or politics or slavery or life in the 1800's or...in the same way again. I learned more about Lincoln and the Civil War during those five hours than I ever learned in school.

It was a great weekend and a great time for learning. I can't wait to take the kids! Maybe next spring??

Hopefully now that life has resumed to somewhat 'normal', I'll be blogging a bit more. Though, it *is* costume-making season. And I have lots of 'field trips' in store - apple picking and farm visiting and fall craft making and that leads us right into hunting season (for Hubby, not me) and Thanksgiving and Christmas. Wow, is it really almost here? It was a chilly 65 degrees in the house this morning - I guess it's time for the heater and long pants and jackets...I can hardly wait!

Fun Fall Activities

I LOVE Fall!! The dark rainy skies, the crunching leaves, the smell of burning wood in the air. It all transports me back to my childhood...and my grandpa's house. He lived in a wooded resort area, just off of a few huge lakes. I remember taking hikes with his daughter (my half-aunt, who is a year younger than me), my brothers, Grandpa and his dogs, Snoopy and Gi-Gi. In the summertime, we caught catfish in the lake but come fall, we opted for nature hikes with his big walking stick, his wood fireplace, and apple and pumpkin pie.

Grandpa loved to entertain. When we stayed overnight, he'd be up before the crack of dawn making a breakfast buffet that would put *any* five star restaurant to shame. Of course he had eggs any way you liked them, bacon, sausage, toast, etc. but his specialty that none of us have forgotten were the biscuits and gravy from scratch. And it wasn't this yucky sausage gravy that everyone serves - it was made from bacon grease. Y.U.M.

We'd wake up in his old down sleeping bags to the most wonderful of smells and have a long breakfast while visiting...and I never wanted to leave. Most would say it was because my half-aunt, Pattie, was the sister I never had but I think it was just that friendly, warm, inviting, happy family feeling.

I am always reminded of him more at this time of year than at any other. Though he died when I was ten and his family moved a few years later, I always have an urge to drive down and peek at the old house this time of year.

He fought in France during WWII in the National Guard. He loved to fish. I can still remember his deep husky voice to this day. He liked to wear cowboy style hats and drove an old yellow Ford pickup. I remember his smile and the love I felt. Happy Fall, Grandpa!

Grandpa's Biscuits and Gravy
1. Fry up some bacon till you have a lot of grease, remove bacon
2. Add enough flour to the grease to make a paste and let it cook for a minute to get the raw flour taste out.
3. Slowly pour in milk, a little a time, and whisk (or use the back of a fork like he did) until desired consistency. Go slowly because once you add too much, you can't really go back.

So while I enjoy my walk down memory lane, I'll ask something from you...

What are your favorite Fall activities? (you can choose more than one)

o Pumpkin Patch
o Hayrides
o Apple picking
o Shopping for/making costumes
o Decorating your house for Fall/Halloween
o Nature walks in jeans and jackets
o Closing down your garden for the coming winter
o Getting out the winter clothes from storage
o Taking a drive just to see the changing leaves
o Thinking about fireplaces and early Christmas shopping
o Baking breads and pies
o Making fall crafts (with or without your kids)
o Raking leaves into a pile for jumping in
o Planting
o Carving pumpkins
o Trick-Or-Treating
o Watch Fall/Halloween theme movies like "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie
Brown" or "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" or "Nightmare Before Christmas"
o Watch or play football games
o Build (or go to) a bondfire
o Go camping

Down on the Farm

Jade has a recent penchant for pony tails. So this morning, on a lazy Saturday, she said, "Mom, you make me a pony?" I made her a pony. A while later, I got to playing with her hair. "Would you like a piggy?" "A piggy?" "Yes, a pig tail!" Squealing with glee, she vigorously shook her head yes. So I did a braid and showed her the 'piggy'. She was quite happy with that.

About 30 minutes later, she came back to me. "I can't like this piggy." This is also her favorite phrase. It's not 'I don't like this delicious dinner you've prepared', it's 'I can't like this delicious dinner you've prepared.' So after a bit of whining about not being able to like her piggy, I started to take it out. She said, "I want a sheep!" baaaaa

So I made her a bun and said, "There. There's your sheep." "Bink oo, Maw-ee!" (thank you, mommy) She went to show it to Matthew. "Look, my sheep!" After turning her around to see it, Matthew said, "It looks more like a bunny tail to me".

Wii've been busy!!

Yes, Wii have. ;) And today, I found a Wii Fit. I may not be blogging for a while. Teehee.

I think wii have a virus going around here. Rose is running a fever and everyone is quite sluggish. Matthew's Star Wars: Return of the Jedi birthday party is on Sunday though, so I'm hoping wii are better very quickly.

But, while wii are having fun, I leave you with that horrible H word (homework):
I ran across a really superb article by one of my favorite relaxed-learning-style champions, John Taylor Gatto. His article, The Exhausted School, is located here. It's not a quick read so allow some time or read it in chunks. So many great points in favor of relaxed learning or unschooling or child-led learning or whatever you want to call it. I say we put all these labels into one like, "Life Learning". I'm sure someone who is better at catchy terms could do better than that but there's my five second contribution. ;) But I digress...

An excerpt from that article:

Much daily misery around us is caused by the fact our schools force children to grow up absurd. Any reform in schooling must deal with its absurdi-ties: it is absurd and antilife to be part of a system that compels you to sit in confinement with people exactly the same age and social class. That system effectively cuts you off from information you need to be sane, and cuts you off from your own past and future. It seals you into a continuous present much the same way television does. It is absurd and anti-life to be part of a system compelling you to listen to a stranger read poetry when you ache to learn to construct buildings; it is absurd and anti-life to sit with a stranger discussing the construction of buildings when the rush of language inside you makes you want to write a poem.

Your homework?? Read the article and tell me what you think. My sitemeter tells me that there are routinely 100 readers each week. I only average about one comment per post...so there are LOTS of you lurking...and you don't want to be a lurker, do you?? Tell me honestly (but nicely, please - my kids read my blog) what you think of the article, and if it's your first comment here, tell me why you're interested in my blog. Do you homeschool? Are you looking at options? Maybe you don't homeschool and just want to find out if wii are all as strange as you think. ;) I'm interested in you too!

Fun Discipline

Even with unschooling, discipline can be fun.

Rose has started holding her bedroom door over everyone. She locks her siblings out, she slams it when she's mad, she's not quiet coming in and out at naptime when I've asked her repeatedly. So this morning there were lots of slams and siblings banging on the door and Jade crying to be let in (after all, they do SHARE the room now). I decided that perhaps Rose needed to live without a doorknob for a few days to fully appreciate it. So I removed the handle and explained why. She seemed undaunted, as she always does when punished.

Thirty minutes later, Matthew and Rose come bounding downstairs and ask me if they can have the "big American flag towel" from the bathroom closet. I agreed but was curious and asked them why.

"Well, Mom," Matthew started. Talking fast and excited, he explained, "We're putting on a bit of a show and we need the towel for our flag. Rose is going to cut out circles from brown paper and make coins and since she has that hole in her door now, we can use it to sell tickets through!"
[Somehow, I feel that the punishment has become something fun.]

Rose continued, "Yeah, and we're going to do the show about the Presidents!"

Matthew is my instigator. He comes up with grand plans and starts to organize the other kids around him into getting the plan accomplished. He isn't a big do-er, he's more of the director who doesn't dirty his hands. ;) My (first-born) brother would probably say it's a first-born thing but whatever the reason, that's how Matthew is. So he wanted to learn about the Presidents a while back and we started on Washington and that was fun. Then came Adams and let me just save you the time - there *is* no entertaining book about John Adams out there for children to read. Believe me, I've scoured the library and Amazon. It's just not there. Sad but true. So we kinda got stopped dead in our tracks. But with Hubby out of town this week, I was reading bedtime stories in his absence and Matthew picked out the Jefferson book. MUCH better reading. I guess history just knows more about Jefferson's life. After we finished it, he asked me to read it again. So I suppose this is where the grand plan came from.

Another grand plan he's working on is one he came up with purely on his own. The neighbor's grandson has spent a lot of time at her house this summer so all the kids played together a lot. For the past month, Matthew and Jacob have been trying to figure out how to make money selling stuff. First it was going to be a garage sale. I decided that would involve too much of me making sure they didn't have price tags on, say, our new TV and with my back issues, I nixed that. So then they decided to make a Koolaid stand. They made signs and taped them to the outside of the house, they attempted to color the entire driveway in different swatches of color, they sat outside yelling at people walking their dogs to come and have Koolaid. The only problem with the plan was the lack of Koolaid. Hmmm... He decided that they needed a better "draw" and asked me again about having a garage sale. It was at this point that I realized he was very determined about this idea.

"Honey, why do you want to have a sale? What toy are you trying to purchase now?? The new set of Bionicles you've been drooling over, I guess?" He looked up at me with those sweeter-than-sweet baby blues and said, quite irritated, "No, Moooom, we're going to donate all the money we make to people who don't have any money."

My heart melted, as would anyone who heard that from her child. And I felt a little shamed that I hadn't helped him more with his quest of such noble intentions. So we put our heads together and started to think of how he could accomplish this feat and came up with an idea. Our homeschooling group has been wanting to have a garage sale in which we would donate the money to a local humane society. Perhaps they would allow him to set up a Koolaid stand at the garage sale with his proceeds being donated to Feed The Children or a similar charity.

He's very excited at the prospect. He informed me yesterday that Jacob told him that he just has to get the Koolaid Blast flavors because they're MUCH better than regular Koolaid...and people would be willing to pay more money for it. He's talking about signs to make and donation jars to decorate and making a stand. He can't wait to get started.

He and Rose constantly are having new ideas about the house they're going to live in together when they grow up. How they'll work out two families in one house and who can paint and who can cook and who can mow the lawn. Of course, even so, Matthew is still the director and Rose is more the do-er. But it works well for their relationship.

In conclusion, I'm not sure that *my* point was made about the door handle but I'm fairly certain they each learned something about it anyway.

Bouquets of Sharpened Pencils

A few lines from 'You've Got Mail':

Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly-sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.

Public school started here this week. Traffic has gotten horrendous, once again, and I'm starting to get "the stares" when I take the kids to the store during the day. I'm usually very confident about our decision to homeschool and our method of homeschooling called unschooling (or interest-driven learning or eclectic learning or relaxed homeschooling or whatever you'd like to call it). But for the first few weeks of public school in the fall, I do wonder. I see the young elementary kids happily standing at the bus stops, shiny new backpacks in hand and expectation on their faces and I get a twinge of...doubt.

Are my kids missing out? Would they like school? Most of my questions are social in nature...questions about making new friends and listening to another adult, following directions, etc. Then I realize that those thoughts are from the public schooled kid inside me.

When my big picture comes back in focus, the reality is that I don't really think those things are important. Would they like school? They might...for a week...or maybe even a year. But most kids that I see, somewhere around 3rd - 4th grade, lose that excitement and happiness about going to school that you see on the 1st graders. I'm not sure exactly why or how it happens but it does wane around that age.

Do they need to listen to another adult? I know people think that's important but really, why? I teach my kids to submit to authority. Why is it important that they practice it with someone else? And if is indeed important, they have Sunday School teachers and extra-curricular teachers and babysitters and grandparents where they can get their practice in.

Following directions occurs naturally in life, non-stop, and that's a very silly reason to send someone off to school. Where do these thoughts come from? Just yesterday I was showing Matthew how to load the dishwasher. Directions. I've been teaching Rose how to clean the bathroom and Jade how to help with laundry. Directions. When Matthew gets a new box of Legos or Bionicles, they include directions that he must follow or it won't look like the creation on the box. Their computer games have directions. Everywhere you go in life, there are directions. Park here. Stand in line here. Use this bathroom. Swipe your card here. Stop at this red light. Drive from here to there.

As for friends, we have homeschooled friends. We also have MOPS friends and church friends and neighbors...and they have their other siblings as well. Probably the very best friends they'll ever have are their siblings and they are all truly the best of friends. They have their moments, obviously, but they get along a million times better than my brothers and I did. It warms my heart to see how much fun they have together.

Then again, I've always had the impression that doubts were bad. But somewhere along the line, I've changed my stance and now believe that doubts are quite healthy. Doubts stretch us and make us re-evaluate our beliefs/thoughts/feelings. If we didn't have doubts, we might never discover anything in life. Doubts also teach us about ourselves. This process I seem to go through each fall only helps, in the end, to strengthen my resolve to continue on this path.

I think about what we've been learning lately. Rose is writing stories (which I must post for you) and Matthew is studying the presidents and learning to type (and working on spelling at the same time). We're all learning about being in a large family and helping out with chores. Jade is asking many questions about reading lately. "How do you read that?" "What sound does that make?" She's well on her way to being an early reader like her siblings. I've always felt inadequate in geography and recently found a great tool to improve my skills on it via a friend's blog. Last night, I memorized the European countries. Perhaps my interest will stir something in them as well.

So I might just give in to the urge to buy a bouquet of sharpened pencils for my table centerpiece. It might be a good reminder of this time of growth in my homeschooling experience.

Jewelry Give-Away

A blog I read is having a jewelry give-away. And if you post about it on your own blog, you get an extra entry. I'm not one to typically wear jewelry (and allergies make flowers impossible for Hubby to give me), so this is a very unique request from me. But I truly LOVE this piece and would love to have it so I'm blogging for my extra entry. Check it out! :) Jewelry Give-Away

Don't Shoot Me

Nope, not another catchy blog title about my injections. This one is B.I.G.

A friend called me up today and said, "Hey 80's music lover...I have tickets to the Poison concert this weekend. And I get a tour of the tour bus. And, I get to ride IN THE BUS to the concert." I was speechless.

"Wanna come with?"

Wow. I have to say, my first thought was, 'Poison...yeah, I know they were big...what did they specifically sing?' [insert blog title here] So I quickly threw some Teddy Grahams at the screaming hungry baby and got on youtube. I found their Rose song. Awww...I **LOVED** that one. Something in me just loved it when those hard rock bands would do a mellow song. The Rose song has such great harmonization! Then I found "Talk Dirty To Me". I wasn't ever a fan of that song but it brought back lots of memories. We had a juke box in our high school cafeteria. I'm 99% sure that song was one that I heard over and over and over and over during lunch....daily....for four years (reason #732 to homeschool, but that's another post).

But then I tried to imagine myself in Poison's bus. I just couldn't. What would a person even wear to such a thing?? Would I need to dig up some painters pants and a big over sized shirt with a standing collar and a big chunky belt? Slouch boots? I don't have enough hair anymore to do a side ponytail! I just could not picture mommyfied-me doing something like that, though I know there are many, many who would give their eye teeth for that opportunity, and still more who would gladly don the appropriate 80's garb.

Still, the experience itself would be SUCH an experience! And isn't that the great part of life (and one of the core ideas behind unschooling)...the experiences?? How would that experience change my ideas, images, thoughts, etc.? I was so tempted to go just because of the life-learning experience I could obtain.

But [insert blog title here], the kids have a birthday party. And we have another family birthday party at the same time that I was planning to rush off to after the first was over. It's a busy night. And Hubby is out of town next week. I decided to forgo the experience for my kiddos. Now, if the same experience was offered with Amy Grant, I'd move Heaven and earth to make that one happen, no doubt about it. My inner child would finally be at peace if I were to experience that.

In the end, I feel ok about my decision...I think. I'm cracking jokes with Hubby like, "If I'm ever gonna try pot, I don't want it to be second-hand smoke in a musty tour bus anyway" and "My ears can hardly handle the four kids - I'd never be able to handle front row seats at a rock concert".

And, if my kids ever become fans of the group, I'll just have to say, "[insert blog title here]".

Absurd inventions, towels and weather

It's the little things in life that drive me nuts. Check out this new product that I ran across today:


It's called "Squirt Baby Food Dispenser". First off, any seasoned mom will avoid ANY product that even hints of squirting, much less by placing it on the title. And any new mom should at least see that this starts out "squirt baby". I'm guessing a more appropriate name would be "Squirt Mom, Baby Food Dispenser". As if moms aren't squirted enough with baby food, they had to go and create an object that adds to the mess. How lovely.

Come on, invent something useful. Like a device that makes it impossible for a 16 month old to yank the hand towel off the bar for the 175,463rd time in the same day. I'm thinking one of those plastic baggie clips but only bigger...you know, towel sized...would do nicely.

They're so close right now...clips and towels in the same photo. WHY hasn't anyone come up with that yet?

So, your mission this weekend is to scour every store you enter for a device that will accomplish my goal. I know, it's school shopping season and everyone will be out if they have the pretty weather we do. 81F for a high today!!! Usually it's 100 or more this time of year. For the next week, it's all temps in the 80's. Must be all that global warming I keep hearing about. Anyway, if you find a device that's meant to keep my children from leaving the towels on the bathroom floor (apart from electroshock gadgets), I'd be willing to do something big. B-I-G big. I know I've seen one out there at some point but alas, my googling skills are shoddy today.

Have a great weekend and keep your eyes peeled!

Update on Sickly

So on top of her nasty cold and eczema and cutting those darned incisors (which I swear are *the* most painful for all my kids) and her foot massacre and subsequent sewing up last night, she had two shots today. She needed her tetanus booster and while we were getting one, we decided to get another one caught up also so she got her #3 Hep B too. Poor thing has every reason to cry and fuss and whine and want to do nothing but have a cuddle.

But she's not. She's even smiling and pulling herself up to stand on that poor foot. She does NOT want to be constrained in the high chair and my ped said it's probably ok to let her stand on it a bit since she's not fully walking or running yet. It'll be my luck that she'll do it today, the day she really "shouldn't" learn.

But there's that sweet angelic smile staring up at me with those big blue eyes. She's even feeling well enough to do her familiar head-bonks...and hard enough to cause me to yell 'owwww', to which she laughs. What a trooper!

Matthew is a sensitive soul, as I've said before. After we left for the hospital last night, Grammy found him in his room, "just bawling his eyes out". He blubbered out, "I just didn't expect it to happen to her at such a young age!" She talked him down after a bit, telling him again that Linnae was going to be just fine. After he calmed down, he decided that he wanted to clean the kitchen for me. So he set out unloading and reloading the dishwasher and then grabbed the vacuum. Grammy worked on the kitchen counters and put dinner away. Rose grabbed the duster and broom while Jade cleaned the dinner table off. What a sweet surprise greeted us at 12:30a when we finally made it home!

Apparently the Pen *IS* Mightier Than the Sword

Linnae proved it tonight. At 16 months (and still refusing to walk without holding something), she's using anything and everything to pull herself up these days. This evening, she made a bad choice. She chose the electric pencil sharpener cord. She was sitting on her knees with her feet bent behind herself and the pencil sharpener hit her just right apparently. Blood gushing everywhere. We applied pressure for a good while, Hubby washed with alcohol and applied a firm bandage. Still bleeding. So we called Grammy over to watch the other three while we took Linnae to the ER.


We had a medical student in training so aside from telling the receptionist, two nurses, the billing lady, the doctor and I'm sure several others, we also had to tell her the story. They looked at it (and it was still bleeding good) and determined that stitches would indeed be needed.


So they brought in iodine first and had us hold her foot in it "for 10 minutes. I'll watch the clock because it's exactly on time with my watch". After forty-five minutes of crying and screaming and pure exhaustion, they came in and took her foot out of the bath.

The nurse laid Linnae on her belly on the nurse's lap and they put two stitches in. It was still bleeding pretty well so they wrapped it up tight for 20 minutes.



Then they came in and loosened the bandage and sent us to Walgreens for antibiotics. I need to see if she's had her 12 month tetanus shot tomorrow (we're a little behind on a couple because we switched pediatricians).


I only had my camera phone but it's better for posterity than nothing. ;) All in all, she was a trooper. She really let it out while they were doing the stitches but other than that, most of her crying was just being super over-tired. And, as you can see from the pictures, she was quite calm at times.

So I get to spend a week "keeping her foot elevated and try to keep her from putting too much pressure on it". Yeah. OK. At least it's on the underside of her foot...only her pedicurist ever need know. ;)