Mom Is Teaching

Go read…let me know what you think….

Discuss.

Ok, so remember, I told you, I have already met the most incredible group of women and there is no way I can name them all.  But, for now, I’m going to stick with “if you gave me a card” then I get you here…

Now, lo and behold, guess who I find and end up eating lunch with.  First there was the middle person Roni who hooked us up.  But, then, then there these great women who confessed to me that…..they are homeschoolers.  WHAT  The nerve!  It was great and I was so happy that Toni felt comfortable speaking her mind.  I asked them about the homeschooling and I then introduced them to this blog.  Toni was kind, and then she said, “I wondered about that, you write a mom is teaching but you don’t homeschool.” 

Yea, well, that’s how it goes.  I told her all about you guys encouraging me to do what’s right for my family right now and to keep my mind open to what might become right later.  Anyway, I feel it is important to throw in here that Toni….yea, Toni has 6 kids and is totally pregnant with number 7.  Ages 14 down to 3 and one in the oven. 

If you don’t know her, you should.  She is  military wife and she is rockin’ in my book just because of her quite, simple, easy demeanor yet able to speak out and say what she thinks.  Gosh I love those kind of people.

Ok, enough gushing about just that one woman, there were more, too many more for me to keep up.

One of those women was Toni from The Happy Housewife and one was Kate from A Simple Walk and Joy from Fivej’s.

Now, as I said, I met many many many many more women.  I even have these two AWESOME photos to share….

Me and Tanis from redneckmommy and if you don’t know Tanis, you don’t know anyone…

Can you tell that I am like a complete dork and I am so enamored with Tanis that I could……lick her…? 

And, there’s Allison from fussypants and well, yea, if you don’t know fussypants, you don’t know Blissdom 09  and you don’t know Blissfully Domestic now do you?

Yep, you got it, I’m excited!

Just so you know, there’s lots of picture taking going on around here too, just look….

That’s Joy taking my picture as I take a picture of her…woot woot for Blogger Blissdom!

Now, I also received cards from Alyson from 3 Ps in a Pod and Shash who is crazedmommy and I’ve been chatting with her prior to arriving here so she was another awesome find in person.

Ack, I missed a card, Katie with the Geek Squad, how could I miss that card?

And, let met tell you about David Griner who I managed to really deal some misery too because…..he works with social media with Little Debbie snack cakes.  Little Debbie is actually is one of the sponsors here and they chose this huge group of women to try out their new 100 calorie snacks and give some away.  I wasn’t one of them.  Big surprise?  No? 

Ok, no for real, I’m not surprised and wasn’t even offended…until I figured out they were based out of….yea, get this..Birmingham, Alabama.  Yea.  Surprised?  No?  Well, after I learned that, I was like, whoa, I have 10 blogs and I am an Alabama born and bred girl, I look like I could totally use a few of the 100 Calorie snack cakes because obviously I’ve been eating the real things.  And, to add insult to injury, all things being equal, when asked where I am from, I answer “just outside of Birmingham”.  So, do you think these guys snobbed me on purpose?  Ha! 

No, I’m just not that very well known…but now..maybe…we could have 100 calorie Little Debbie Snack Cakes for life.  Ok, for a week?

This is one of those few assignments that several people, teachers, parents, students alike have all deemed a good one.  Ok, I’m game, what does a good homework assignment look like. 

It looks like 3 students from Carver Middle School heading to Washington DC and their principal arming them with disposable camera’s and worksheets.  The students are all traveling independently but they are going to come home with more photos and more information to share with their classmates than any child who has ever completed a homework assignment in their life has. 

I promise you, I have never thought of an assignment to be a good one except maybe this one…..and this one resembles more the kind of work that the homeschoolers take part in….says a lot for the public schools recognition finally of what is good and wonderful. 

Because, if you remember, my kid would totally be called unexcused for those days out of school and I’d have to fight the system to explain that he is much better off in DC than he is sitting in a classroom reading to his classmates so his teacher can do other stuff or writing his numbers to 100 for the 5th, 6th, 10th day in a row.

Sorry for the grumbling, I wanted this to be a positive post.

You guys know I’m all over some other folks writing right now and when I found a post entitled, "Ssh - My Curriculum is pre-packaged", I started clicking on it hard and fast.  Yea, I get it, many homeschoolers handle it differently.  Thus far I’ve heard people discuss the unschooling method which I think they are very brave!  Then, I’ve heard others talk about online programs and I have heard mention of pre-packaged stuff but very few people are willing to admit that I think. 

I don’t mean that to be judgmental, I just mean that if there are a lot of people using a pre-packaged curriculum, they are speaking out about it.  And, when Jendi wrote the article, I think she probably didn’t think there were that many of folks out there doing it either just because of the nature of the title. 

She does tell in the post that she uses BJU Curriculum which comes with video lessons on a hard drive.  She gives a few reasons why she chose this method and she then discusses her admiration (like mine) at the people every where who are homeschooling.

Here is a little about the author, "Jendi is a Christian, wife, and SAHM of 3 who blogs at Jendi’s Journal about crazy kid stuff (aka daily life), books, and random thoughts.  She attended a private academy that used video classes for 10 years.  Now she’s the administrator for her children’s video classes.  She’d be glad to answer any questions about video curriculum"

Go read the post, it’s pretty doggone good.

Ok, so like I mentioned before, I find these sites, although by no direct research of my own usually, and I want to share them.  They come directly out of blogs that I have no idea how I found in the first place and they just happen to have either great links on their sites or great articles on their site that they have written.  And, so, today I’m giving you Kristen over at Mom on the Rise who happens to do way more than any one person should even try to do.

She was interviewed by NYC Education Examiner Lorri Giovinco-Harte about being homeschooled herself.  And, she believes, like most of the homeschoolers here and that I’ve talked to in general, and I quote, "any parent who can make the time to homeschool can homeschool successfully if he/she is also willing to seek out information".

One of the first things I learned when I had kids was "there’s a lot of things I haven’t question "why" to in a long time".   My kids run around asking me why and how things work and I realized that for a long time I’ve just taken for granted that everyone knows how something works or it is too complicated for me to wonder why, just shut up and use it.

And, that was the basis that almost everyone gives me for homeschool …children are naturally inquisitive.  Finding the time to dig for the information to answer their question seems to be a big deal and Kristen touches on that. 

You can read her blog here and you can read the interview here.  Go ahead, go read it, you’ll enjoy it, I’ m sure of it!

I want to share this email that I sent to someone who was commenting on my lack of discipline and my thoughts that my lack of discipline would make me a bad homeschooling parent.

The only reason I’m posting it is because it seems that now, every time I mention that I have a child that is "4.1 years old and not potty trained", I receive a plethora of advice.  And, it isn’t that I don’t want the advice.  That’s why I want to share this email.  Before you give advice, see if your suggestion is already listed here…chances are….it most definitely has…..so here goes…

I love it, and we are going to have to do something with just the two of us.  When my mom is home and watching him, she apparently lets him eat all doggone day.  I don’t know but I plan to ask because he is making me nutso.  She would watch him so I could blog.  With her gone……I’ve been blogging from like 8 at night til 2 in the morning and then when it was time to get up and moving this morning, I just didn’t have it in me.  The clock sounded at 6:45 but it was raining really hard and I just got back in bed.  Next thing I know, the kindergartener is screaming, it’s 7:15 and I am going to be late for school, get up mommy, get up.  I know, sounds like it is backwards, but hey, I’ve been up late.  During the holidays that wasn’t a problem because my husband was off.  But now, man it is killing me, as a matter of fact, we are about to nap whether the 4.1 year old who is not potty trained likes it or not.
My mom left on the 14th, we all had a stomach bug that next week which was the last week of school with my husband being the last to get it on the 19th which was his last day of school.  So, while I puked all week and stayed with the youngest who was puking, he handled the "get up and get the kid to school" and the "get to school and pick him up on time" while me and the little one did nothing.  But now, omg.
As for his potty training.  I don’t discuss it anymore.  We went to the doctor.  I only went to the doctor because "I" felt there might be an issue.  People have been pushing me for a year to take him.  I would hire teachers at the daycare who would say, "I have 4 boys at home, I can potty train him" and about 2 months later, they would say, "have you considered taking him to the doctor".

 

Well, we’ve tried all the tactics that every single person in the world has recommended.  He picked out some cool underwear about 9 months ago, they sit on top of the fridge, they are suppose to taunt him into going to the potty.  He can have them when he has gone one week during the day and stayed dry.  They are growing dust bunnies.  I let him pick out a huge bag of candy.  I put a bowl on top of the fridge beside the candy (and the underwear) and told him that every time he used the potty, he could put one piece of candy in the bowl and after supper he could have ALL THE CANDY IN THE BOWL.  He has yet to get one piece.  We have a sticker chart we use that I started because they wouldn’t sleep in their beds.  It worked for that, but he has yet to earn one sticker for pottying….in 3 months…not one sticker. 
I bought some plastic pants like you put over cloth diapers.  But, that only works if you can get the underwear and plastic pants on him.  So, what does he do?  He sneaks every morning and gets him a pull-up while I"m getting other stuff ready for school and…….then he will sneak and change it without my knowing.  The only time we’ve been successful is when he has poopy pants and then we can force the underwear and plastic pants on him afterwards.   But as soon as we turn our backs, he has sneaked and put on a pull-up. 
So, common sense says, "don’t buy pull-ups" but even the 5 year old has to have them at night and if we don’t buy daytime pull-ups, the kid will sneak and put on night time ones to keep from wearing underwear.  He has no issues what so ever at bath time with taking his clothes off and running around naked yelling, "see my booty, my naked booty" (oops, that was my fault and my husband hates me for it) but he will not even get near the toilet.  My mom bought him a potty chair, he wears it on his head and absolutely refuses to even sit on it with his clothes on.  Our doctor suggested that last summer we should let him pee on the grass.  Ha, good one, he won’t let anyone near him to pull his pants down.
I’ve had one pet peeve as long as I have lived and that is "my kids just won’t let me do ________________" or "I can’t make him________________" because I mean really, he is 4 and I am 40, if I can’t MAKE him do something, I have bigger problems than I know. I’ve also had another philosophy for sometime and it is something that kept me sane when they were newborns, that is, "You can’t control when they eat (what yes, but when, nope), you can’t control when they sleep (or how long or how long it takes them to go to sleep) and you can’t control when they poop. 
And, in this case, I honestly can’t control when he pee’s either.  Kay at MyPreciousKids sent us some potty stickers and all kinds of recommendations.  Her ideas included all of the ones I’ve mentioned above.  My mom suggested that "30 years ago they would have spanked his bottom for wetting or pooping in his clothes" and I said, "yes but is that necessary?  I might have to eventually do that but right now, I’m not"  to which my mom replied, "well, that’s fine, but if you decide to do that, don’t do it in front of me"  UH?  Yea, talk about lack of support.
So, the one thing I would give anything for is some sleep and I have to get my routine fixed during the day so that I don’t have to blog until 2 AM or worse 3 AM because then I can’t get moving in the mornings.  And, by getting a schedule, that means I won’t be making 400 trips to the kitchen for crackers, cereal, cheese, juice, water, etc.
Ok, I’ve whined enough….just thought I’d put this out there for you…..it’s a case of "I can potty train that kid…." and then in a few months, the same person says, "Have you taken him to the doctor?"  Oh well, he most likely won’t go to school wearing a pull-up and he doesn’t go next year so…I’m hopeful.  OH yea, he wanted to play T-ball last spring and I told him no that baseball players don’t wear pull-ups.  He cried, he cried when Walker got all his baseball gear, hat, glove, shoes…but it wasn’t worth pottying over.  Then, he wanted to play basketball with him this winter, same story, second verse. 
I have yet to find a bribe that works.  If you knew how much this kid loves candy and chips, you would think that would be the key.  If you knew how much he loves balls and baseball in particular, that should have done it.  But nope, the kid is NOT getting near that porcelain tank…under any circumstances!

 

Now, if you have any other methods, please by all means hit me with them because I’m so over the big kid poop.

We’ve discussed this in great depth many many times over.  One would think that I would grow tired of beating this horse but for some reason, lately, I’m beating horses on all my sites.  Here I am beating the homeschooling horse.  On my personal blog?  I’m beating the potty training and weight loss horses over there.  On my Marital Talk blog I am beating the "sexual desires/hormones" horse and on my Mental & Emotional Health Blog I  am beating the "ut oh I forgot to post" horse.  Add in the fact that I just am lazy and my 4.1 year child is about to eat me out of home and it’s all out of boredom, I was sparked by that and a post from Principled Discovery entitled Homeschooling Family Values.

You see, my little less than 30 pound 4.1 year old that is NOT POTTY TRAINED YET FOR THE LOVE OF MARY, wants to eat and drink all day when we are home.  I know he is doing it out of boredom.  It drives me nuts because yes, he drinks a lot and I, I happen to drink a lot myself so I try not to complain a lot about that one.  But the eating, this morning alone he spotted what he thought was a muffin in the fridge.  It was really a cornbread muffin left from….yes, Christmas Day (do not judge on why it hasn’t been tossed in the trash) and he had to have it.  He gnawed on it long enough to make this horrible mess and then he moved on.  He saw me put cheese and crackers in Ditto Boy’s lunch.  The kind that come in a little pack with the crackers and a little yellow stick and cheese in it’s own compartment. 

He had one of those cheese and cracker things and threw the mother of all fits because he couldn’t have a second one.  Now he is working on some peanut butter crackers which come in a package of 8 and he just walked up to me, hugged me, played in my hair and said, "but I’m thirrrrsttttty". 

How can you turn that down. 

So, when I think about the dynamics of homeschooling, I think about the fact that my oldest child had to FORCE me out of bed so he wouldn’t be late for school, he and his brother were cheerfully watching TV (I don’t normally sleep when I am here alone with the kids, but every now and again, they will slip out of bed (much like Christmas morning at 3 AM) and they don’t wake me up) and we had to move at break-neck speed to get him to school to 5 minutes late.

So, where would I ever find the discipline to homeschool?  Where would I find the force behind getting my butt up in the  mornings and making them do school work when all I really want to do is sleep?

Just curious, how do you handle these things?

I’m trying to be informative even if I find that I’m not telling you anything that you couldn’t find somewhere yourself.  But, hey, if you find it here, then it’s just that much easier, uh?

So, what is it that I want to steal and share today…….Well, Angie from Many Little Blessings also writes for Blissfully Domestic and she has some great tips for "teachers/parents/coaches/facilitators" on how to handle the kiddo’s as they start to learn to read.  And, I was quite pleased with myself to find that I pretty much already knew what she put out and I basically followed those guidelines.  So, that should make me like……teacher/parent/coach/facilitator of the year, right?  Wait, I was trained a little….heck never mind, that makes me nothing then doesn’t it. 

Never mind all that self-bashing.  Let’s get straight to it.  Here’s her thoughts on working with early readers…

1. If the mistake still makes sense, don’t worry about it. For example, if your child says, "house" and the word was "home," just let them continue reading.

2. If the mistake doesn’t make sense, don’t immediately correct them. Wait to see if they notice that it doesn’t make sense. They might try to go back and fix it without you saying anything.

If your child doesn’t correct the error, you can say…

3. "Can you try that again?"

4. "Did that make sense?"

5. "Did what you read look right and sound right?"

If they still can’t get it…

6. Tell them the word.

Angie can be found writing about faith, family, cooking, cleaning, and trying to live a more content life at Many Little Blessings.

And, at the same time, since we are talking about reading, Kris from Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers has some reading tips for you.  What she means is, you do the reading, you do the learning…and she has some books to recommend as well.

As you know, or if you  have forgot, I haven’t done much reading over the last several years except for when it was online.  But, once I started writing this blog, I found some of the greatest book suggestions on-line and now I find myself with a book in my hand often.  I even read in the car on the way home from our trip today. 

But, back to these suggestions by Kris.  She lists some of her favorites as

Homeschooling:  The Early Years by Linda Dobson

The Unschooling Handbook by Mary Griffith (I think someone here as mentioned this book to me as well)

A Charlotte Mason Education by Catherine Levinson (I’ve never heard of this one so I would love to hear from someone who has read it)

The Well-Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Baur (again, another one I’ve never heard of but would love to hear from someone who has read it)

The Relaxed Home School by Mary Hood

If you have favorites, I’d love to hear from you too!

This post was written by Ali Hooper on Homeschooling over at the online magazine Blissfully Domestic.  For those of you who aren’t familiar, it’s a great site and I am hoping to go to the meet up of Blissfully Domestic folks in Nashville in February.  I think it is kind of important if I’m going to continue to "balawwwg". 

And, since I’ve been discussing this at length here this week, I thought a post entitled "Is Homeschooling the Right Choice for Your Family".  I mean, Luke put up a comment which came to me in email and it was almost mocking me with laughter over the fact that "Mom" is learning that homeschooling could really be a good thing……Ok, he wasn’t mocking me but he was intrigued and I think he thinks I’m headed down that path….but no no no, not yet.

But, folks like Ali and many others here make it look so easy… make it sound so simple and then….I think…spending all day with my kids every day might be enough to cause me to…..yea, wanna whack someone. 

So, anyway, my final picture from the Last Vacation of 2008 which is the one where "I embrace teaching my own children instead of someone else’s"

Ok, so Colleen Felz wrote this post and it was named Homeschool Learning in the Snow and it made me think..you should see our homeschool learning in the snow for today…right?

You see, we are in Gatlinburg Tennessee and it has been an enormous learning experience.  I just wish I was brave enough to let them stay up and watch the ball drop from the Space Needle, but…I haven’t lost all my marbles yet…

But, today’s learning came several ways….

1.  If you get up early enough, you can get these……

without having to wait in this…

which continues……

Ok, so what else can we learn?  We can learn that our lives balance on this…..

and we can even live to tell about it…

3.  We can pose for photos and let strangers hold our "oh my god don’t you drop that camera or let anyone breath on it because we paid too much money for it" and get this…

4.  And, if you choose to play through a 4 year old’s nap for the second day in the row when they went to bed late the previous 2 or 3 nights and have been going going going…you will get this…

5.  But, if you can make it through lunch where no one was happy about their food, I wanted a serious chili dog with lots of cheese and onions, AND I wanted some fries, Walker wanted 2 corn dogs, not just one, Jace didn’t want a corn dog at all and dad didn’t get to eat his fries because he didn’t get fries for anyone else who wanted them.  Oh, and you can also take note that lunch was nothing like breakfast…….which featured this….

Yea, peanut butter syrup but with the line like the one that we avoided at breakfast. 

And, finally, number 6…the snow part of this post…..

Jace is 4, Walker will be 6 on Jan. 14th.  However, Walker is a nice kid, Jace is relentless in search of power….and he didn’t let Walker rest one minute on the snow, he was pummeling him the entire time…as evidence below will show…..his tiny but he is mighty…

Yea, so we learned that homemade snow, even the kind dad made at home last winter, is not that great for snowball fighting and we also learned that Jace is relentless…….But, look how doggone cute they are while they’ve been learning "homeschool" style…

And, hey, you can’t make snow angels in ice…so just roll over and army crawl so you get really wet and really muddy…

I might be failing at the homeschooling thing…we seem to be having too much fun….

Tomorrow we go home!

The thing about vacationing and learning new things is it isn’t specific for kids…I’ve learned all kinds of things on this trip.  Today I learned about insomnia…and how to get the kiddo’s to avoid the pool too.

Yea, that’s right, we skipped the pool today.  Never mind that even with an indoor heated pool, I just can’t get into it when it is cold outside…don’t know why.

But, today has been one of those really odd days because…..I never went to sleep Sunday night and then last night or rather around 2:30 this morning I took a sleeping pill so I could go to sleep.  I’m not sure why I’m having such extreme difficulties with insomnia but I am. 

If we had a babysitter so we could go out and party tomorrow night..this insomnia would be a good thing I suppose.  And, the server at dinner tonight said that this place is awesome (if you like to be about 120,000 people) on NYE.  They have a sky thingy (Space Needle) that they drop a ball from just like in NY…….But, we have no babysitter and we can see a few feet of the top of the sky thingy (Space Needle)so IF we are awake, we might be able to see that much.

And, trust me when I tell you, I’ve heard the word Space Needle but I’ve never really had a reason to use it in a sentence nor have I had the knowledge to know to use it in a sentence.  And, just look how many times I’ve used it in this post alone.  Ok, I’m jabbering, so let’s move right along.

Back to the insomnia…I have a wonderful husband and only because I have a wonderful husband, I slept finally.  He took the boys to the game room (which trust me was like heaven for him as well as them) while I slept off some of the sleeping pill and managed to get some rest.  I arose around 2:30 this afternoon when they returned.

Strange thing about this crap, I have a horrible headache right now though.  I’m not sure why but I’m not waiting til 2:30 in the morning to take sleeping pills anymore.  Whew! 

The candy making was really cool and I’ve seen it done dozens of time, the taffy and the chocolate but it never gets old and for some reason, I really don’t remember the actual seeing of it in the past, I just know that I have done it every time I’ve ever visited here.

Anyway, so here are today’s pics from the Last Vacation of 2008….

this kid is going to be the death of us…talk about the class clown…Mini Me that is….Ditto Boy just talks too much….

But, look what a cool picture I made…..testing that fresh off the candy maker taffy…yummmy!

We are out and about this week.  Yea, on "vacation" as we call it.  Walker’s last day of school was the 19th and he doesn’t go back until the 6th.  My husband worked out on the 23rd and doesn’t go back until the 5th.  And, as you all know, I can blog from anywhere…right now I’m sitting by a heated indoor pool watching my boys do their thang.

So, where are we?  We are in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  And, I’m going to tell you some things that my child(ren) have learned this trip that they probably wouldn’t have learned if we had stayed home…..and even if they had gone to school (school is not in session, but you all get my drift).  Here are a few of the things I know that they know now that they didn’t know before yesterday….

*  They idea of interstates and back roads was explained more than fifty times and Walker can repeat that back to you.

*  They learned that fire trucks can drive anywhere they want (like in the median) when they are needed at an accident sight. 

*  They’ve eat at a place called Bubba Grump Shrimp Co. and were introduced to Asian-spiced shrimp..and they actually liked it.

*  They’ve rode on a Sky Lift..I’m certain that wouldn’t have happened at home or at school.

*  And, they have seen the following ducks in the river running beside our condo and their father has explained which ones were male and which ones were female based on their colors……

By weeks end, I’m sure there will be much more to be taught and inhaled.  I use the word inhaled because that’s what my children are doing…inhaling their surroundings…and we are going to go ice skating one day so that too will be new and we are going to ride a tram to the top of the mountain where they are making snow and the ice skating rink is so….yea, they wouldn’t have been able to do that at home or school…..I might could handle this homeschooling gig if we could just afford to travel A WHOLE FREAKIN’ LOT.

Hey, high-lighting the homeschoolers again and I read this article but couldn’t have written about it like this….so I’m going to just send you on over to her place with a link…..mmmkay?

Principled Discovery

Go give it a read and say hello while you are there!  Please?

Homeschooling conference…….information from Get In, Hang On is where we found the information, go see her….

Our last family featured was Tammy’s, now we move right along to our next family…..here they are….

Stephanie & Scott D.

Brynn age 10, Joy age 2

California

We are not “unschoolers,” but we do not have the “school at home” model either. I take a lot of advice from several sources, particularly the Well Trained Mind (Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise). We started with pre-k with a packaged, literature based curriculum. I HATE worksheets! I love real life learning through literature, and have since I first started teaching in a public school before Brynn was born. I have grown enough to trust my own judgement in choosing curriculum and am able to find what I want at used curriculum fairs for far less than $100 a year. Joy gets workbooks (she’s 2, I think I can handle it!) and we are using a great resource - Slow and Steady Get Me Ready, as well as fabulous ideas I find from various blogs I subscribe to.

What is your plan for “helping” your child learn? - Last year for the first time we did standardized tests. We were not surprised at all to see that math was the lowest subject; what was a pleasant surprise was that even though it is her lowest subject, she was still 1 year ahead of grade level for the concepts. Yay! We are obviously getting something right, somewhere. We are also moving more into independent learning and at times, explaining how to prepare for typical classroom education. (When you go to school - whether it is public or private, in middle or high school, or even at university, this is what will be expected of you. Therefore, let’s do it now). And allowing some “unschooling” to creep in - this month’s language arts is NaNoWriMo (young writers’ version!). So the 10 year old is on her way to loving learning on her own, willing to try new things and take risks. The 2 year old is getting weekly age-appropriate lessons and activities, and we are reading many of the classic children’s books (such as those listed in Five in a Row) to build fabulous memories and vocabularies.

If you homeschool, how do you meet state requirements? California has 4 options that might fall under “homeschooling”:

1) Private school satellite programs

2) Public school independent study or charter (I work for one, from home, as a credentialed teacher)

3) Hire a private, credentialed tutor

4) File a private school affidavit - thus becoming our own tiny private school. This is the option we have chosen for the past 3 years. We have a principal, a teacher, and 1 student currently (we are not required to add our other daughter until she is in 1st grade, per state law). I have all the paperwork required for a private school student; immunization records, attendance log, p.e. logs.

Regardless of how you educate, where and when do your children get involved in social activities and how often? We have a LOT of social options. Sundays we have church and Sunday school. Mondays are pretty much stay at home days. Tuesdays are karate class (at the moment - we have also signed Brynn up for softball, basketball, swimming, tennis and soccer, at various times). Wednesdays are choir and scouts. Thursdays are sports again. Fridays are the days we meet other home schoolers - alternating weeks between meeting at the library, followed by a picnic lunch in the park, and “Build your own world club” - a group of maybe 15 or 20 kids who are all being very creative and building their own worlds. Lots of fantasy and a little bit of strategic play going on, as each world’s imagineer is working together with other club members to build alliances, share characters, draw maps and more. 

When I meet with my own assigned students and parents from the charter school, Brynn comes along (I take Joy to daycare 2-3 days a week so she gets social interaction with other kids her age, and I can do the work without worrying what she is into or falling off of). We will often meet families at the park or in a library, and Brynn does a great job hanging out and playing with those kids. This is about 6 days every other month or so, plus more days when we decide to go on field trips or outings with other friends or teachers from the charter school. October included an Art in the Park day, a trip to the pumpkin patch, a Halloween party at the park; November has already had a Thanksgiving potluck and a trip to Los Angeles to explore Chinatown and Olvera Street.

Regardless of the type of education you use, which parent does the majority of the teaching and who is the accessory?  Or is the other parent even an accessory? Stephanie does the majority of teaching and choosing curriculum. Scott is the “principal” of the school but he is fine with pretty much whatever I decide. (We are both credentialed teachers in California. His speciality is secondary English; mine is elementary education, so he has left it up to me to this point). At this point he is a great-looking but little-used accessory in the schooling department.

Does your faith have anything to do with your choice of type of education you chose for your children? Somewhat. We first discussed the option of homeschooling when we were both teaching at high risk schools in the inner city, before we had children. Before Brynn was old enough to go to school, we moved overseas to do some humanitarian work. While we were learning the language, she went to a preschool (non english speaking) nearby. Once we moved out into the countryside we ordered a packaged Christian curriculum in English because we wanted to teach her about our faith in a country that has a different majority belief. We continued with the packaged curriculum when she went to the local (non english speaking) school, to make sure she was learning about our faith, learning to read and write English, and learning about history and customs of the US. We returned to the US for a few months, and she attended 3 months of private school while here. The following year we returned for good, and had her in the same private school while we got settled with the move, and having a new baby. By the end of that year we were settled and knew we wanted her to be home while I was home with Joy.

What are the advantages/disadvantages of your choice of education? I love the flexibility of the schedule. If/when we put Brynn (and Joy) in school, and I am teaching in a school again, we will most likely not all have the same school vacations, as Scott teaches in another school district, and I may teach somewhere else, too. So it has been very nice to be able to follow his calendar for Spring Break, Winter Break, etc. It is also wonderful day to day to allow for sleeping in if there were late nights or when Brynn has an episode of insomnia the night before (somewhat common; she gets it from her dad!). I love that I have been able to tie daily chores in to the regular routine. Brynn is a very slow and deliberate child, so when she was going to school we never had enough time for her to participate much in the regular household  chores.  During 2nd grade at the private school, she was always VERY slow at finishing her timed math sheets, and pretty much all year she sat out of recess to finish the work. I love that when she is at home, I can give her all the time she needs and not have to time her if that is an issue she has. 

Disadvantages include a lack of “me”/ free time during the week. I sometimes think longingly of the moms group at my church, or the weekly Bible study. I don’t feel like I can give up those mornings of teaching, because I consider Brynn’s schooling a full time job, on top of the job I am being paid to do for the charter school I work for. I know she is getting a good education, but I also know there will be gaps if/when she goes to a traditional school - just as there are when any student moves into a new school or district - but I know I can expect jibes about it being “because she is homeschooled.” I come from a family of educators and while they all complain about the students they have and the negative aspects of public school, they have not been supportive of this choice (for the most part, they have not been too negatively anti, but there have been comments. Now we just don’t discuss it and I assume that Brynn’s continued academic and social development speak for themselves.)