Homeschooling

As I am sure many of you already know we are planning to homeschool our kids. So many people have very strong feelings about that decision. There are a few things that others have used as concerns when we mention we plan to homeschool. A big one is socialization...how will they learn to socialize with others if they don't go to school. There is a great article in this months Home Educator's Family Times about how absurd that concern is. I've pasted a few exerpts below and have posted the link to the entire article at the end.

Having been a 'reader' for almost 2 years, I found the phonics and reading lessons to be incredibly boring. Luckily the girl behind me felt the same way, and when we were done with our silly little worksheets, we would chat back and forth. I’ve never known two 6 yr. olds who could maintain a quiet conversation, so naturally a ruler-carrying nun interrupted us with a few strong raps on our desk. We were both asked to stay in at recess, and sit quietly in our desks for the entire 25 minutes, because "We are not here to socialize, young ladies."

And I LOVE these examples of how common school practices would look in real life:

You’re applying for a job and in an unconventional hiring practice, you are made to line up with other applicants, and wait patiently while representatives from two competing companies take their pick from the lineup.

You’re taking your parents out for an anniversary dinner. After you find a table, a waiter tells you that seniors have a separate dining room, lest they ?corrupt? the younger members of society.

You go to the grocery store only to find that since you are 32 years old you must shop at the store for 32 year olds. It’s 8 miles away and they don’t sell meat because the manager is a vegetarian, but your birthday is coming up and soon you’ll be able to shop at the store for 33 yr. olds.

A very good point about bully's in school.

People often use the bully as an example of why it’s so important to let kids ?socialize? at school. If that’s so important, then the bully needs to go to JAIL after a few months, because self-respecting society simply doesn’t put up with that, nor should my 6 yr. old. Sure, there are crappy people in the world, but the world does a much better job of taking care of these things. A bullying brat in the first grade will still be a bullying brat in the 6th grade. He will still be picking on the same kids year after year after year, unless he moves to a new town. How long would the average adult put up with a bully? Personally, as an adult, I have only come across one grown up bully. I choose not to be around this miserable woman. So do many other people. THAT is real life. If she were a coworker, I would find a different job. If she worked at a business I patronized - not only would I refrain from doing business with that company, I would write a letter to the bully, her manager, the owner and the main office. A kid in a classroom has no way to emotionally protect themselves against such a person. I would never expect my kids to put up with bad treatment from a bully in the name of ?toughening them up.? For what? So they can be submissive wimps when they grow up too? So they can ?ignore? their miserable bosses and abusive spouses? In real life, if an employer discovered that an employee was harassing the other staff members, that employee could be fired (pending the 90 day evaluation) or relocated. In real life, if you are so dreadfully harassed by a coworker you can seek legal recourse independently. In a classroom, the teacher and other children are often powerless.

The idea of learning acceptable social skills in a school is as absurd to me as learning nutrition from a grocery store.

To read the entire article...
http://www.homeeducator.com/FamilyTimes/Newsletter/feature5.html

"Yes, Yes, I Know She Is Quite Smart, But I Want to Know How Her Soul Is Developing"

Just wanted to share what I thought was an amazing article. And I love the title...we all worry so much about how smart our kids are...but how bout their soul. Are they happy, enjoying learning. Not so much I think.
Let children be children
Is your 5-year-old stressed out because so much is expected?

by Penelope H. Bevan

I was watching one of my second-grade girls try unsuccessfully to tie her shoes the other day, and I thought, "This is a person who is supposed to be learning plural possessives?" I think not.
We've just finished test time again in the schools of California. The mad frenzy of testing infects everyone from second grade through high school. Because of the rigors and threats of No Child Left Behind, schools are desperate to increase their scores. As the requirements become more stringent, we have completely lost sight of the children taking these tests.
For 30 years as a teacher of primary kids, I have operated on the Any Fool Can See principle. And any fool can see that the spread between what is developmentally appropriate for 7- and 8-year-old children and what is demanded of them on these tests is widening. A lot of what used to be in the first-grade curriculum is now taught in kindergarten. Is your 5-year-old stressed out? Perhaps this is why.
Primary-grade children have only the most tenuous grasp on how the world works. Having been alive only seven or eight years, they have not figured out that in California there is a definite wet and dry season. They live in high expectation that it will snow in the Bay Area in the winter. They reasonably conclude, based on their limited experience with words, that a thesaurus must be a dinosaur. When asked to name some of the planets after he heard the word Earth, one of my boys confidently replied, "Mars, Saturn, Mercury, Jupiter and Canada!" to which a girl replied, "No, no, no, you gotta go way far outer than that."
Research has shown that it takes approximately 24 repetitions of a new concept to imprint on a young brain. The aforementioned plural possessives come up twice in the curriculum, yet they are supposed to know it when they see it. This is folly.
Currently, 2 1/2 uninterrupted hours are supposed to be devoted to language arts and reading every morning. I ask you, what adult could sustain an interest in one subject for that long? Yet the two reading series adopted by the state for elementary education require that much time be devoted to reading in the expectation that the scores will shoot up eventually. Show me a 7-year-old who has that kind of concentration. Show me a 64-year-old teacher who has it. Not I.
The result of this has been a decline in math scores at our school, because the emphasis is on getting them to read and there isn't enough time to fit in a proper curriculum. Early math education should rely heavily on messing about with concrete materials of measurements, mass, volume and length, and discovering basic principles through play.
There is no time for this. The teaching of art is all but a subversive activity. Teachers whisper, "I taught art today!" as if they would be reported to the Reading Police for stealing time from the reading curriculum, which is what they did.
It is also First Communion time in second grade. Yes, I teach in a public school, but First Communion happens in second grade, and it is a big deal, the subject of much discussion in the classroom. The children are excited.
A few months back one of my girls exclaimed, "Jeez, I have a lot to do after school today, Teacher. I gotta do my homework, go to baseball practice and get baptized." I laughed to myself at the priorities of this little to-do list, so symbolic of the life of one second-grader. But there was a much larger issue here. What is happening to their souls? You may ask, what business it is of the schools what is happening to the souls of these little children?
I will tell you. Any fool can see that those setting the standards for testing of primary-grade children haven't been around any actual children in a long time. The difference between what one can reasonably expect an 8-year-old to know and what is merely a party trick grows exponentially on these state tests.
Meanwhile, children who know they are bright and can read well are proved wrong time and again because of the structure of these tests. Teachers spend inordinate amounts of time trying to teach the children to be careful of the quirky tricks of the tests when they should be simply teaching how to get on in the world.
Twenty years ago, I had a conference with a parent, a Sikh, whose child was brilliant. I was prepared to show him all her academic work, but he brushed it aside and said, "Yes, yes, I know she is quite smart, but I want to know how her soul is developing."
The present emphasis on testing and test scores is sucking the soul out of the primary school experience for both teachers and children. So much time is spent on testing and measuring reading speed that the children are losing the joy that comes but once in their lifetime, the happy messiness of paint, clay, Tinkertoys and jumping rope, the quiet discovery of a shiny new book of interest to them, the wonders of a magnifying glass. The teachers around them, under constant pressure to raise those test scores, radiate urgency and pressure. Their smiles are grim. They are not enjoying their jobs.
Our children need parents and teachers who, like Hamlet, know a hawk from a hand saw, who know foolishness when they see it and are strong enough to defend these small souls from the onslaught of escalating developmentally inappropriate claptrap. The great unspoken secret of primary school is that a lot of what is going on is arrant nonsense, and it's getting worse. Any fool can see.
(end of article)
Jun 17, 2007 at 11:16 PM in Education News & Issues Permalink
Technorati Tags: NCLB

Aiden's Horse Show

So, I just almost wrote how Aiden was in his first horse show yesterday...but it is not his first. He was in his first horse show when he was a little older than Bennett is now. I was still pregnant so he was less than two years old! Wow...how time flies.

Aiden had such a blast yesterday! He rode Annie...one of Kris' horses over at Stepping Stone in Carmel. What a good little girl Annie was. I didn't want to trailer over a horse and then have Aiden decide he didn't really want to ride. So we borrowed a horse!

Aiden enjoyed his show. What a big boy he was helping us catch Annie in the field, leading her into her stall, brushing her, carrying her tack and then leading her around. He wasn't too into it when it was time to untack, brush and put her back outside so I had to take care of all that but that's OK. I enjoyed every minute of it.


These first pictures are of Aiden in the halter class, where you just lead the horse around and the horse is judge by confirmation, etc. They just gave all three of the little ones in the class a blue ribbon. Here is Aiden collecting his blue ribbon! Annie wasn't quite ready to leave and Aiden wasn't waiting...it was too funny.

Here is Aiden with his blue ribbon from Halter class on the saddle. He was such a good rider! He gets to ride here & there when we are out doing barn chores, etc. (probably more than me lately!) but not a ton. He was sitting nice and tall, keeping his feet in his stirrups. One of the girls even told him how to post during the trot so he was standing up and sitting down in his stirrups for the rest of the time in saddle. It was too funny! But we didn't even have to hold onto him at all.

We asked Andy (one of Kris' granddaughter's) to lead Annie during the lead line class. You have to trot so I wanted to make sure I could grab him if he started to slip. But he did GREAT! He was laughing the whole time. And he also kept singing this cute little song. Not sure where he got it from.

"Riding the reins, Riding the reins, Lets GO! Riding the reins, YAHOO!"

Over and over and over and over. He had everyone in stiches!

And Bennett...well he enjoyed the whole thing from the back pack as you can see. One of the best $15 I ever spent let me tell you! He actually almost fell out of it. He fell asleep part way through the morning and started to slough down. Next thing I know I reached up to check where he was and his whole little bum is hanging out the leg hole. Had to have someone help me get him out as I was afraid he would fall out as I took it off. My crazy boys!

All in all it was a very fun, while utterly exhuasting day. Kris' also let me set up a display of my books and I sold a few and got a few people who were interested in having a party. So, we also stayed ALL day. Ugh...When I told Aiden we had to go home he got really upset and told me he was going to stay at Kris' forever. And Kris would probably love to have him too! LOL.

Sevens

We lost a great horse today. Sevens first came into my life about 9-10 yrs ago. I was helping out as a trail guide at a farm in NH. They got a bunch of their horses off of a tractor trailer truck coming from god knows where. The truck would pull into the yard, full of a ton of horses and we would walk & trot them up and down the drive way. The owners would say keep or not. Some stayed some went back onto the tractor trailer to I don't want to know where.

Sevens stayed. Then my friend Denise decided to buy him. I remember my first ride on him. Sevens certainly wasn't a small horse. Probably about 16-ish hands. And Denise and I went out on the two horses she was thinking of buying from the farm that came off that tractor trailer. I was on Sevens, she was on a smaller bay...I can't remember his name. We galloped through the woods on these very over grown windy trail. I just stuck close to his neck and hung on. He soared over those trails. He was an amazing trail horse.

Sevens came back to me almost 5 yrs ago now. He was older (the vet guesses mid-late 30's) and starting to get a little arthritic but he was still a great trail horse and full of energy. But as the years moved on he became more arthritic and harder to keep weight on. He got a pretty bad cold part way through winter & just couldn't get rid of it. His nose was still running into the summer. The last few years we've been able to turn him out on green grass during the summer and get him nice and fat going into the winter but this year he actually lost some weight.

Erik and I have been thinking about putting Sevens down for the last 2 yrs. We are so afraid that he will go down hill fast and end up suffering. With his condition this summer we decided that we just couldn't put it off any longer. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do. It was especially hard because he had started to grow in his winter coat...so he was actually looking pretty good. That's one of the not so fun parts of horse ownership. You can't always wait until they are obviously sick to let them go. There is a great poem that I just love.

I'm not sure how the first 30-ish years of his life went but he was always a kidn thoughtful horse with us. Even today when I went out to catch him in the field for his last visit with the vet he just turned his nose to me and nuzzled into me a little, hoping for a little snack I am sure. Always the quiet, kind, patient old gentleman.

Horse's Prayer

I'm only a horse, dear Master, but my heart is warm and true,
And I'm ready to work my hardest, for the pleasure of pleasing you.
Good corn and hay and water are all that I wish to ask,
And a warm dry bed to rest on when I've finished my daily task.
Don't strike me in needless anger if I'm slow to understand,
But encourage my drooping spirits with a gentle voice and hand.
Finally, O my master, when my health and strength are gone -
When I'm getting old and feeble and my long life's work is done -
Don't sell me to cruel owners to be slaved to my latest breath,
But grant me the untold blessing of a quick and painless death;
That, as you have always found me a patient and loyal friend,
The years of my faithful service may be crowned by a peaceful end.
I plead in the name of the Savior,
Who cares when the sparrows fall,
Who was born in a lowly stable and knows and loves us all!

- (Author Unknown)

Rest in peace my friend. I know you will enjoy enless green pastures with fresh mowed grass, the way you liked them best.

My Little Pirate

Aiden has been a total pirate addict lately. It is too funny. I am not quite sure what brought it on but it is here. So, I just recently earned $100 in free books from Usborne (one of the many perks of selling their books is getting some for free...plus my commission!). We bought just about every pirate book that I thought Aiden would like from our catalog. And they are too cool! The see inside the pirate ship with lift the flaps, pirate jigsaw book and the Pirate things to make & do are favorites. We have plans to make all kinds of things from the Pirate Things to Make & Do book in preparation for halloween. :)

Well, we stopped into Walmart on Monday to pick up some poster board and of course all the halloween isle are right up front and low & behold what is on the very end of one of those isle for a Pirate loving 3 yr old to see as we walk by...a pirate hat and kit with the patch and hook. And when he brought it over and I saw that it was only $4...how could I say no. When we got home he wanted to wear everything so I put the eye patch on (which didn't stay on for long) and he was walking around say, "Arrrr I'm pirate Aiden." It was the cutest thing in the world!! He even did it for Erik when he came home from work.

What an imagination this little boy has. He is just so much fun!!

http://www.pushedbirth.com/

You have to check out this website. Great information about birthing and other issues surround babies, midwives, breasfeeding, etc. It is excellent!

Common Ground Fair

Now that I have rested and recovered from the Common Ground Fair I figured I'd jump on to share a few quick photo's.

These are just a few shots of the children's area this year. We had some great happenings and all in all the weekend went well. The nail banging as always was very popular. Kids and hammers...you would think more people would have gotten hurt but we only had a few mishaps between hammers and fingers or hands. It is amazing that when you let a young child play with a toollike that...they really do use it appropriately.
One of our new crafts this year were newspaper hats. They were amazing. Thanks Mary Ann and girls. They came up with this idea. We also had lots of donations of material and yarn which the kids used their creative genius and made some most amazing hats. I was very impressed and also saddened that I was not able to take a moment to make one myself.

Friday & Sunday we also did pinwheels for peace. That was also a huge hit and we even put the pinwheels around the children's area as decoration.

The last crafty thing that we did was we received a donation of brown bags from the Hannaford in Belfast. We asked the kids to decorate the bags and leave them and we would return them to Hannaford and they would use them to bag groceries. How cool was that! And the management at Hannaford was so excited when they got them back! They all wanted to look through and check out the bags.

All in all it was a great time. We had some great performers and some ...well not my favorites. And fave painting. Wow...what lines we had at times.

The boys enjoyed it. unfortunately no pictures of them at the fair. I never seemed to have much time when they were there. No coordinator for me next year. I will volunteer but I want to enjoy the fair with my family!