I Couldn't Do It ...

Often when I tell people we homeschool our three children, I get a somewhat dismissive ‘Well, I sure couldn’t do it,’ response.  I’d like to use this forum to reply.

Emotionally, sending them to school would be tough.  Simply put, I like having them around.  My kids are smart and clever, each with a distinct personality.  (See Madeline’s blog, here and here, for examples)  We have fun together.  Last night, for example, our supper table discussion, centered on Henry’s proposed scenario – “If you were stranded at sea on a floating cookie, would you starve and stay afloat, or eat the cookie and drown?” 

But, I don’t want to give the impression that it’s total jocularity at our house.  It certainly isn’t.  Having a 13 year old girl, 9 year old boy and 4 ½ year old girl in the same house all day with each other can lead to, uh, plenty of tension.  Some days, I feel like I spend most of the day, um, raising my voice.  But then, just when I’m ready to pull my hair out, I’ll see Madeline working with the other 2, making a video.  Or, Henry will be reading a book to Grace at the top of the stairs.  Then, my heart turns to mush and I’m so glad they have this time to get to be with each other and learn to truly love one another (even if they don’t always like each other.)

However, our decision to homeschool is based on much more than just my sentimentality.  As my friend Mary asserts,  “since we live in a world that has largely rejected God, since so many are actively anti-Christian, we as parents need to gather our children to us and hold them close. Fill them with God's Word and hold them close”  In our particular situation, we believe that the best way to educate our children is at home.

It is our conviction that God has called this family, at this point in time, to homeschool.  We’ve prayed that He would lead us to do His will.  We’ve prayed that our pride wouldn’t keep us from sending them to school, if that’s where He wanted them.  We’ve prayed that if He wanted us to send them to school, He would give us a clear indication.  We continue these prayers, and others, for His guidance.  And He continues to answer.  Not through any lightning bolts or burning bushes.  But by giving us a feeling of peace and a sense of resolve.

I am so grateful that this is the path God chose for use.  It hasn’t always been easy, and  I know we’ll still have struggles, but I believe that the roughest times are behind us.  I also know that homeschooling is not for everyone.  It can be difficult, costly, and is a huge commitment.  If both parents aren’t committed to homeschooling, it’s probably not your calling. 

One benefit of taking the less-travelled path of homeschooling, is that I’ve gained a greater appreciation of God’s design for families.  Each situation is different and every set of parents has the right to make the decision that works for them.

So, if you’re convinced that you can’t homeschool, that’s okay. 

Just please respect my position that I couldn’t not homeschool.

More Cool Goodwill Finds

Last night, I was able to pick up one volume of the The Illustrated Animal Library: Fascinating Animal Portraits from Around the World., containing Birds; Reptiles, Amphibians & Fish; and Insects & Invertebrates.  Very cool color portraits, well worth the $2.50.

I couldn't find a picture for this one, but Science Through the Microscope, by Aladdin Books, has some neat, up close shots of everything from a cell, to pollen, to a honeybee pupae, to a human embryo.  Also $2.50.

The Last 1000 Years has a nice timeline, pictures, maps and reference information for the last millennium.  $4.50.

And, finally, The Complete Soapmaker: Tips, Techniques & Recipes for Luxurious Handmade Soaps, is to have on hand in case I decide to start a new hobby.  I've checked it out of the library in the past, with excellent intentions, but somehow they never came into fruition.  Soon.  Maybe.  Soon.  $2.50.

Good Posts From Mary

Mary has a couple of great recent posts that are great reads.  The first one is on Priorities and Time Management.  The other one is on reasons for homeschooling and also reasons for Letting Go.

What If?

I started a new blog, What If?, to keep track of some of my kids' clever sayings, ideas, etc.

Today's Bible Lesson

We're in the middle of our homeschooling day, but I wanted to make a quick post about something that happened during our Bible study. Madeline reads a section of the Bible (from Acts), and then their books instruct them to draw a picture.

Today's Bible section was from Acts 9, where Saul is lowered in a basket through an opening in the wall. The kids' instructions were to draw the basket in which Saul was lowered. When they were done drawing, Henry explained his picture.

Henry: Here's the wall with the basket attached to a 3 way pulley. Here's Saul waiting to get in the basket. And here's a guy reading the scroll How To Get Someone Out Of A City When People Are Trying To Kill You

Madeline: For Dummies

Arguing Class

I've discussed in an earlier post why I feel it's important to teach my kids to be good writers. In our society, bad ideas can win the battle of public opinion, if they are well communicated. This also applies to oral communication.

The other day, I discovered that Henry supposedly has the same personality type as Barack Obama. One of the characteristics of this personality type is that they are good arguers. That definitely fits Henry. We had a discussion about this, and decided we were going to start debate class at home. Or, as Henry likes to call it, Arguing Class.

We've had a few sessions so far, and they've gone very well. It's a good fit for our particular home situation. Madeline has strong reasoning skills and is able to come up with insightful arguments. She could stand to gain some confidence in stating these positions.

Henry, on the other hand, has no qualms about stating his opinions, and he does so dramatically. He could use some help in learning to discern the most effective arguments, however.

So far, we've done Resolved: Christmas Is The Best Holiday; Resolved: Scooby Is Better Than PJ; Batman vs. Jonas Brothers and Resolved: Monk Should Die In The Final Episode Of The Series (because that is the only way he'll find true happiness and peace).

One person will take a side in the argument, and the other will take the opposing viewpoint. The affirmative person will list their position points, perhaps with some help from me, and I'll write them on the board. Then, the negative person will counter each of the arguments. As we continue to do with this, we'll learn how to have these arguments more closely resemble debates.

As you can imagine, a few of these have gotten rather emotional, especially the Monk one. I was unprepared, however, for how heated today's session got. Resolved: Steve Is Better Than Joe (Think Blue's Clues). Madeline was Affirmative, Henry was Negative.

Here's how it played out:

Affirmative: Many children thought Steve died when he left.
Negative: Their parents should have been more involved and explained what was going on.

Affirmative: Joe doesn't know how things work
Negative: You can't know before you learn, plus, Steve could never figure out clues.

Affirmative: Steve is closer to everyone's heart.
Negative: You can't get close to someone's heart if you don't know them.

Affirmative: Joe wears dumb shirts
Negative: That's a subjective opinion

Affirmative: They changed the theme song with Joe
Negative: Another subjective opinion about which song is better

Affirmative: Joe doesn't play the guitar
Negative: Maybe he doesn't want to

Affirmative: Joe has a freaky duck
Negative: You can't blame someone for their interests

Affirmative: It was wrong to fire Steve because he's balding
Negative: Hey, he's getting old

Affirmative: Joe is eye candy (inside family joke)
Negative: Joe is eye candy

We're having fun with this, but I can tell we won't be able to do a different topic every day.

National Novel Writing Month

November is going to be a big month in our family. I need to get my house in order, and then my mom is going to move in with us. Fortunately, I will be getting some much-appreciated help from family members with the house organization. But, I'm still pretty stressed out just thinking about it.

It's crazy to think about adding a major project to my November itinerary. But, yesterday I found out that November is National Novel Writing Month. I've always had novels in the back of my brain that I've thought about writing, but never went farther than that.

I'm seriously thinking about doing it. The idea is that you spend a month writing like crazy, and not worrying about polishing it up, character development, etc. Every day you write, and go to the website and record the number of words written. The goal is to write 50,000 words between November 1 and November 30. If you do, you win.

I'm also thinking of having the two older kids enter the Young Writers Contest for the month, instead of their regular writing assignments. Maybe Madeline will have a goal of 20,000 words, and Henry a goal of 10,000 words.

I know it's crazy to add something like this to my schedule right now, but, it might be just the thing to keep me from stressing out too much.

Keeping Track of Pencils, Etc.

I wanted to pass on a little trick I implemented this year for school. The kids' pencils and pens, glue sticks, etc. were always getting lost.

This year, they each got a pencil box. Okay, no big deal there. I bought a roll of colored duct tape for each of them (Madeline = blue, Henry = green, Grace = pink). They each (at least the two older ones) started with 10 pencils, 3 pens, a scissors, a glue stick and 24 colored pencils (plus some stand by pens). On each of these, I wrapped a small strip of their respective duct tape.

Now, when I see anything lying around that should be in the box, I know exactly who to call and have them put it away. It's a small thing, and it took a bit of time to set it up, but it's been very helpful in the day to day running of school.

Spelling Bee

Last night our homeschool group held a spelling bee. There were 10 children participating all together. 4 in the younger group, and 6 in the older group. Henry won for his group.

I was very proud of all 3 of my children because they behaved so well last night. And, it seemed like everyone had a nice time just hanging out afterwards.

Madeline said she was relieved because the words weren't nearly as difficult as she was expecting. She thought there'd be Japanese diseases or something. What, like sushihalitosis?

Anyway, it was a nice time. The new homeschool group is such a blessing.

I Might Get Political Sometimes...

but for right now, I'm just going to talk about homeschooling.

See, I homeschool my kids. I'll have to come up with fake names for them for this fake blog. Another time.

There's this catalog that I absolutely love from Rainbow Resources (http://www.rainbowresource.com/index.php, when I actually start blogging, I'll have to figure out how to link decently) it's absolutely huge. It's from a family-run company, and they do a tremendous job reviewing their products. I want to buy everything in it. But I can't. That would be extremely irresponsible. Usually what I do after I get the catalog is take a highlighter and spend a couple weeks going through the catalog highlighting everything I might want.

Then, I wait a week or two, and cross off some things. I go through it a few more times, until I come up with what I really need and maybe a few fun things. I end up getting what we need, and I stay within my budget. What a concept.

Now suppose we had a family CRISIS. Suppose my kids tooks some standardized tests and they performed absolutely horribly on them (which wouldn't happen, because my kids really are quite bright - but just suppose). Suppose I needed to STIMULATE their learning as fast as possible. Suppose I decided to order every single thing from the Rainbow Resources catalog. Would this make my kids smarter? Would all of the stuff jump-start their learning?

Well, perhaps a bit. Maybe just having all of the stuff would make them a little smarter. (Although, one thing I've noticed is that the more toys my kids have, the less playing they actually do. I think they're too overwhelmed with toys, so they just stop playing. I think the same thing would happen with too much school stuff, although I can't be sure.)

One thing I am sure of. We would go into serious debt to pay for all of the stuff. It would take many, many years to pay it off. Our kids would have to sacrifice in a lot of other areas to pay for their mother's panic-stricken shopping spree. Just randomly buying whatever without worrying about paying for it would be placing a terrible burden on my kids.

Okay, I just needed to get that off my chest.

See, if I was actually blogging, someone might figure out that I really was being political here.