I rearranged my furniture the other day so that, instead of facing a white wall, I can now look out 4 different windows on 2 sides of the house while I'm on the computer. Well, apparently, Mother Nature thought she'd be helpful and give me Something to Look At -- or maybe the old gal was just bored and it brought out her sense of humor. Black humor, mind you. Twisty, turny, practical joke kind of humor. Because, what does she do? Seeing as yesterday was the first official day of spring (after a long and VERY dreary Ground Hog Day kind of winter with snow past my you-know-what). She sends more my way last night. And not just any snow. Oh no. 10 inches of the frozen white stuff, complete with gusting, shifting winds. A regular blizzard. Hohoho, thanks Mother, very amusing. I was actually hoping for a view of birdies, squirrels, maybe some new green grass and spring flowers. Comprende? Now behave yourself. You've had enough fun for one year.



Anyway, it's perfect reading weather, so I'm sitting here, off for the day because it's Good Friday, all cozied up in my favorite blanket, a cup of hot chocolate warming one hand, and a copy of Mary Griffith's Viral Homeschooling: Reflections on the Homeschooling Life in the other. Sadly, it's taken me nearly a year to sit down to read this book. Now, I've known Mary a long time -- I just counted; 13 years! Geez Louise, can that be right? -- and between her good nature and the fact that she knows exactly what this past year has wrought for me; namely a divorce after 26 years of marriage, 3 moves, 3 new jobs, 1 name change, 1 car accident, quitting smoking, an old, trusted friend stealing $7,000+ from me (translation: yet another court case, but this one may last forever) plus a jolt of double empty nest syndrome -- I'm pretty sure she understands and forgives my post traumatic brain farts. In fact, I'm sure of it. That's just how Mary is.

She's also a fun (and funny) person to talk to. And read the writings of. This latest book of hers is about being done with homeschooling. You know, that day when the kids are finally off to college or work or marriage, and you get to look back on all those years of home learning. What brought you there, the mistakes you made, the things you learned, the fun you had, what you would've done differently. How homeschooling's changed you, how it's affected your kids. I'm just finishing the first chapter, Introduction: The Making of a Famous Homeschool Author and I'm already chuckling. It's a time I remember well; when she suddenly went from being simply 'Mary' to being ::::insert drum roll here:::: THE Mary Griffith. An overnight sensation. Wow. I was suddenly the friend of An Honest-to-Goodness Celebrity.

In chapter 1, Mary wrote:

"It's not as if I deliberately set out to become a Famous Homeschool Author. It was very nearly an accident that I wrote my books at all. ....When The Homeschooling Handbook was first published, my daughters were only 13 and 9. Neither I nor my family was prepared for the response [the book] received. I'd spoken at homeschool conferences before, and at not-back-to-school information nights, but always before I'd been just another homeschooling parent.... But now that my book was in print, and people could order it from Amazon or walk into a local bookstore and pick a copy off the shelf, many in my audiences apparently believed that what I had to say was more credible and more important than it had been the previous month....

Suddenly parents asked questions I didn't know how to answer: How many and which types of arithmetic problems should their six-year-old be doing each day? What time should their nine-year-old be going to bed? If they required their kids to keep journals, what should they make sure their kids wrote about? How could they keep their kids from watching TV or ingesting sugar products when they were at other people's houses?

My daughters thought all these questions were hilarious. Kate, the then-13-year-old, was the one who came up with the "Famous Homeschool Author" label for my speaking persona, and she managed to invest that title with all the ironic, pitying contempt that a 13-year-old can muster for a deeply uncool parent so obviously lacking the skills and expertise expected of any grown-up, let alone someone who was supposed to know what she was talking about. Christie, nearly four years younger, was more direct: "Mom, why do they ask you things you don't know?"



Oh yeah, I remember. I still to this day will once in awhile greet her with a reverent, "Am I speaking to THE Mary?" when she answers the phone. LOL, this is gonna be fun.

Tags: unschooling | homeschooling | books

Boy, I've been gone a long time, haven't I? I know, I know. Sorry. My brain blanked out there for awhile. It's been such a year, the poor thing needed a vacation.

I ran across a great little article called Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills recently on the Unschooling List. It really struck a chord with me because I've long grumbled about parents who feel it's a good idea to over-schedule their kids' time. From toddlerhood on -- heck, babyhood in some cases, Junior's daily life pretty much requires its own Blackberry. Things start out simply enough, with a few play dates and play groups, maybe some 'enrichment' classes (I never got this; aren't all classes enriching?), but then good intentions go awry and suddenly its somehow necessary to outdo the Jones' with this blur of soccer practice, dance recitals, after-school programs, piano lessons, tennis lessons, fencing meets, karate competitions, summer camp, bible camp, scouts, Sunday School, planetarium visits, museum excursions, ad nauseum. Holy Time Crunch, Batman. When does the kid get time to just be a kid?

Turns out, hours of unstructured play is like chicken soup: it's natural, it's good for you and it just works. "It seems that in the rush to give children every advantage — to protect them, to stimulate them, to enrich them — our culture has unwittingly compromised one of the activities that helped children most. All that wasted time was not such a waste after all."

Oh, and while you're at it, here's a song, Where Do The Children Play? by Cat Stevens -- a blast from my high school past, no less -- to listen to while you read. Even more apropos today than when it was released. One smart dude, that guy.

Tea for the Tillerman
Cat's classic CD. Worth every penny.

Radio Free School Blog
Tantrum space for unschoolers by, for, and about
people who eschew factory learning.

Tags: unschooling | Home School

Well, the youngest son's 21st birthday celebration has come and gone. Why did I ever think we were done homeschooling? How many times over the years have I said that learning just happens, despite society's arbitrary timetables? Apparently, I have to keep teaching myself this same lesson. Maybe I'll write it 100 times on my grocery list or something.

This time the main gist of our learning was about wine. Specifically, the red ones Matt, birthday-boy, wanted to try. First, it was a glass of Chianti (and every time I see that word now, I always think of Hannibal Lector mispronouncing it in Silence of the Lambs), since we were at an Italian restaurant, and Chianti is, mom decided, the traditional Italian wine to have with dinner. At least, I think it is. Anyway, birthday boy took a sip, made a face, looked at me and said, "Is this how it's supposed to taste?" So I, being the [cough] expert, having been raised above a bar, followed by a liquor store, took a sip. Ugh. It was heavy, mouth-puckeringly dry, and somewhat rancid. If that's even a term one can use when describing wine that's been sitting around too long.

The waiter was very nice, tho. He said "no problem, ma'am; perhaps it has gone over - that happens sometimes" (which actually didn't do much to boost my confidence about what we'd just ingested) and brought us our (well, my) next choice: Pinot Noir. This was a shade better, but still too heavy and not fruity enough. Then the waiter suggested Merlot. That was very nice of him I thought, but Ewwwwww. I'll certainly never do that again. Merlot's right up there with Cabernet Sauvigon, which I discovered many years ago to be more of an endurance test than a drink. I kept wishing for a Rosé or even a wine cooler. Alas, no such thing on the menu. O well. We tried. We gave up on the wine tasting and went back to plain old ice water. From the looks on their faces I don't think either son will be eager to try red wine again anytime soon.

And do you know what they're charging for a glass -- not a bottle, not a carafe, mind you -- just a glass of wine these days? $7.95 - $10.95! Boy, I'm certainly glad my oldest son Adam was helping me pay for this dinner. Sheesh.

Speaking of the restaurant, it is a funny name isn't it? Buca di Beppo, literally translated, means "Joe's Basement." It's one of those fairly new, yuppie, supposedly family-style joints, which I tend to avoid with all my being. A yuppie I am not. But, "Joe's Basement" made me feel like well, hey, maybe this one won't be so bad. Hmph. I should've stuck with my first impression.

It started out well. The background music was a combination of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin tunes (if you're smiling about that, try renting Return to Me from Netflix, you'll love the soundtrack), along with some Mario Lanza opera-type wailing I could just as well live without. Just as we were looking over the menus, Donna Prima Donna by Dion started to play (click on Song of the Day in the sidebar to listen to it). That really made me smile. Oldies always put me in a good mood. Why don't they have fun, danceable music like that anymore?

I don't know for sure . . . but I have my theories. Anywho, this is why I hang out at:

iTunes
They even have an "iTunes U" now. It's learning by music. Hmm. Did they snitch the idea from me, do you think?

Napster
You can listen to a song 3 times before you buy it. I like that, because there's usually many, many versions.

Love Potion #9 - The Clovers
One of my oldies you can listen to.

Elinore - The Turtles
(or "Eleanor" - I've seen it both ways) Another of my oldies on this blog.

The Last Time I Felt Like This - Johnny Mathis
The most beautiful voice on the planet. Next to Patsy's, that is.

Sneaking in a Pop Mini-Quiz here. Do you ever listen to these songs when you come to visit? Or is it just me? (Yes, you probably think I'm digressing here. I'm not. Repeat after me: Life is learning, learning is life. Life is . . .

Now, for being a 'family-style' restaurant, there certainly weren't any families in attendance. The food ended up being so-so, and one or two of the entrees we tried actually were big enough to maybe feed a young family of 4. But, the prices! Holy cow. What average family could afford this? We were looking at a bill of over $100 for three people! The service, on the other hand, was fabulous.

But, what really decided me were the decorations. Those walls were busy. Pictures and sketches and sculptures and colorful doo-dads everywhere. Sophia Loren, Joe DiMaggio, Gina Lollabrigida, scantily-clad women in provocative poses, unidentifiable buildings (maybe these were in Rome? Sicily?) .... everything you could imagine and then some. I don't think there was one inch of empty wall or counter space in the entire place. In the middle of eating, I spied a photograph in the sea of busyness tucked up in the corner, just behind my oldest son's head. I kept looking at it, thinking, is that what I think it is? Nah, it can't be. Finally, I got up and walked over to view a close-up. Yup, I was right. It was a photo of two dogs fornicating.

I know my kids are grown adults, and I'm not that much of a prude, but what is such a picture doing in a family restaurant? In any case, I certainly don't want to look at something like that while I'm eating. I wanted to complain, but my sons were protesting, oh mom, don't start a fuss. So, I didn't. But it still bugs me. Has anyone else run across places that aren't really what they advertise?

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The songs on this site are copyrighted by their respective artists and are placed here for education and evaluation purposes only. No profits are made on this site from their use. If you like what you hear, purchase the song from iTunes or buy the entire CD at SecondSpin.com and keep great music alive!

Tags: unschooling | homeschooling | oldies

And now for something new, and purdy cool. A homeschool parent just started a new organization called Southwest Home Educators' Association, which focuses on connecting us in the western states of California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico. SHEA describes itself as: "A support group that encourages participation in sports, clubs, workshops, field trips, and co-op classes and love social opportunities! Through trained Area Leaders, SHEA will strive to bring you the warmth of a local support group, combined with the strength of a regional organization."

On the Home Education Leaders' Place of Colorado (HELP_CO) list, Angeline Rock, homeschool mom and SHEA Field Trip Coordinator wrote an introduction:

"Recently, a friend of mine organized a new 6-state home educators association and asked me to be field trip coordinator (probably because I am so passionate about getting homeschooled kids together, lol).

My duties will include traveling around the 6 member-states and visiting with group leaders. We want to promote home education on all levels, and hear about your concerns and share your enthusiasm.

I wanted our first field trip to be a big event – to kick off the "year" (most homeschoolers don't have a start and stop year, but some do). I think Disneyland is pretty big! So, our first Not-Back-To-School-Days has been booked for September 24 and 25, 2007 and we are taking part in Disneyland's new Youth Education Series.

Please feel free to email me with any comments – and I hope to meet some of you real soon at one of your activities, or one of ours!"

Good luck Angeline and SHEA! Hats off! We need more energy like this!

Homeschool BUZZ
More up to the minute news.

Tags: homeschooling | unschooling | homeschool conference | parenting

Okay, I know Jeff Boutler is serious (well, half serious anyway) with this post on his blog, but I gotta tell ya - I started giggling so much, I nearly choked on my hot chocolate. He starts out:

I really don’t understand parents.

When I tell other people that have kids that we’re expecting our first kid any day now, the first thing they tell me how “great” it is. The second thing they tell me, with silly grins on their faces, is their horror stories about when their kid was born, getting no sleep and cleaning up all sorts of messes. Huh? Cleaning + stress + sleep deprivation != “great”.

So I have to assume that having a kid is great for other reasons, which people are generally very vague about. Is it that parents are delusional? Do kids activate some kind of mental disorder that makes being a slave to another human pleasurable?

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ROFL. How do you explain kids and the affect they have on you? Please, somebody go help this guy out with an encouraging comment or two.

Hmm. Should we tell him how much fun homeschooling can be, too?

On second thought, Nahhh. Give the guy a year or so.

Tags: parenting | unschooling

Here's a few great learning links I keep meaning to post. (And now I can get to cleaning out my poor inbox!)

ClickSchoolingI heard
Get one, fun, educational website recommendation a day! Monday-Math. Tuesday-Science. Wednesday-Language Arts. Thursday-History & Social Studies. Friday Virtual Field Trips. Weekends are for Electives-Art, Music, Foreign Languages. A Yahoo list sponsored by Homefires (a real homeschooler) and moderated to maintain integrity.

Desert Island Homeschooling
The situation is: "Your family is stranded on a desert isle, with no internet, no TV, no libraries, and zero access to the type of community resources you usually enjoy. You're going to be there long enough that you will want to have a box of STUFF to keep the kids occupied. And because you expect to go home one day, you want the STUFF to relate to the wider world, not just your immediate situation. What would you take?" Homeschool mom Kathy Ceceri is attempting to write a book and looking for our thoughts and ideas. Share yours with her (and all the listees) on Home Education Magazine's Writers' list. You can view Kathy's entire book outline on the Files page of Emergency Homeschooling.

More fun learning ideas . . .

Homeschool Comics - Schools Are for Fish
A new one is posted every Monday. This isn't 'curriculum', you say? Sure it is. Just like everything in life. Think 'social satire'. Think 'sociology', 'understated', 'wry', 'misconceptions' and 'succinct'. And now you have a whole weeks' vocabulary list to boot.


I don't know about you, but it's time for a music and drink break. I'm dying of thirst.

Cindy's Song of the Day
This is learning, too. I taught my boys LOTS of stuff this way. For instance: Can you name one of these duet singers just by listening? Wasn't there some sort of scandal about him? (And why would his revelation matter, anyway?) What are the lyrics saying? Isn't the composer famous? What other songs has he done that you know? What movie is this song from? Wasn't it based on a hit play? Which came first, the book or the play? Should we read one and then rent the movie to see how they differ? Why did they change things or leave them out, do you think?

It's fun! Try it!


Love Potion #9 - The Clovers
One site says it's The Clovers. A few others say the band is the New Seekers. I don't know which one is right.

Elinore - The Turtles
Or "Eleanor", if you prefer. I've seen it both ways. Do your kids know any other songs by The Turtles? I'll bet they do. From commercials. :rolling my eyes:

Napster
Listen to a song 3 times before you buy. Purdy cool.

The Homeschool Mom's Math Page
From games to worksheets, for your littlest one, to your senior in high school. This is one totally amazing math page. Kudos to Mary Ann and all her hard work!

I Hate Mathematics!
Yikes, me too. After many textbook tries. this ended up being the main math book we used from grade school right up to college. Filled with fun facts, laugh-inducing games and silly activities to teach math without giving mom a headache.

More Math . . .

Steve Spangler Science Experiments
A cool hands-on library of Steve's most requested science experiments, recipes and projects from his weekly television appearances and live presentations throughout the country. Lots of nifty science goodies and gadgets to order, too.

More Science . . .

The Way Back Machine
Do you remember something on the 'net that doesn't exist anymore? Life Magazine? Old Compuserve files? Sites dedicated to the Baby Jessica tragedy? The original (and ghastly) RMEC website? If it was was once in cyberspace, but has since gone the way of glam-rock and computers the size of your living room, it's on Way Back. If you're not sure how to teach history, this is a really cool way to ease into it. Even just browsing around brings up some amazing things you never knew!

Kidlet Warning: This site is not rated G.

West River Academy - the Unschooler's Best Friend!
School the way you want! Choose the curriculum that suits you! (Or, choose none at all.) Hassle-free support, low tuition, fully accredited K-12 with High School Diploma Program. Operated since 1993 by Peggy Webb, a 20-year veteran homeschooling mom. Call her at (949) 492-5240.

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The songs on this site are copyrighted by their respective artists and are placed here for education and evaluation purposes only. No profits are made on this site from their use. If you like what you hear, purchase the song from iTunes or buy the entire CD and keep great music alive!

Tags: homeschooling | unschooling | curriculum | music | oldies

Seems this is not a widely known fact, but summers in Colorado are hot. And I do mean hot. Yesterday it was 98 degrees, today it peaked at 99, and tomorrow doesn't look much better. I've been spending my time, alternately melting and sweating like some overexerted, red-faced little farm animal (very unlovely). And then today was also the day to take my youngest son out shopping. It wasn't a matter of choice, actually. He and I work such opposite hours, a day off together is as rare as hen's teeth. (Gee, and I sound like my grandmother.) Now, I did try not to torture the boy with too much of my music on the car radio. Really. I only tuned in for one song. Well okay, two.

Love Potion #9 - The Clovers
One of the songs on the radio.

Elinore - The Turtles
(or "Eleanor" - I've seen it both ways) [from Hum a Few Bars, 6/28]

Napster
Listen to a song 3 times before you buy. Purdy cool.



Sonny, in turn, tried not to turn my brain to mush either. He likes Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilara, new age stuff, like Enya and Enigma, but mostly techo-dance-sounding-tunes that are so generic I can never remember the name of any of them. Two of my songs, followed by two of his .... well, we love each other, but that was enough of the radio for one trip.

Now, if you know me, you know how much I like to shop. That is to say, not at all. Not unless I have to. Not unless the cupboards are bare, my jeans have disintegrated in the wash and my tennies will no longer hold together, even with string. (People tell me I'm a weird female. I guess so.) But today's excursions were unusually fun, even with the heat, because they were part of two celebrations. The first being that after 2 years in college, taking a scattershot of classes from theater arts to remedial math, followed by another 2 years of hiatus from the halls of higher learning to work and decide what he wanted to do, my youngest son has finally decided to re-enroll in college this fall.

YAY!! :picture mom dancing around the room, grinning like a fool:

The second celebration is sweet/bittersweet, and a little amazing. We were shopping because his birthday is in a couple of weeks. He'll be turning 21 this year. Twenty one. My baby. A legal adult. It wasn't so much an O.M.G. moment as it was mom-nostalgic. I was driving along, listening to him chatter on about friends and work and buying books for college, and half my mind went its own way and called up a vivid picture of a little boy with straight, silky, dark hair, a bright yellow jacket, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle sneakers on feet almost too big for his body, a tiny smile finally breaking thru the cloud of tears in his beautiful brown eyes. His still-pudgy hand was encased in mine and we were walking away from the school building, away from everything he and I had known as 'education'. He didn't utter a word, but he didn't have to. Those eyes said it all. Thank you, mom. I don't want to be called 'slow' anymore. I don't want to go to the doctor and be diagnosed with ADD. I'm not a troublemaker. I'm just bored and I don't learn this way. I want to go home with you and my big brother, where it's safe to be me.

It was April of 1993, a chilly and overcast and blustery month that year, and he was 6 years old. We were leaving public school to start homeschooling. His brother walked up and took my other hand. All three of us were happy. I was also feeling a few thousand other things. Fury at the school. Excitement at the upcoming adventure. Sheer terror about my non-expertise. What if I messed them up forever?

As I glanced over at my now six-foot-three giant of a teddy bear, I remembered that this was the child that refused to read until age 10. The one who detested any and all textbooks, worksheets and tests. He taught me that learning math from Legos and baking cookies was entirely possible, that invented spelling until age 14 meant nothing more than a creative mind was on the job. I got 2 frown lines and at least 4 grey hairs along the way, but eventually he taught me to stop worrying so much. Right then, as my mind was wandering thru the past, he was trying to teach me about ancient religious beliefs in Mesopotamia. Which, as you probably already know mom, is now split up into Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey? Of course, son, we all know that. (yeah, right) I shook my head and winked at him, and he grinned back knowingly. This is the same child who entered college for the first time age age 16 to be an actor, and is going back at 21 to get his A.A. and then a Ph.D in Theology. With a minor in Mathematics. He likes making up his own Calculus problems now, just for fun. What an eclectic resume that boy's going to have.

Er, that man, I mean.

We pull up to a stoplight and he asks me if I'd like to have a glass of red wine with him on his birthday. He's never tried it before, but he knows I grew up around such stuff, and he needs help picking out a kind to try. I look over at him and smile. A little bit of that bright yellow jacket still hovers in the background of his shirt, like a superimposed layer of etched memory. His feet are bigger than ever now, a size 13 E. I reach over and his big, bear paw of a hand swallows mine. It's hard to speak with all those memories floating thru the air, so I just smile some more and nod.

Red wine it is, son. And here's to you.

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The songs on this site are copyrighted by their respective artists and are placed here for education and evaluation purposes only. No profits are made on this site from their use. If you like what you hear, purchase the song from iTunes or buy the entire CD and keep great music alive!

Tags: music | unschooling | homeschooling | oldies