Blog Forecast: Expect scattered, occasional rants on the state of home educating today. Spotter activation will not be needed.

---

I recently had a conversation with Helen Hegener, managing editor of HEM, and one of our conversation threads meandered over to the subject of support, and support groups themselves. We've both been hearing several support group leaders lament on email lists about the declining volunteerism of their members, due to general lack of interest, time, money, or what-have-you. The leaders are trying to figure out why, and what to do about it. In the meantime, they're running out of energy trying to keep things afloat. It's not just happening here and there. Oh no, it's a nationwide trend. And that's not to imply that it's a new complaint, either. These same woes have been going on as long as I've been homeschooling.

For instance, in 1994, about a year after I began, I joined the original statewide organization here in Colorado: CHEA. CHEA was the all-inclusive group that had rallied homeschoolers across the state to come together, formulate, compose and work to get our home school statute passed into law in 1988. (Sadly, CHEA no longer exists. It went kaput around 2001.) Anyway, when I got there in '94, there were a total of 6 volunteers and $57 in the bank account. That was it. This was the state organization that put out a bimonthly newsletter, manned a Homeschooler FAQ Telephone Hotline, kept watch on the Colorado legislature for us, and sponsored the National Scripps Howard Spelling Bee and Odyssey of the Mind for homeschoolers? I was astounded. I was flabbergasted. Heck, I was horrified. These people needed help.

After a few meetings and a feel for what they needed and how things worked, I, (being my oddball, energetic self), dived right in. I made an estimated 2.4 million phone calls, rounded up a slew of volunteers (many hands make light work), became Volunteer Coordinator, Newsletter Editor, revamped their antiquated advertising rates, contacted every support group we knew of in the state to update the outdated 4-year-old contact info, and got elected to the Board of Directors. Within a year, CHEA was solvent again. In fact, they were so in the black, we began planning our first-ever statewide conference. None of it was easy. But, it was necessary - if I wanted to keep my inclusive, statewide org alive. And it was fun. It's very satisfying to succeed at something you believe in.

Getting folks to volunteer to do something (anything) within a support group has always been a struggle. Me being me, I see it, but I don't get it. Don't people want the satisfaction of keeping their dreams alive? Don't they want these wonderful support centers to be there when they need them? If you don't pitch in and contribute a little, who's going to? "Somebody else"? Who are these somebody elses? If every one of us said that, there'd be no support groups left in the world.

It was a problem then, but it seems a lot worse now. There's a lack of connection, or commitment, or something. There's this feeling of disconnectedness out there. Support groups struggle to get started, and then they struggle to stay afloat. Helen and I wondered if it was because of the internet boom. I mean, it seems to be, read your email, pop off a reply or two, and there you have your 'support'. Okay, that's fine, that's great. It works. For awhile. But, what about IRL? Park days? Mom's Night Out? Spanish or Science classes? What about mentors who'll answer your phone calls and speakers who'll share their expertise with your group? Do we all live in a vacuum? I certainly wouldn't want to homeschool in one. Good grief, I wouldn't have a single shred of sanity left by this point.

So it begs the questions: should we be thinking about support groups the way we always have? Or are we veterans being too 'old school'? Maybe we should be envisioning Support 2.0 instead? (Whatever that might entail.) But if that's not it at all, what could we, should do, can we, do about this ho-hum, I-want-it, but I-won't-help-out attitude?

Any ideas? I'd love to hear your comments.

Tags: Support | Home School | volunteering

A couple of friends asked me, of all the inventive names I could've come up with for this new blog, why in the world did I pick The Sound of Learning? Now, I'm only guessing, but I'm assuming they meant to imply the name didn't sound inspiring. Too simple, perhaps? Too Plain Jane? Or maybe they couldn't associate it with anything familiar.

To me, picking the name was all about association.

I've been homeschooling a long, long time. Since 1993 in fact. And yep, my kids are grown and gone. But, I'm still homeschooling. I homeschool myself. Maybe that sounds funny, but homeschooling isn't just about educating kids. It isn't only about grades K-12, or yearbook pictures, or passing the SAT with a 1400, or donning caps and gowns. These are just arbitrary timelines and society's so-called important milestones. It's about sisters and brothers, uncles and aunts, and in-laws. It's about quietly getting up at O-Dark-Thirty to watch a sunrise in your jammies, holding cups of steaming, homemade hot chocolate. Days when you figure out there must be a better way to open a new bag of flour other than ripping it wide open and having it go POOF all over the kitchen. It's about the lifelong friends we accidently meet when the car breaks down on the side of the road. And it's about parents as well; the journey homeschooling takes us on, slowly changing us along the way, taking us by surprise. We discover that, despite everything else going on in our lives, we [ahem] old folks still love to learn. We find that waiting for a simple baking soda and vinegar 'volcano' to erupt, or spending days composing silly lyrics out loud with a 6 year old, to a song that will never be published, all because her older brother has taken up some very out-of-tune guitar-playing (absolutely sure he's going be the next Eric Clapton and thrill us with his award-winning music videos on VH1), delights us more than any outside career ever could. Our days are a crazy patchwork quilt, filled with 1001 little, tiny learning moments that inspire, intrigue and spark our rusty imaginations into gear like the days we celebrated single digit birthdays. Most days are full of bursts of laughter. We collapse into bed every night, exhausted, but never having felt so good about the world or so close to our children.

That's what I was thinking about when I named this blog. All the laughter, all that fun we had. I don't think I've ever laughed so much, or been so creative, or learned as many things, as when I homeschooled my boys. All those nutty things that happened (most of them unexpected), the constant kid-noise, the endless questions and chatter, the impromptu field trips - now, that's The Sound of Learning.

Homeschooling shouldn't be a chore. It shouldn't give you a headache. And if it does, hey, back up, change a little and try something different. What have you got to lose? Learning is fun, it should make you and yours happy. To quote a famous line from a popular movie, ". . . And I'm not talking about no – Mmmhh, this tastes like real butter kind of happy. I'm talking about … Julie Andrews, twirling around like a mental patient on a mountain top kind of happy now. That’s the kind of happy I’m talking about."

My sentiments exactly. And I did do some twirling around at times (yep, there are a few home movies, and nope, you don't get to see them), but thinking about Julie Andrews led me to another thought; The Sound of Music. My eyes lit up. How perfect! How apropos! I mean, think about it. First we see her on that mountaintop, singing one of the most joyous songs ever written, an ode to the day, an ode to every new experience that comes her way. She does try to contain herself, to behave and follow all the rules, but the girls' so full of life and plain ol' unabashed happiness, it's a continuous battle. She's basically a square peg trying to fit herself into a round hole because that's the way she thinks she should be (sound familiar?). Her fellow nuns know it, and they shake their heads in bemusement, asking How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? They see that's she's got to stop forcing herself into that round hole and find another way. Wisely, the Mother Superior sees it as well, and decides to send Maria away on a task, to give her time to think and discover who she is.

And what Maria accomplishes in that temporary assignment, just by being herself! My, my. Quietly balking at whistle calls and regimentation of the children, making clothes out of what's handy (fairly ugly drapes), teaching the kids to climb trees, row boats, learn music, sing songs, put on a complicated puppet show, deal with personal fears, first heartbreak, and finally, that you can't just run away from your personal problems and expect them to go away on their own. Does this sound like a homeschooling family, or what?

For those of you that don't know, Maria is a real person. And this is the true (albeit Hollywood-ized) story of what happened to the blended von Trapp family. Of course, they didn't burst into song every 15 minutes (I don't think so, anyway), but it's definitely a great family movie I'd recommend watching. We did. Then we read the book for comparison. It ended up being the springboard to a fabulous history lesson. Not to mention world culture, geography, modern media, and songwriting (Hoping it would help the kid improve his sour guitar playing. It didn't. Oh well, mistakes are learning, too.).

The Sound of Music - The Sound of Learning. It should always feel this way. For me, it still does.

Tags: Home School | unschooled | volunteering