I just reread 'Karen' a book of my mothers about a family with a Cerebral Palsied* child. The dates are in the 1940's so of course many things have changed, but I wonder by how much.

One of the most striking comments of prejudice in the book was from legislators regarding education As the mother struggled to get funding for education of CP kids she was told in many ways "Why teach them they can never be 'normal' they will never be able to return the money in taxes"...

Is that the only aim of education to turn out 'normal' working adults?

There is a theory that public school is merely a tool of the government to turn out 'productive taxpayers'. I do not hold that all legislators and or educators are as twisted as all that, but it is an argument harder to refute with thoughtless comments like that around.

I personally am not as interested in turning my kids into tax payers as I am in watching them grow and learn, it is a wonderful thing to hear my son tell me some space or animal factoid ...That is why I share this wonderful world with him...for the pure joy of watching him accomplish what he wants.

The joy of watching a child take their first step, is the same kind of joy as you watch them write their name, or read a word, or create a story, or sing a song, or any skill.

And the joy of knowing that a certain four legged animal is a dog and says 'woof' is the same as the joy of knowing what the 8 planets are (and which got demoted) Or where Guatemala is or how to work a complex equation, or any factoid....

Or is it just me? Am I member of a small group that loves watching the pride children take in their own accomplishments? Is it really only a means to an end for most? Is there no reason to learn beyond a bigger paycheck?

I hope not, I know my children take delight in learning, and in watching others learn (and in teaching) I hope that joy never leaves them, and I hope they can find a way to spread it to friends and neighbors. I certainly have had no luck at it myself.

*

Wiki on CP

less technical, more friendl info on CP

My son wanted to do something for a boy at church who helped him with Vacation Bible school.

So he wrote out a recipe for chocolate cake, since he is only 5 he doesn't get to actually cook very often, he thought the recipe part he could do on his own.
Here it is with all the spelling errors included:

12 eggs
2 cups o fouer5 cups of suger
4 silsis of chees
110 cups of choclet

he also wrote "Happey birhday"

Now I have no idea when The kids birthday is, but I really hope he thinks the recipe is as cute as I do (and I might make some cupcakes for Church Sunday..)

On a completely unrelated but financial note...please don't text me...I do not appreciate paying 15 cents just cause you pay 10$ extra a month (that is 120 a year)for unlimited service..I don't, don't text. Feel free to call, I have that option in plentiful supply. (and quite frankly if all you wanted was a quick word, email me, I read that daily, I NEVER read the text)

Well I seem to be on a roll with the controversial topics, but these are funny IMO...







And I happen to have just spent a week working with public (and private) mass schooled kids...I have no idea what they do all day, but they don't even know what verbs are! (least not the majority of the not so random sampling of 45 Lutheran youth we worked with science on...)

All cartoons from

Mallarcd Fillmore

And my personal favorite...

Just cause it is true

Disclaimer, I do not agree with all of Mallards topics.

First of all, how would I let him sleep in after a late night? Every Cubscout night is way to late, he doesn't nap, but he will sleep in.

And who would vacuum the boy room? It would still be used by UE and JC, but UE can't vacuum yet, and JC already does her own.

While on the subject, when would he dust? again, room would be used, but UE doesn't dust well (though better than he vacuums)

Moving along the morning, would I have to remind him to put his clothes away after dinner like I do daddy? I prefer having them put away right after they are folded (most often by him)

What about reading those nifty Ranger Rick mags...would seem silly to read them to UE alone, but with GMC makes sense....Or that cool book on King Tuts tomb, totally not JC's speed, but really interesting. Now way would I read that to myself, but hearing GMC read it...Somehow only reading at bedtime doesn't seem like enough. Especially since many evenings are full of company, music or cubscouts, or swimming and the story is cut out or at least shortened.

And who would I play Go with? JC is too young, and most adults I know don't play (not to mention they tend to work during the day)

What about Oregon trail! when would we get to try again to actually make it to Oregon?

And who would be Papa bear for the skit he wants to do with sock puppets?

When would I find the time to play with paper clay, or science experiments?

And would the cute things he say be enough if I only got to hear them from 3-7? I rather like the quiet breakfast with JC, and the later insights of GMC....(on days when he sleeps in, breakfast is late for him, JC NEVER sleeps in - but she napa)

Not to mention seeing him remake a optical illusion while drawing (draw two small pictures about 2 inches apart, look at the mid spot and move the paper closer to your nose, the two objects will move into each other) I would have to wait till 3 to see it, if he even remembered what on earth that window and guy was drawn for!

And that little aside while figuring out some division sums about how easy division is...wouldn't get to hear that if he was doing division for someone else...not to mention he wouldn't be allowed division in public school.

No I can't think of anything that would be better if he were gone all day....I don't even know what I would do with myself...

Since this is the first year he would legally be allowed to enter public school Kindergarten I am being asked a lot more why we don't send him....This week I was asked if I hadn't been looking forward to sending him to school. Nope.

ps

cutoff age by state

Child Brain Development
Measures of brain activity show that during the second half of a child's first year, the prefrontal cortex, the seat of forethought and logic, forms synapses at such a rate that it consumes twice as much energy as an adult brain. That furious pace continues for the child's first decade of life. from

brain connection

now I have proof, my kids brain is working harder than mine.

Well there are some more expensive, but this will be the most expensive experiment I ever do.

For VBS we volunteered to do the science, I don't think that is a mistake I ever intend to repeat.

there are supposed to be 4 different experiments every day! We cut it down to 3 one for each age, but that still has my head spinning, I am used to one a day, all kids share, and no fancy supplies allowed (no budget)

Day one and each day after we are working on growing 'coral', which will actually be salt crystal formations, supposedly they look similar to certain kinds of coral.

the bottle of 'blueing' needed costs 7$...enough for 4 kids to make a batch....we have 50 coming...there is no way we are buying enough for all 50 kids!

Instead we are planning on putting several kids together in one tray and hoping to transfer the finished product at the end of the lesson...might get away with only 3 bottles.

While I know you can give every 8 weeks, I prefer to wait for the blood drive at church every 12 weeks, I know the staff of the nursery, and the folk 'taking' know us.

Which means they know my husband is not permitted to get up without first drinking juice, and eating and an escort...cause he fell once, or rather sat down fast.

I on the other hand changed my usual routine and managed to fill the bag in 6 minutes as opposed to the half hour it took last time. Hopefully this is a new tradition for me, and my husband not having trouble is a new tradition for him.

The secret might be in the food/drink, I had oatmeal and a banana for breakfast, he had about a gallon of orange juice while donating.

Either way it is a simple way to help out, and my oldest gets to learn all sorts of things about blood and donating and needles and iron, great education, the other two are too short yet.

While watching the printer print a new batch of worksheets for the kids I found this:

proffessor stops using textbook

I recall one of my old proffs who never once cracked the book, all her material and homework was copied from news articles and reports....Unfortunately buying a book was still required by the college.

Internet4classrooms

I found this site looking for some science papers, or links. It has the Tennessee requirements with links that will fulfill each one.

grade level list this page has links for each skill set and grade, find your subject and see what there is out there.

The website has 'links valid as of' from December of last year, pretty far away, but more recent than many I have seen. Hopefully in the fall they will update again.

That is an actual quote from my daughter last night. "people give me too many clothes."

I asked her what she would like to do about it and she said she wanted to give the extra to 'kids who need them'. So we headed off to her room and sorted out her pants drawer (the only one she was concerned with). Don't worry she is still a girly girl, all the neutral clothes were for donation, the pink and flowered clothes were kept.

But still warms a mommas heart to hear her little one wanting to share.

Today we were talking about Hawaii, did you know they have and alphabet with only 12 letters? And that the chain has 135 islands on it? In an effort to see the rest of the islands (beyond Maui, and such) I tried a Google map search..no real luck, I think if I knew the name I could zoom in and find one, but without a name they seem to be too small to see from the last view of the main islands.

In an effort not to disappoint the kids I let them zoom in and out and look all around. First came a request for Asia, simple and not to precise, then the great wall of china..since the books say you can see it and I told them it was a satellite picture....apparently the books lie...or rather I am not that good at finding a squiggly unnatural line, in among a mountain range full of squiggly lines...but Google to the rescue, just type in 'great wall of china' in the map search and it takes you right to the center of it!

After he asked for Russia and I suggested we go to the capital, he asked for lots of other capitals..eventually since I don't know the capital of India we Google searched that first (capital India...New Delhi) among many other capitals.

And later we remembered to search out Guatemala, since our church is sending a mission team over there at the end of the month, we had been talking about it and gathering supplies to send with them.


I love spending an afternoon learning with the kids..for free

[i]Decide what your time is worth: Take some time to calculate how much you your time is worth. Whatever you decide your hourly rate is worth, that is how much you must pay to watch each hour of TV over your allotted weekly free hours with the money going toward your savings.

This can be an excellent financial lesson for kids to determine their hourly worth as friends of mine with kids who adopted this strategy found out. If the kids set their worth too low in an attempt to watch TV on the cheap, you can hire them to do projects around the house for that same. low rate. On the other hand, if they demand too much money to do jobs that you want them to do, they won’t be able to afford to watch any additional TV over their allotted hours.]

more here

Remind me when the kids are older to try that...prolly have to try it with computer time, not TV though.

Course the question is..I don't have cable, I don't watch 5 hours a week much less a day..so why don't I have a ton of money?...cause I am online instead

Actually two are done, the firs is smaller and not in the slightest straight, the second is better and you can see it is supposed to be straight.

I am rather impressed with myself, not only did I finish...but I wouldn't be too terribly embarrassed to show it to someone.

before I wash it and find out how well it stands up to use I am going to show it to my teacher...just to prove I did it , and ask for advice on crooked edges.

Now I have half a skein of yarn, purple, and not sure what to do with it. I would like to make something for my daughter, since she loves purple, but I don't know how. And I do not want to wait till Sunday cause if I stop working I will forget how!

I actually learned around age 5, my mother taught me. But I never got past a chain stitch, and I never made anything more than a hair tie for my barbies.

Now I am working with the people at our church, I had a wonderful lesson Sunday and now have a nifty...not well made, washcloth. I am going to try and make another and follow the pattern better, but regardless if it works I will have a free dishcloth, and I have too many in tatters to pass that up. Only trouble is the free yarn I was offered is purple, I hate purple.

Though I might give the next one to my mother in law, she has a drawer full of dish clothes that she doesn't really use, cause she doesn't want to get them dirty....I on the other hand use mine for everything and anything..I avoid paper towel use at almost all costs. And it shows, she has a drawer stuffed full of pretty looks like new dish clothes and I have a drawer mostly empty of holey well used dish clothes...so for looks, she wins...but..cost wise, I think I win.

Now my son is asking me how to crochet...I don't think he needs any hair ties..so not sure what he is going to do with them, but I will let him try...and did I mention it was free? Education is more seeking out knowledge, than paying for classes IMO.

First I am admitting my lousy slang, I did just say "wanna" instead of the proper, "would you like me to teach you" but well...no one said I am perfect.

Second, this is it, I am letting you all in on the big secret of how I 'make' my kids learn.....I don't. Really I don't. I just offered to show GMC a faster way to multiply double digit numbers...instead of adding 40 up 7 times....his reply "nope".

So here I am online, not teaching him. Might sound terrible, but what good would a battle be? Why bother fighting when he will come back eventually wanting a faster way. It worked when I waited for him to want to read, I have every reason to believe it will work now.

Actually immediately after refusing the lesson, he pulled out a reptile/amphibian word search. We read the top about what they are, and came to a mention of caecilians ..I said "I don't know what that is", he told me..."its like a lizard worm" which based on wiki

it is... Now if only I could figure out how to pronounce it.



So you see it might seem like I am not teaching, but apparently they are learning......just not on my timetable, nor on the states, nor on anyone else's time table. They learn what they want when they want, I just provide lots of opportunity for interesting information and experiences.

PS total cost of lesson...zero....downloaded worksheet, book from my childhood, and Google search from the internet we already splurge on.

Go is a very old game that my father taught me when I was very young. I never mastered even the simplest level, but I did recall fun times with my father.

Now my dad is a Grandpa, and he is trying to teach the new generation better. GMC received a set of stones and board and book last month and promptly learned to beat his momma. My skills have not improved much over the years.

So far I seem to hold my own if he has no handicap, but something about being 5 leads him to think he aught to have one.

Grandpa directed us to

IGoWin a free download mini game of Go. So long as I have a 5 stone handicap I can win, once I start losing that the computer soundly thrashes me (GMC too, so it isn't just my pathetic skills)

Though the computer game is nice (and smarter than I) the board and stones are a bit more fun, something about having cool black and white 'stones' to shuffle thru your fingers as you await your next turn beats watching a computer beep at you any day.

JC and UE quickly discovered the fun and now UE knows the colors black and white and sorts beautifully. JC plays a simple 'capture the stone game' which she still has never won against me (though she beat her big bro once)

So what is so educational about taking turns plunking stones on a board?

- Keeping score, score is the total of empty area surrounded, which is either a counting skill, or a multiplying skill (if you have a rectangle of 3 points high by 4 across you get 12 points, 3*12) or adding (if you have an irregular shape, 9 from a square plus 3 odd balls)

Scoring also involves simple geometry principles...at the end game you can rearrange a messy looking territory into a nice neat rectangle for counting so long as you keep the area the same.

Not to mention negative numbers. Each stone of your own that gets captured is used to fill in your final territory, making it essentially a negative point. ( 'dead stones' are also negative points)

- Logic, and thinking ahead, and all that other stuff, the same reasons why people like to teach kids chess. Only go can be taught in under 5 minutes, no need to remember a bunch of different piece rules. (not that it is easier to master, just quicker to know the rules of). Not to mention a go board and set of stones can take up less space.

- Sportsmanship...there isn't much luck involved, a good player will win over a less experienced player every time. Bit frustrating if you are used to being 'let win' but good for you. Handicaps are the 'leveler' a good player gives free spots on the board to the weaker player before the start of the game. Which brings up a hidden point of knowing your own weaknesses...and not letting them stop you.

A Go board and stones have many other uses besides playing Go.

- Geometry is fun to explore by letting a kid make shapes on the board with several stones...How many different shapes can you make with 20 stones? Or patterns, black white black white is basic, how about BL,WH, BL,BL,WH,WH, BL,BL,...?

- Division and multiplication, addition and subtraction with stones is simple to see on the grid board. (of course area, you don't have to play a game to practice area)

- If your bowls are opaque (as in you can't see thru them) you can practice the principle of one more/one less. Show your child 5 and count them. place 5 in/under the bowl, then remove one, and ask how many are left. for a younger child they will most likely want to count (use your hand if your bowls are clear) Continue removing one down to zero, then work you way back up.

- Or use the stones to make letters, with or without the grid (a grid will help children recognize that letters need uniform proportion)

- Binary/ use the two colors and try to write the date with stones (eg today is the bl,bl,bl/bl,wh,bl,bl), using the stones instead of 1's and 0's makes the whole number for number a bit less confusing (just keep the system constant, black is always 1 for example) Or you could write your age, or years of scouting, schooling, or favorite number.

1. Take one sheet of paper, divide into two sections,
2. draw a red line just to the left of the middle and a blue line just to the right of the middle.
3. Offer child multiple crayons of either red or blue shades (check that you don't have orange with a red wrapper)
4. Encourage child to scribble/draw red on the red side, or blue on the blue side.
5. Keep saying, oh now you have blue, lets draw on the blue side, what a nice red scribble, ect.

For older children write the words red and blue (in red and blue if you like) to practice reading.

Or use a larger sheet and divide it into many sections, find a color for each.

For adults write the word red in blue and blue in red...see how long it takes before they realize they are doing it wrong.

We had a fun day at the church decorating shirts and playing. It cost 5 dollars for each shirt, but I cheated and brought 3 of our shirts to decorate with the stuff.

I didn't mean to cheat, we also bought two shirts, but I packed spare clothes in case they got really dirty outside or paint on them, and decided to decorate them too. It was loads of fun.

I also made muffins to share and took some grapes and carrots, half of which we got back. Perfect packing for snacking before/after the library tomorrow.

I also got a list of books from

bookadventure.com to take to the library to see if the kids can find a couple to read for points.

Actually we already made one, like I said I never remember things!

instructables wallet

But I thought it was cool enough to share, you make a wallet out of paper, which means kids can color it and older ones can do all the making. Of course for fathers who don't get to splurge on themselves a gift card or cash inside would be cool.

Their is a suggestion for cutting out a photo window and putting clear contact to make a window which could have a photo made by the kids with 'Greatest Dads club member' instead of license or state name. Just grab your own license and redo all the questions for Dads..issued date would be the date of the oldest birth.

Only thing I would recommend is to have an adult make the wallet before inviting kids to try, you will get stuck on the final phase and not want kids pestering you to tell them how to do it.

For a long time now we have been playing a game at dinner of quiz questions for a trophy..the trophy can be anything, from the ketchup bottle to a straw to the cup (we often share water when out)

The hardest part is Mom or Dad having to come up with all the questions! After awhile you start to think you have asked 3*6 every day and are not sure which numbers are being left out.

Today I hit upon a great idea to make my life easier...dice. I have a nifty 'die in a die' it actually has a 6 sided die inside of another six sided die. I love it, and the kids love it. We took turns rolling and multiplying, dividing, adding, or subtracting the two numbers. (depending on the kid and skill level)

Then I started thinking of all the ways dice could help with quizzing.

For young kids, I could use one die and have them count the dots, or have them find the side with 6 (or 2, whatever) I have a die with just numbers on it, instead of dots, perfect for practice recognizing 1-6.

For other subjects like geography, you could write up 11 questions numbered 2-12 (or use other types of dice, 20 questions for a 20 sided die, and whatnot) Roll the dice add them up and answer the corresponding question.

Or for more open ended questions, I wrote up an English list. 2. Nouns...that way I have a general pointer, to ask a question about a noun, but I can tailor the question to a specific kid. I can ask:
"what is a noun",
"name a noun",
"is 'walk' a noun"
"what are the nouns in this sentence...'Jeffrey walked his Dog.'"

Most subjects could be open ended that way.

Even after I left the room to go take care of UE they were still passing the die back and forth to add or multiply the two numbers. It was sooo cute.

Actually I know myself, when I had the idea I did it that day, I didn't trust myself to wait till his birthday or fathers day! but here it is:

1. The treasure map. The kids picked a treasure...we are poor (less than 15% tax bracket here) and besides I wanted the treasure NOW. So we wrote a poem..something corny:

And really play and play and today..bit redundant, but since he thought it was mostly my 5 year old he didn't complain.

I printed the poem and had the kids decorate the page.

Then we drew a map of the house and yard, and dug a couple holes. One to put the treasure in (we actually put the paper in a zip lock, and that zip lock in a peanut butter container....cleaned out). The other holes were to make life less easy on my husband.

Then I took the map and buried it in a bit of mud, wiped it off on the grass, and crumpled it a up a bunch of times.

Then I tore it in four pieces and put one in each kid's pocket plus one in mine.

He had to put the map together decipher it (no neat labels) and find the right hole, then dig it up.

He loved it .

2. For his birthday (OK fine the day before) My son asked to make him a "hunt where you find a hint and that leads you to another hint" So we did, I took the cards they all made and put them in a zip lock (handy things zip locks) then we decorated door hangers, one side had the kids pictures, the other had a clue.

I put the first on the door in from the garage (that he normally comes in on) and the others around the house.

Your clues will have to vary, and they don't have to be easy or rhyme, mine were.

---Look for games and fun to find clue number one (hanging where we keep games)

----For clue number two look for a shoe.

Then the final one was 'head out the door' and I put that zip lock sticking out of the grill (cause I didn't know what number rhymed with grill....never claimed creativity here.)

They made extra door hangers so we had some 'nopes' in case the clue wasn't obvious enough (or to use up time with kids who love to draw...whichever)

Anyway if you happen to have a husband like mine, either hunt would work well for Fathers day.

Edit oh yeah if you do fathers day with multiple generations you could bury a 'treasure' for each father...then let them try to find the right one.

1. We don't do much teaching. We are facilitators,

someone who facilitates meaning we make the path of learning easier. That is it, the main goal of most homeschoolers is to help our children reach their full potential, to learn 'all they need' to be the best they can be. How homeschoolers define 'all they need' varies, but the base is the same, we want to facilitate the learning so no time is wasted. Sometimes that makes us look like traditional teachers, playing games to help memorize states and capitals, other times it means we look 'lazy', watching our kid build yet another lego contraption, but all of us are simply trying to facilitate our children's learning path.

2. It didn't start out easy, in fact many days it still isn't! I remember the first time I heard about 'teachable moments' which is the idea of finding a moment to pass on a nugget of knowledge. I was positive I would never see one. But then one time I counted shoes with no previous lesson plan, another I explained somewhat solar energy when a kid asked why the sidewalk was hot. before I knew it I was seeing teachable moments left and right! No matter what skill is involved in facilitating education I had to learn it, John Holt had to learn it, and you can learn it. If at first you don't succeed try try again!

3. YOU are a home schooler...no matter who you are, or how many children you do or do not have, you ARE 'schooling' at home. If you have a kid, look at how they eat, sleep, brush their teeth, swagger, or channel hop. They learned it somewhere, and that somewhere is you. Of course if you have multiple kids you may notice not all pick up the same lessons...real learning is caught, not taught, maybe one picked up Dads swagger while another picked up moms channel hopping, they will carry that swagger/hop with them for years, but will forget the list of groceries you had them memorize in a snap.

If you do not have kids it is harder to see, but do you have pet? where did they learn food comes in that bowl every day at 6 am sharp? (or not) you, they caught that information from you. If no pets look at your neighbors, do they know you always park in the street on the far side of the mailbox? Do your coworkers know you always stop by coffee o'rama before work? Or that you make the best brownies?

You made the learning of that easy by just doing it. So you are an educator (not that your parking habits are useful...unless you park in the far lot to walk for health and your not so slender coworkers wonder what you secret is...then you are being a facilitator of health education.)

Children are not so different, humans of all ages are designed to learn, we just get to decide what information we are passing along, to be picked up or not.

4 And the barely connected financial note...facilitating is way cheaper than teaching! We just have to provide opportunity's, not lesson plans, fancy materials, or specialized equipment. No money spent on that complete lesson book with extra test guide, no need to fork over hundreds for state of the art microscopes, the best part of learning is finding someone who has one and learning with them! No need for the class on wallpapering when you have a dad who does it daily. Just the need to loosen up and try new methods, try new ways of thinking and talking and try new experiences with others. (this doesn't mean you can't spend more, after all variety can lead to more moola spent, and so called teaching supplies are nothing if not varied)

For further reading try What the rest of us can learn from homeschooling

1. Write a ‘secret message’ with a made up code to email to family. Decode the answer when it comes.
2. Borrow a book or 20 from the library on Tuesday (really my family is like the proverbial ‘kid in the candy shop’ around books). Discover your kid reads too fast, and you need more (and it was only Friday!)
3. Make up a new magic trick using ‘slight of hand’ and two crackers and a napkin.
4. Google ‘free internet math games’ and see what happens (or

science, geography or reading or whatever)
5. Calculate if 1 million one-inch tall figurines would touch the moon or not.
6. Ruin husband and child’s fun by telling them 1,000 one inch figurines would crush the one on the bottom, meaning you could never make it to 1 million.
7. Calculate the amount of water it would take to fill a skyscraper. (Because he asked)
8. Chop up some radish ends for worms, head to hermans place for more on worms.
9. Try to make a ‘pull back car’ zoom up a block ramp and cross several bears (stuffed). Experiment with steeper ramps, shorter ramps, etc. then make a ‘Rube Golberg’ contraption (known as a ‘duck trap’ to our kids) out of the blocks (and cars, and a duck)
10. spend 20 minutes hunting up odd links for a post on SA

1.You have to be rich to afford one parent to stay home. Actually no, we all need enough for food and shelter, then we spend what is left on other things….in our case with careful planning there is enough to go on trips to DC and museums and science centers, and more but I would be home regardless, so long as there is food on the table and shelter, I stay home, the rest is further down the priority list. If you are putting anything above staying home besides food and shelter, than just be honest, it isn’t that you can’t afford it, it is that you choose other things first.

2.The wife has to stay unless you are nursing (and even then you would pump to leave the kid at daycare, just pump to leave them with Dad) There is no particular reason for mom to stay over dad, that is purely a personality issue. Pick the one most likely to play all day. (As opposed to cleaner or teacher see next myth) (though you also need to make sure the one working has a salary that covers the food and shelter)

3. All you do is clean and teach Are you kidding that’s what the kids are for! What do you think they do while I type up silly lists! (Actually they nap, oldest is goofing off, quietly) However, if you do not like talking to kids for significant stretches of time, if you do not enjoy watching a child discover reading, or flowers, or bugs, or trees, if you cannot stand the thought of changing diapers and reviewing proper teeth brushing techniques yet again, if hearing a person chew with their mouth gaping open after being told to close it for the millionth time makes you lose your lunch (anybody got a cure for adult relatives with this problem?), if hearing a story about a giant truck for the tenth time makes your blood boil, and the thousand ‘kids’ who eat a googolplex eggs, etc. then kids might not be in your best future whether you stay home or not. If you do chose to stay, and you are about to smash something…. send them off to play with something and go take a break, no one said it was even good for kids to be interacted with 24/7…they need time alone to process. Not only naps, but also time to play while adults err, clean (Or maybe something more interesting, but common, cleaning does need to be done sometime)

4. Children need other children unless you live on a remote location with only you your spouse and kid, they will get other interactions, many much more useful than a room full of same age kids. No offense intended to the 3 year olds in the world, but well lets face it, they are in the minority…most of the people in the world are over 3, and most adults spend their time with older people, so knowing how to get along with a 3 year is a rather limited skill that my 3 year old doesn’t have to learn. (Her big bro never did, she on the other hand is very social) I would like to suggest the opposite of this is true, children need to spend more time with a variety of people of all ages, and less with their age-mate peers.

5.you will all get sick at the same time while I have not done nor seen a fancy medical study, I have heard from many stay home families and all out the house families….if one kid gets sick they all do, in or out of the house, the common cold is common for a reason. Misc, genetic traits and hand washing habits can help, but the short version is, unless you quarantine a kid you all are going to get it (and who wants to quarantine a kid with the sniffles…. poor bored kid)

6. One parent home equals always home, how boring yes it certainly would be! Fortunately this myth is easily disproved, pick up a copy of available classes at a large library (nature center, science center, museum, whatever), check out how many are during normal ‘working hours’ who do you think goes to them? Yep, houseparents. We are not always home, and the degree of home or out is totally up to the individual parenting style/personality.

7.And I am saving the best for last home kids are healthier/sicker, watch more/less tv, get sick more/less, smarter/slower, clingier/more independent, more mental health issues/less…etc truthfully, the studies I have seen for either side of any of the above(and you can find an expert or two million on each side, for or against) showed mostly the same….like the drink being oh so proud of 56%…really home or away it is still up to the adults in charge, whether that is mostly mom or dad, or well chosen care givers (or not so well chosen) kids are a product of their interactions (and lack therof) Until the age of ‘formal education’ home or away, kids statistically average about the same. (And if you want to talk myths of home education, well that is a whole “nother kettle o’ fish”, but in short

statistically we win)

* a googgolplex is a one followed by a googol zeros, in short a really big number, and a delight to small boys. and no firefox doesn't recognize it.

My youngest loves to color (scribble) and feels like a big kid when he joins his brothers and sisters in 'worksheets'. While he is far to young to really grasp any lesson, he does like to point to what he colored and tell you what it is.

I have hunted up dogs, and horses, and all sorts of animals.

We traced hands and feet, and made a face. (complete with baby blue eyes)

Today after going thru all the animals, I thought I would hunt up a couple of his favorite letters (D, his big bros favorite, E his sisters favorite, and Q...no idea why)

After a futile search turning up only pages with words (far to advanced) or animals sortof shaped like a letter (nice for older kids, not for him) I thought, hey all I want is a letter I can make that on word...then I remembered I did that already, long ago for my daughter and put it all on pdf and put it online to share....duh!

In the hunt to find things online, I often forget what work I already did.

I found the test a bit longer than 5 minutes, but I had to read the directions first...if you take this test with your kids, read the directions then call them over!

I also found the skills to test a bit higher than my expectations, but I understand they are based on No Child Left Behind standards (we'll leave the commentary on that to another day)

ReadingKey

On this page is lots of 'why you need us' and a link to a test that will ask for a name and approximate grade level (though I do not know why since you then have to take a pretest before it will send you to the actual grade test...)

Might be a direct link to the test.

reading test

The first 9 weeks of each grade are free to download and print, as well as some of the extras.

printable links

Scroll down for each grade (including kindergarten level) look for clues like 'worksheets' to find the free part.

Last night as we were tidying up the living room I asked my son to pick up a few things, with his nose in a book, he didn't pay any attention.

He dad told him he was a reading addict like his momma (Ok so a few minutes earlier with my nose in a book I might have ignored someone....like Daddy)

I realized this morning as I asked GMC to wind up the vacuum cleaner cord. He took the book he was reading with him, placed it on the floor, open, beside the vacuum, and continued to read while winding up the cord!



I think we may have a problem...the younger two are a bit book obsessed as well.

A great way for children to learn about money is to use it. Most people have thought of setting up a home 'store' with toys or fake food for sale, and then you have to make price tags, and store the 'stuff'.

I was always lazy, I use a shape puzzle that we have around for our youngest. Pricing is easy, each shape costs 1 cent per side (a lesson in shapes and money) For my older son we used 10cents per side (lesson in equality)

I usually 'shortchange' my kids in pennies (or dimes for older) that way they have to earn more, or trade in dimes for them. (or if ready, work on making change)

After todays lesson, I talked more about how grownups have to budget. I pointed out that we had to pay for the house (pentagon, almost house shaped) and we had to pay for the car (trapezoid) and we needed food (square, 4 food groups) and some all around house bills (circle), and phone (half circle, it looks kinda like a phone). Then we were almost out of money, we could either pay for a trip to the science center (rectangle, medium bill) or eating out (oval, small bill) or take a vacation to see family up north (hexagon, big bill)

He noticed we couldn't do all of them, but if we skipped the science center and eating out we could go on vacation....

Pretty nifty the mileage you can get out of one wooden puzzle!

Sorry bout the multiple postings, but I had the thoughts today..didn't want to trust my memory to wait.

Last night we played a game with the kids, "Pin the hat on bob" which is essentially 'pin the tail on the donkey' only with a dude and a hat, not a tail and an a... err donkey.

The kids had a blast! So did Daddy, it was adorable! But the game came out of a devotions book, and was supposed to help them see how they needed rules, or guidance to succeed...and well none of them really needed help, so I was thinking the lesson failed. (though it was fun!)


GMC

Then today I thought about how they managed without help. My husband did a great job of showing us. He stumbled around on his knees (to avoid stepping on small fry) and then felt his way to a wall, he knows our house so he knew where to go from there, but if he wasn't in a house he knew, he wouldn't have had much help from that wall.



UE

I thought about how we need to spend more time in 'God's house' not necessarily church, but in prayer, devotion, study, bible reading, etc, and living life the way God wants us to. Maybe if we know Gods house really well, then when we bump into a wall we can find our way to our goal.


JC

I got smart, I took the pictures today and I am posting them today, not taking any chances of them disappearing to the black abyss of my husbands hard drive.

Unfortunately no great pictures of the kids, but I have sunflower shoots, and a worm bin.

The kids read about a 'sunflower secret hideout' and they wanted us to plant one, I am not sure it will live but I let them try, we even bought good dirt for it....


The rocks are to keep the dirt from washing down, my backyard is mostly a hill.

You know there is an amazing amount of beauty in one tiny shoot...


And here is a whole row of them, some a bit to close, which is what happens when you let a 1 year old help you plant!


This is it folks, not fancy, not pretty...and from what I read, might not make it. I have plans of moving it to a less wet spot, hope it helps.



On a financial note.....all the dirt and seeds came in under budget last month. mostly cause the worms and bin were free .