Not Another Homeschool Blog

While she has gone through all the motions of applying to colleges with great results, she has yet to show any real passion about going to college. She only wants to go...  one might say, to get away from parental micromanagement.  (Trying to not take it personally.) In an effort to help her find a college that would put a smile on her face, I started talking about colleges in NY.  That makes her really happy, but once again, since she is so young, it has been agreed that NY isn't going to happen right away.  Then came the magical words.   Grad School.

I have been raising kids for 18 years.  I have been homeschooling for 10.  It is almost over because my youngest is finishing early with college acceptance letters in hand.  Time for the happy-dance, right?  Wrong. People, other homeschoolers, and also some family members are trying to get me to reconsider LETTING my child go to college at 17 (summer birthday).  Apparently they don't know her like they think they do.  Just like myself, no one LETS her do anything.  She bulldozes through life, leaving accomplishments and her wake and woe to anyone who tries to stop her.  I certainly know better.  So

Photo generously provided by another parent My daughter (and some years my son too), has been in chorus for 6 years.  Last night was my daughter's last Christmas concert  performance as a high school student.  The concert was amazing.  I hope to be able to follow up with this some video... which I myself did not take, but several other parents did. They started out with sacred music, much of which was performed last month at competition, and as they evening progressed, the music got more jolly, and ended on a positively hilarious note.  And after all was said and done, a few kids got back on the stage and performed "fruitcake", a song they had done in previous years but was not on their program this year. Here's a list of some of the songs, just to give you an idea of the depth and breadth of the concert: Bethlehem Procession Thanks Giving Prayer Silver Swan Gloria Swing Down Sweet Chariot Dance at the Manger Tollite Hostias Feliz Navidad All I...

Whenever I host a Carnival of Homeschooling, I read the posts as they come in and try to see how they may tie in together- to see if a theme may emerge.  This time I found less similarities than in previous issues.  To me, this shows how homeschooling has evolved since I began 10 long years ago. Back then, every homeschooler I met was an Evangelical Christian, and homeschooling mostly for religious reasons.  This made me stand out because while I am Christian, I wouldn't call myself Evangelical, and I was homeschooling out of what I felt was necessity.   Personally, I find comfort in the diversity that has evolved in the homeschooling community, and would like to celebrate in this edition of The Carnival of Homeschooling.   Peeking in:   If you were to peek into the houses of several homeschoolers, you would find some busy at school.  You would find others laid back.  Others still would seem to be in a state of complete Chaos. The followin...

I am hosting the Carnival of Homeschooling this coming week (Tuesday) and would love submissions from my readers and favorite homeschool bloggers. Here are the directions for submitting a post: http://whyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2005/12/where-to-send-your-submission-for-next.html Or send your submission by email to CarnivalOfHomeschooling@gmail.com include this information: Title of Post URL of Post Name of Blog URL of Blog Brief summary of the post (With "carnival" or "submission" in the subject field of the email.)

In my last post, Grading subjects that haven't been taught , I touched on integrating language arts into other subjects.  The comment that followed made it clear that I must be more specific. Here is how I would, and in some cases, have integrated language arts into science and social studies, and art, etc, eliminating the need to do a lot of painful language arts exercises. Lower Elementary: Trips to the science museum, zoos, and science experiment workshops are always preceding by reading about the subject matter and the scientists or historical figures involved.  Their interests were most piqued in anticipation of the outing, and so they payed attention, and they were always ready to discuss the subject matter during the outing.  There was one circumstance when we went to an art museum, for

I can't tell you how many times I have heard people ask, "how do you decide their grades?"  "How do we know you are even teaching the subjects you say you are teaching?"  That's a really good question, and I suggest people start directing that to the brick and mortar schools and away from homeschoolers. It is actually a fact  that there are teachers giving less and less science instruction, and just filling in the blank or report cards.  Yes, grading a subject they never taught.  It's a shame really.  It's clear that there is little time to teach science due to all the testing and preparing for tests that are going on.  But with a

As thanksgiving approaches, and we become nostalgic, my heart oddly turns inward this year.  It seems that all of the gifts I have been given this year, focus on myself, my heart, my peace of mind.  So here is what I am thankful for. I am thankful that my son has acclimated to college, even though he appears to be much happier away from home than he was at home.  It makes me sad that he wasn't as happy at home, but I have come to realize that he was becoming a man, and had an urge to go out into the world, and not hang on to

The plan was originally, to do a full unit in Government for my daughter's senior year.  When we found out that is was required for accreditation to do 1/2 unit plus 1/2 unit of economics, our plans were changed.  We went from using the textbook, Politics in America , and the Hippocampus Government program to just using Hippocampus and leaving out the written assignments.   That, I hoped would take a good 60-70 hours creating a half credit.    To my surprise, my daughter sped through the information, scoring in the 90th percentile on all tests, within maybe 30 hours tops.  I was concerned that her lack of interest in the subject had translated to

I've been called lucky.  I have a good, good husband, who I love and who loves me.  He put's up with my special brand of crazy, he helps me out around the house, and he dominates in the kitchen.  I will gladly report that he is a better momma than I am to the kids, and he's just yummy looking. But it bothers me when people say I am lucky to have him.  First of all, he didn't just fall into my lap, and he wasn't my only option.  But I looked at him and evaluated his foibles and values against those of others and made a decision with my brain, that he was the person I wanted a relationship with.  His were the genes I wanted to merge mine with.  He was the person I wouldn't get tired of when the excitement of a new relationship was over.  So I let myself love him. That's not luck, that was wisdom.

When I started homeschooling, there was a lot of talk about homeschool uniforms.  You know, moms in denim jumpers, kids in prairie wear.  I made it a point to dress as fashionably as possible, even though I really did love my denim dresses (but I owned them long before I ever decided to homeschool). With my own wardrobe as fashionable and trendy as possible...  T-shirts, jeans (not mom jeans), cute dresses, etc, it came time to help my children form their own styles.  I was grateful that being the height of fashion was not on my son's agenda.  In our Atlanta suburb, saggy jeans that show underwear, $100.00+ sneakers, and other thug-wear is very popular.  I wasn't having it, and my son had no desire to do it either.  So, yes, his clothes border or a little nerdy... we like to call it preppy.  He has a more casual version of his father's professional wardrobe.  Good and done. But then there was... the girl.  Dressing girls is a pain ...

This has been a low-key week with me staying as close to my bed as possible.  Hence, the lack of blogging. I was up to my eyeballs in work and business for the last 6 weeks with my daughters competitions, elections, and finally, the fall play, which I was costuming.  With the exception of the pile of dirty dress shirts in the trunk of my car, and answering surveys about my precinct managers, all of that work is behind me.  I am spending the week napping. On the homeschool front, my daughter is currently finishing up her unit on Government, and then we will start her second trimester for the year.  As of Friday, she will have completed Spanish, Government, and Business & Personal Math, and part 1 of Physical Science.  This next Trimester will be the remainder of Physical Science, Economics, and Analyzing Literature (in the form of a CLEP exam).  After that, sometime in late winter, she will only have to do a health unit, and work on finishing her S...

My daughter is currently in her homeschool group's production of A Christmas Carol.  She is playing The Landlady (and is in a couple other scenes as party guests).  She always plays the meanest, sassiest character in the play.  I personally was starting to get a complex about this, but even with the smaller role she had in this play, she got noticed.  The co-coordinator of the community theater organization (whose building we were using) asked me a few questions about her, and was shocked to realize that she was so young.. only 16.  He then gave me his business card and said that she should audition for their upcoming plays.  He said she was talented and seasoned beyond her years. Add this to the comments I got last week at the college competition, and I know that she is walking down the right path. FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE ahermitt.com

The election was 2 days ago and I worked 17 hours as an Area Manager for elections in my county. It's a fun job most of the time in spite of the back- breaking hours but when you have someone working under you that is very confident yet entirely clueless, it can get tiring. Then there was the election itself. Based on the noise on the news, from people I deal with daily, and just the local political climate, I honestly didn't think the President had a chance in hell of getting re-elected. But, he did. And seeing that the local political climate is what is, I am surrounded by terribly unhappy people, everywhere. I. turn. It's not just boo- hoo my guy lost kind of unhappiness, but mind numbing anger. People are Peeee-Oed and I am feeling it. Some people suspect I supported The President for no other reason than voting-while-black and from them I get averted eyes and snide comments. Others have decided that I instead voted-while-Christian, and assume that I support Rom...

My child is more mature than me.  I was bent out of shape.  Even her Administrator seemed bent out of shape.  I even heard that the judge who loved her was bent out of shape.  But my daughter took it all at face value.  She's so professional. One judge thought the sun rose in the morning when my daughter awoke.  The other... was non-plussed. So why would one person give a perfect score, and the other a.... meh. According to my child, we have to remember that they were both not judging her at the same time.  That meant there were variations in the performance. She felt that the first time, the time with the judge that was not impressed, it was 8am in the morning.  Her voice was still groggy.  Maybe, like the judge said, her diction was not as clear.  Also, she was more put together, wearing a blazer and losing the distracting leggings that had been peeking out from under her skirt.  Plus she felt that she stammered in her intro...

As I sit in the student lounge I reflect back on the week of competition at (a school who's name I won't mention). And try to put it all in perspective. My daughter took 2nd place in mixed media art which was a surprise seeing that art is hardly her major talent.  At least it is not something she focuses on. But this time it looks like the concept she had in her head actually worked out on paper (the 20th time) and that the concept was clearly well thought out and executed. Being an artist myself, who is yet to win a prize in a juried competition, I am very proud of her. That being said, I am bothered by the mixed messages that we are getting in the areas where she is truly talented. To be pulled aside by a judge who heaped praises upon praises on her, yet she didn't even make the finals is troubling to me.  Makes me realize that taste and subject matter are often more important than flawless execution and that makes me sad. It also makes me realize that I need to close...