Not Another Homeschool Blog

My son's freshman year of college is almost over.  Hubby and I drove up the the school yesterday to bring home a load of items that he would not be using this week, to make our Wednesday run to pick him up easier.  We discussed grades and GPA and he admitted that he struggles with the size of his course load.  He would like to take some CLEP exams over the summer to knock some of the liberal arts classes out of the way, allowing him a smaller course load next year.  I am in agreement, and called the school to check it out.  He just needs his advisors permission, so that is almost settled. With summer jobs scarce in my area it is more likely that my college bound daughter, and my college boy will be homeschooling over the summer, taking CLEP exams that their school allows so they can have an easier time next year. I doubt they will need much help from me, or any nagging at all, but it is good to know they still have a little homeschooler left in them. FREE...

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All that my child has to finish to be done with her homeschool academics forever is health.  She finished her economics course last night while I was doing her hair.  She used a basic text book via Glencoe   and online tests to learn the basics of Economics, then we finished up with "Whatever Happened to Penny Candy" , a book that I recently came upon.  It is "an Uncle Eric Book", from a series that has a matter-of-fact way to describing political and financial subjects, and I seems like homeschoolers are taking to the book series. Anyway, after she finished the basic curriculum, I had her read the book and requested a discussion of it... she chose verbal and I was fine with that as I am anxious to finish the year.  She described the book chapter by chapter, told my how it compared and contrasted with the textbook and what insight it gave her. She basically feels that I should have had her do this Economics course before Personal Finance because she may have...

It may seem unsettling to read that a homeschooler is not a big fan of kids, but it is the truth.  They are loud, sticky, selfish, and untrained.  They pretty much drive me crazy.  Fortunately, I adore my own kids in spite of all this, and that I guess, it what love means.  Because I love my own kids, I have made an effort to open my heart to other kids, so that mine would not end up living a solitary existence.  I found it easier to do one child at a time, developing a relationship with each child and their parents that my kids brought onto my radar.  This is because honestly, if I didn't learn to love these kids, I would not like them at all. So I understand it when a UK mother writes a viral article on how she regrets having children .  Well I understand how she didn't want them at first, but I don't understand why she relented to pressure to have them and then refused to open her heart to them.   Isabella Dutton, wrote things like" I fe...

Keeping in the theme of raising kids to be confident and secure, I want to talk about my kids' favorite sentence.   It is : You're right, and I'm wrong.   I've always thought it was the good and proper thing to say to a kid when it turned out that they were right, and I was wrong.  ... Because, well, it is the truth and they needed to be validated that they were in fact the correct and informed person in whatever conversation we were having. I guess I am pretty dense, because I thought everyone said these things to their kids (though I can count on two fingers the times my parents said it).  But I had a girl visiting with me, the daughter of someone very visible and quite spiritual, and she nearly fainted when she heard those words come from my mouth.  This child, about 12 at the time, turned to me and said, "what did you say?"  I repeated myself and she looked at me in wide-eyed amazement.  "Parents don't have to say that," she said.  W...

I didn't know whether to call this blog post Dating Woes or Parenting Style because I feel like my parenting style may have caused the dating woes I am having with my kids.  So... what do I start with. Well, here is the main woe...  Neither of my kids has gone on a date.  My son is 18 and in college (ok- no date I know about) and my daughter is 16 and starting college in the fall.  I realize some of you may think I am crazy for being unhappy about this, after all, how many people wish their kids would focus on education and not worry about the opposite sex, right?  But my issue is that if I don't ever see my kids interact on a romantic level, how will I know if they are on the right track?  How will I know whether or not they will lose themselves in a relationship?  How can I whisper advice to my kids when I see things may not be right?  Once they are out of the house, it will be pretty hard.  So this is why I am troubled. I guess you can...

Things didn't go exactly as I'd planned.  We did, however have a very good time, and everyone wants to do it again. My daughter and I set out by car to Virginia to the Army base where my brother lives.  We took our sweet time, stopping often to stretch, eat, and even shop.  We did the 8 hour trip in 12 hours.  We crashed at my brothers house and when his wife, who had just gotten of of 24 hour duty was available, dragged her into the car and headed out for NY. At this point, it there was a small chance that any traffic issues could risk our Wicked tickets.  So my very tired sister-in-law did the bulk of the driving because I am a notorious slow driver. Everything was going great until we got to the Lincoln Tunnel.  It was CRAZY.  Bumper to bumper traffic at its finest... but we got to the hotel in time to drop our bags, change our clothes and run 12 city blocks to the Gershwin theater!  So. Worth. It.  Wicked was great. Photo taken in...

I've had the pleasure of noticing a glut of articles and email list advice about guiding children to the "right" majors and careers.  It kind of floors me that homeschoolers have also jumped on this bandwagon. I know we all want to make sure our kids become financially secure, but career engineering, in my opinion, will not help our kids. (Yes, I am biased. I am a creative person and so are my kids, so do with this advice what you will.)  Still, If we point all of our kids to the top 10 college majors for top earners, within 10 years that career choice will be overpopulated. That is just the obvious problem. The other problem, as I see it is that not everyone is wired for those top earning jobs. This means they won't be competitive in their field. They will be at the bottom of the pile professionally and financially. That also won't do much for their emotional well being either.  Meanwhile, that kid that was wired for one of those touchy-feely caree...

As I watch young nieces, nephews, and extended family struggle with high school, I would try to compare their struggle to my own personal experience as a public school student over 20 years ago. I knew things had changed, but because I chose to homeschool my own, I have remained pretty ignorant of just how much things have changed. Here an excerpt from a a retirement letter recently written by Mr. Conti, who has taught for 40 years: “For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, ‘Words Matter’ and ‘Ideas Matter.’ While I still believe these simple statements to be true, I don’t feel that those currently driving public education have any inkling of what they mean... My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic “assessments”) or grade their own students’ examinations. ...

In ADHD data, growing worry about diagnoses Fifteen percent of school-age boys have received an ADHD diagnosis, the data showed; the rate for girls was 7 percent. Diagnoses among those of high-school age — 14 to 17 — were particularly high, 10 percent for girls and 19 percent for boys. About one in 10 high-school boys currently takes ADHD medication, the data showed. According to Morning Joe , diagnoses have increased 53% in the last 10 years.  While I am sure there are some kids that need it, I am also sure there are families being pressured to take ADHD medications that don't need it.  In my own experience, and in hindsight, my mothers error in not allowing a truly ADHD child to not take the drug gave me the courage to say NO when it was being forced on my child. While my sibling probably still needs it, my child never did. I've told my child's story many times, but the short synopsis is that upon moving to GA, a perfectly charming chid became a behavioral issue. Sh...