Not Another Homeschool Blog

Whenever something happens to kids, we, us homeschoolers want to find a way to say "this wouldn't happen to my kids, because they are home with us."  But those days eventually end.  My kids are in college now.  They are home for the summer, but in about 8 weeks, they will pack their belongings and go back to college campuses where there will be at the mercy of others with mental illnesses and an axe to grind. Yes, I am talking about Santa Barbara shooter Elliot Rodger , who shot numerous students and got himself killed last Friday night, all because he felt rejected by hot college girls.  I am pretty angry with the media for plastering his face on the TV screen.  We all knew where to find his YouTube ramblings and manifesto if we so desired, but nope, there it was, right on the TV screen... a rather attractive young college student who spoke in an eerie, measured tone.  He was someone who, if I was not aware of who he was and what he had done, I would fin...

IMAGE:  TWITTER/@FLOTUS/ASSOCIATED PRESS I have been spending the better part of a month trying to digest the gravity of the girls stolen in from a Nigerian High School. It saddens me greatly, and also disturbs me that it took 2 weeks before the news even got onto the world's radar. Meanwhile, my homeschool daughter, attends an all women's college. In my mind, I have imagined that schools like hers, that educate and empower girls to be leaders would really tick off the "Boko Haram", and that if we were not in a free country girls like my daughter, and a dozen other girls I have grown to love this past year would be in constant danger, or even worse, left unable to get an education. I spoke to my daughter today, who is finishing her freshman year at college and asked her how many nigerian girls were at her college right now. You see, not only is her school a woman's college, but it is also a college with a student body that is largely international. While 6...

Things are strangely quiet around here.  There has been nothing on my mind but the Zimmerman trial, and I know that a great deal of my subscribers don't agree with me politically or socially... (but I love you nonetheless).  So that told me that they would certainly not agree with me on this trail. Another reason I have been so quiet is that I am still processing how I feel.  Stunned, blown away, confused... this does not even begin to touch on the depth of my feelings. I went head to head with an old friend who was defending why Zimmerman may have been so gun-shy  (realizing the pun) that night, and I really could just not see past my own pain.  Nor could I really communicate my pain. I just know that I keep looking at my wonderful son who I put so much effort into raising and homeschooling and I am still wondering how safe he really is. We made sure he was polite. We made sure he was smart. We made sure he was classy and classic. We made sure he was a...

I could tell you how much I fear for my son's safety. I could tell you that in spite of the stellar efforts into his upbringing, and in spite of his strength of character, at a glance or on a dark rainy night, he would be perceived as dangerous. But I won't tell you anymore. This post from an inner city school teacher about her student in a similar situation is much more powerful, and no matter how much I have sheltered my son  he is no different than Trayvon.

There are a group of moms making the talk show rounds advocating for legalizing marijuana, saying that weed makes them better mother s. What are they smoking??? Oh... wait. But seriously, I am watching three women on The View right now who are taking MEDICINAL marijuana.  They have serious diseases and canibus is the only drug that helps them function... and so that does make them better mothers. But... I think that there is a difference between using medicinal weed and having marijuana themed parties .  I feel that this crosses the line and makes the drug more attractive to those who don't need it.  Who in their right mind throws a party to take their medicine?  Glucophage soirée anyone? FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE ahermitt.com

Four years ago, I was in Los Angeles California for a pageant activity  my daughter was in.  We decided to take one of our free days and go see "Who's smarter than a 5th grader".  It was a celebrity edition.  One celebrity was a racer.  The other was Paula Dean. Long story short... Paula Dean was not smarter than a 5th grader.  I doubt she was smarter than a 2nd grader.  But she was charming, and self-depricating in a way that made her endearing to the crowd.  I suspect it is that personality that has propelled her through her career and made a celebrity "chef". I am very sad about the current pickle she has found herself in.  She has been tagged as a blatant racist and many of the same people who have built her up over the years are now tearing her down.  As a black person, I am usually pretty offended by racism when it shows up in the media and in people who are supposed to be role models.  Paula Dean is a great example that y...

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. ...

At the Alamo, 11/1999 Most people who know me in real life would say that I am a "strong person".  I hate that phrase.  Probably because it is not true.  I am more of a 'stiff upper lip' type of person, able to hide my emotions, especially when and I am distraught.  I am not strong at all.  I am sensitive, and repressed. With that said, I am just so mad right now.  I am mad and I am sad. The connecticut school shootings are killing me.  I am over here ugly-crying, brooding, sobbing, and just overall ticked off.  I have so much to say, and can barely phrase my emotions today. I managed to squeeze out abbreviated versions of how I was feeling at Examiner.com today, but there is soooo much more in me that I need to get out. Will mental health professionals in the school prevent future school shootings? Media unfairly pointing to the fact that Adam Lanza was homeschooled I looked at an old family photo of my family taken when my son was in...

I am still in shock over the Connecticut school shootings on Friday. When it first popped up on the news, I actually remember trying to ignore, it, but the that didn't last long.  This news was going to grab my heart and infect my physche.  I was about to be drawn in and transported to a place I did not want to go. I was going to witness and internalize horror, and disbelief along with the rest of the country.  I was going to internalize this and find myself tearing up every 15 minutes, unable to speak.  I was going to seek out my almost grown children, hoping to get same hugs they freely gave at 6 or 7 years old.  They tried, but I knew they could not hug out the pain of a mother in mourning for another, and another, and another. As the details emerge, and the names of the victims are released, I feel like I have reached a point of complete saturation. I can't hear another word. I can't see another picture. My faucet won't turn off. My heart won't stop hurt...

Someone explain to me how you go into a school and kill children.  Here is my summary of the devastation in Newtown Connecticut.  As of right how, there are still a lot of rumors abound.  The most disturbing of these rumors is that the gunman was the father of a Kindergartener whose intention was to kill his own child (and many others) in retaliation against the other parent.  I don't know if this is true or not. The consensus is that there were two gunmen, one who killed himself and was about 24.  The  other person may have escaped. Hug your kids a little tighter today.  I for one am very glad my very, very big son is home from college today, and my daughter is down the hall from me, safely sprawled across her bed reading.  As for me, my heart is sick and hurting for these innocent souls and their parents. FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE ahermitt.com

On Tuesday mornings, my daughter has to be on the other side of the county, 35 minutes away by 8am.  If she is in the car by 7:00- 7:10 at the latest she can drive.  If we don't make it to the car until 7:15-7:20, I have to drive.  Why?  She's a new driver and I don't want her to feel rushed. Now, when we leave the house at 7:00 am, we get to the homeschool program almost a half hour early.  If we leave just 10 minutes later, we are just on time, if not 5 minutes late.  The trick is to beat the school buses.  If you don't leave before the school buses get on the street, the commute can take as long as an hour on the wrong day, but get on the road before the school buses, and we get there quickly.   A little planning makes all the difference. So this story makes me sick.  A Cleveland driver has taken to driving on the sidewalk to go around the school bus (it does take a while to load handicapped kids).  Then her mom makes excuses s...

 Here I am drinking a Big Carl sized cup of water trying to force a tension headache out of my body.  I always get sick when I am excited... or when I am braiding my hair... both of which I am doing this week.  I am excited to be taking my daughter (and my husband and myself) to the Dragon*Con convention downtown.  It's funny how people react when I say I am going to Dragon*Con .  Makes me wonder if I should keep it to myself.  It's like I'm a great big freakazoid, going to hang out with the other freaks.  First of all, I never-ever professed to be anything less than completely crazy and wildly eclectic.  After all, I homeschool, don't I?  Isn't that a fringe activity?  My daughter did pageants during her tween years... another fringe hobby.  Why