Posts

They keep chipping away at our illusion of safety

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...

I'ts Eliza Doolittle Day!

It is Eliza Doolittle Day over at Carnival of homeschooling! Check it out:   http://whyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2014/05/carnival-of-homeschooling-eliza.html

Listen to them and let them speak

 I had a rough childhood for a lot of reasons. The short of it is that being in a combined family Brady-Bunch situation seldom is the thing that children remember fondly. By biggest beef with my childhood is that people just. didn't. listen.  To anything. You were a child. You were to be seen when it was convenient. You were not to be heard. You were not to feel. You were not to complain. Now I dare say that my upbringing was better than that of our parents, who were allowed even less freedom of thought and action. I.e. we were fed and clothed well. We had all the educational opportunities they could provide. So as far as they were concerned, they were doing a bang-up job.  But it did not feel good. At all. My brother, after staying with my family a couple of months proceeded to analyze my parenting style. He said, "I've noticed that you set out to NOT raise your kids the way we were raised... You accomplished that".  His comments were mostly complimentary. ...

Bye-Bye favorite homeschooling website

One of my favorite all-time free homeschooling websites is changing.   Hippocampus.org has been my go-to site for homeschooling high school students for more than 5 years, and as of June 24, 2014 NROC, who supplies the best courses to the site will discontinue their service.  So click on a video today, and this is what you will see for about 30 seconds until the video appears. IMPORTANT NOTICE! As of June 24, 2014 this content from the  University of California will no longer be available through this link. Click  here  for more information. Please visit  HippoCampus.org  to find additional resources that are freely available for your use.  In addition University of California will be charging consumers to use this service.  Instead they will be charging for each course, for example Algebra II is $19.00 and is is moderated by a teacher, (read-no longer able to be moderated by individual homeschool parents). Don't worry too much. ...