Academics vs Values

If you follow my blog you know how very important academics are to me.  When I talk about our homeschooling experience with other homeschoolers I often hear "that's nice, but we are not so competitive academically, it is more important to me that my children's values are in order.  I've always felt that such a comment was a slight towards me...  You ask me how my kids are doing in homeschooling, and I rattle off their academic achievements.  Then you make a smart -alecky remark that says what I just told you was unimportant.  Meh.  Whatever.

I used to feel that people were threatened by the impression I gave that book-learnin was the single most important value in homeschooling.  Now I don't really care.  But, with that said, you should know that values are indeed very important in our homeschooling journey.  But if you ask me what my kids are doing homeschooling wise, I am going to talk about math and reading and such.  That's just how I'm wired.  That doesn't mean that my kids' hearts aren't of the utmost importance to me.

This is how I have tackled values with my kids.  Every year, I have spent the summer evaluating them. How they act towards each other.  How they act towards their parents.  How they treat their friends. How they manage their lives.  I pinpoint the thing that I feel needs the most improvement and I choose that as the value of the year for that child.   This year, with my remaining homeschooler, in her last year, I have chosen time management.  I think that is the only thing about her that I feel I can affect at this point.



Things I am doing to help her with time management:

• Writing a daily checklist with times on it.  If left to her own devices, she will do math all day (or any other subject) and never get to the other subjects... she just sometimes has no idea of how long she's worked on one thing.)
• Making her responsible to be ready in time to get to things that are important for her.  I will not remind her over and over to be ready for her to stay on her schedule that she set. 
• Allowing her to drive (reward) if she is ready to go somewhere with a 10-15 minute cushion. 

I pray that that is enough to get her more aware of and respectful of time.  I hate to say it, but she gets it from her dad (yes, I said that)... He's got that laid-back Jamaican vibe and he is only respectful of time when its on his agenda.  That's probably why I haven't tackled this value until now... it has been an uphill battle.

I am sharing this mostly because I have counseled with a couple of homeschoolers lately who have had a laundry list of value-type items they want their homeschooled kids to comply to.  Things like, spend more time in the family room and less in the bedroom, play more outside and less video games, complete assignments on time, and yada-yada.  My advice is always the same thing I have been doing all along.  Pick the one item that is driving you completely up the wall, and work on that.  When that value is tackled and improved, you can move on to the next one.  Pick your battles.  You will all be happier for it.


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ahermitt.com

Plan it out, don't be a bone-head

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 saying the school bus takes too long.  But she is speeding on the sidewalk next to a daycare center.  So here's the deal...  Leave the house 10 minutes earlier and guess what?  That school bus won't be there.  It's so simple.  So now that lazy chick is in hot water, deservedly.

In life, you just have to be purposeful.  It's not really about school buses and traffic.  My email tagline is "A vision without a plan is an illusion".   In other words, you can have all the hopes and dreams that you want, but winging it is not going to get you there.  Whether it be homeschooling, being a writer, being an artist, or being an accountant.  Daydreaming is not going to get you there.  You have to sit down, make a plan and stick to it. You have to plan your life down to the minute.  You have to pick your friends carefully.  You have to pick your activities carefully.  You need a game-plan.  Then, you need to review and revise often.

...because if you don't, get pushed to the wire and end up making bone-head moves.


FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
ahermitt.com

Game plan for scholarships for homeschoolers ... in action

I wasn't too surprised to find out that my tactic in getting my kids the best scholarships available was as same as that of TheHomeScholar.



Where my son was concerned, he still didn't get a full scholarship because his college choices were limited, due to his chosen major. But, I am not complaining about the scholarship he did get. One of the colleges he applied to, did fit this criteria, and offer him a full scholarship, but they did not have anything close to the program he needed.

 So there is definitely a downside to choosing a college based on finding a college where your SAT or ACT score is higher than the average scores at that school... they may not have the program you need. 

Fortunately, it looks like this tactic will work for my daughter, ...because her scores are pretty high, and the schools that fit her criteria also have her desired major. Most schools do.

In the end the best thing a student can do to get a scholarship is to apply themselves to study.  Showing leadership is great too.  There are a lot of scholarships for leadership, but you won't get them if you don't get the test scores as well.

Btw, here is a link that that will help you match test scores to colleges.

  FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
ahermitt.com

Think I am going to change my guest post policy

What do you think?


Maybe I'm just too nice, but I get a lot of guest-post requests and hate to say no.  Lately, I have been trying to give guidance to make sure the posts are something that I want to read, and really only 1 in 4 are.

I tell people I prefer guest posts from people who have homeschooled and so they all say they have, but the posts don't read that way to me.

Anyway, from now on, I will only take guest posts from individuals... not companies.

That means that if typical mommy blogger wants to guest post (which they never seem to want to) then I am all for it.  If XYZ semi-commerical, college list, nanny site wants to guest post, the answer is no.

Before I push the button and make this official, I would love some feedback on the guest posts on my site.

Thanks.

(PS... to review my most recent guest posts to see for yourself, you only need to click "guest post".

FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
ahermitt.com

Week in review

I pretty much spent the last day and a half just trying to catch my breath.  I don't know if I am getting old, or if I really just wore myself out this week.  I am now going to try to remember this past week and write down the events.

Monday:  Coaching my daughter to spend the whole day working on her assignments, and this would be a short academic week.  My computer died.  I pouted. My husband worked from home and I watched him like a hawk because he did not seem well all weekend.

Tuesday:  Let daughter drive me 40 minutes across town for her classes, did household and shopping errands.  Thankfully, someone else gave her a ride home.  Tried to make use of the computer/server our family has as the entertainment center. The wireless keyboard made my efforts take twice as long as it

I don't change my oil every 3000 miles, and other things I do to annoy people

See.  I knew that I didn't need that quarterly appointment at the local Lube joint.  I've had my car for six years, and have never changed the oil before the reminder sticker had been completely faded by the sun.  Even when at my last 2 oil changes, I had to deal with indignant service people who insisted that my car be flushed for an extra $20.00 because I am a negligent car momma, I still wasn't moved by the disapproval.  From now on,  I will say no-thank-you, with confidence that I am doing the right thing.

Just call me a rebel.  I just spoke to someone I consider to be my mentor from my teenage days.  We talk every few years for about 20 minutes and give a complete run-down of our lives.  In reminding him that I homeschool he said, "I am a huge supported of homeschooling in lieu of bad public school.... Reading between the lines, I heard.  Well, if you public schools are bad, then I guess homeschooling is OK.  Sigh.  I still love him, but as demonstrated above, approval is neither sought or accepted.

Oh, but my crazy doesn't stop there.  I have realized that I annoy a lot of homeschoolers too...  (my people?  My people?) You see, I'm not a Republican.  I'm more of a Redemotarian. I vote for whomever I feel is going to get the job done.  I tend to be a bit of a fiscal conservative, and a social liberal (cause what other people do is none of my business), and I wish we could just do flat tax.  But that's just me.

I call it THINKING FOR MYSELF.  If I didn't do that, none of the other things that make me unique would be possible.... I would be a clone.  An oil changing, public schooling, southern living, republican clone.  Yum.

I'd rather be annoying.



FREE HOME EDUCATION WEBSITE
ahermitt.com

Homeschooling vs. Traditional Schooling (guest post)

(This is a guest-post from someone who's actually experienced both worlds)

 

My little brother and I are six years apart. This is a big enough age gap that most people assume that we wouldn’t be close growing up, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. We are, and always have been, best friends. That being said, we have vastly different personalities. I was outgoing, popular, and involved as I went through grade school. I did well in school, I had plenty of extracurricular activities, and I always had friends to hang out with. My brother, on the other hand, never had a lot of friends, he was shy around new people, and he had trouble focusing, which contributed to his extremely poor grades in school. While I was flourishing in the public school system, he was failing.

In the second grade my mom made the decision to pull my brother out of public school and homeschool him instead. The