Not Another Homeschool Blog

Forbes.com says homeschooling is a good way to "tell the state to stick it". I guess..... It goes hand in hand with my observation that most homeschoolers in my neck of the woods are anti Obama hence all of a sudden, anti government, and all of the noise that goes along with it.  The article goes on to describe homeschoolers as " The God-fearing, flag-waiving, gun-toting homeschool crowd (that)  embodies the American spirit of mutual self-reliance." and " Christians aghast over an academic establishment overrun by progressives." This is not necessarily my experience, but I do understand that there are homeschoolers around me that feel that way.  It kind of makes it hard when I don't necessarily agree with the rhetoric.  So let's take the fact that I don't fit into my immediate homeschool community for this reason, and others.  Then consider the notion that homeschooling (in the way that we approached) it is a microcosm of public school...

I don't know if people are really ready to hear this. In all the years I have homeschooled, I have formulated one well-kept gem. It is the tool that every successful homeschooler I know (and I know a lot) has relied on.  It has saved many a homeschool disaster and re-railed a lot of  derailed trains. It is simple. R E L A X It's not that serious.  Sit down, put your feet up, let your kids put their feet up too.

Well, not so much, actually.  We have officially been sick long enough to be completely over the flu, but secondary infections are a trip! Regardless, I am claiming health in this situation.  Sorry, I've always wanted to say that.  Like when you're at church and someone asks how you are, and if you have the guts to actually tell the truth, they like to declare it all-better in the name of the Lord?  I'm usually thinking... no, no, my ankle still feels sprained.  Nevertheless, I am sick of being sick, and so we are healed. Back to homeschooling.  I need to look through my daughter's stuff to see where we left off... it's been so long since she's picked up a pencil.  But she's been memorizing monologues every waking moment because.... Next on the agenda... three weekends in a row of competitions 1. CITA (Christians in the Theater Arts High School Festival).  The homeschool group/school competes in this. 2.  College choice #2 theater sc...

So my daughter got very, very sick. I haven't seen her this sick in about 7 or 8 years. All of her friends are also sick. This will be remembered as the plague of 2013. Of course, since I'd been taking care of her I also got sick. Thankfully I didn't do the fever and moaning part. We are now trying to get back to life as usual. I had to drive about 3 hours today and am wiped out. I was not alert enough to realize I got cheated of $14.00 at the grocery and will have to go back tomorrow. But I'm getting there. Cross your fingers for my kid. After the less than awesome role she got in the school play it would be great if she got the summer internship she interviewed for today.

I can't ever remember taking a sick day from homeschooling.  I usually encourage some math and some reading no matter what.  My motto has been, If you don't have a fever, you can use your brain. Maybe I have softened. Of course right now, I am trying to will my daughter to sleep.  I have fed, medicated, and wrapped her up, no easy feat since she is hardly a child, and she is laying on the sofa wide awake and feeling like crud.  I think that's why I always give her something else to do anyway, because she does not know how to sleep. I'm kinda upset that she is sick right now because I know a horde of sick kids showed up at the homeschool program on Tuesday, because they were auditioning for the play.  So, by last night, at the call back, everyone was visibly sick, and my kid had a headache. She woke up this morning, with full-fledged flu symptoms.  So here we are... My trying to will her healthy in record time.  I even have her on oscillococcini...

True Story: Friend decides to try homeschooling and puts very desperate sounding messages on FaceBook, so I contact them.  They are at their wits end.  They need help.  They've been homeschooling for just a few months and they are struggling. I set a lunch date and spend hours upon hours putting together information that I think will be useful to them, and show up at the designated time and place.  We sit down and have the niceties and person informs me that kids are back in school. She gave up.  I'm fine with that, but I am not fine that she wasted my time.  I would have gladly still kept the lunch date, but I wouldn't have spent time preparing

My head is spinning. My confusion began with a blog post about What To Do with Unmarried Daughters , which led to a post that looks like it could have been written in the 1940's at best.  It made me mad... really, really mad to come to the full realization that there are people who still raise their daughters differently than their sons.  I knew they existed... I homeschool.  I've met them.  But, I've always thought these were isolated cases.  I never realized how strongly some people felt that education for a girl was pointless. I feel like if we, homeschoolers raise girls with the single-minded purpose of homeschooling their own, and load their homeschool lessons sewing, cooking, cleaning, and maintaining a house, we are treating