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...