Not Another Homeschool Blog

This TED talk, and I love TED talks talks about applying the concept of Mastery in Public schools... but we homeschoolers already knew this. http://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve?utm_campaign=social&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_content=talk&utm_term=social-science

free learning games for grade 3 For early elementary school kids, I favor unschooling as a method of teaching, but not the kind of unschooling where the kids vegetate and don't want to do much of anything, so you leave them alone, kind of unschooling... instead the kind of unschooling where you don't really let them know you are teaching them, but you are.  Apps like the kind I mentioned in my last post would go a long way in doing that, but so would all the same games we played as children, counting games, calling our car colors, watching school house rock, and lots of reading and storytelling. Something I came across today would also fit into this, but it is for older kids.  Playing battleship using the periodic table. I wish I'd had this as a kid. Check it out!

I was watching a commercial this morning on ABC Mouse reading program and I heard the mention that the parent had tons of learning apps.  The word APPSCHOOLING  popped into my brain. Eureka! I thought, I just came up with a new homeschooling term. NOPE. I googled it and it already exists. Here are some links for you to enjoy. The Wired Homeschool Ben and Me appschooling (on pinterest) If I had another kid to homeschool, I would definitely take advantage of this way of homeschooling!  I would probably mount an iPad to the wall and load it up with educational apps and let the kid "play all day".  I think this would work great up until about 4th grade when kids start needing more structured instruction (in my opinion).

Here is this morning's post from Facebook: This kid is truly grown up and has 2-3 semesters left of college... if she chooses, she can sit out the last semester, because she would have met all the requirements to graduate... or she can relax and coast the last 2 semesters by taking the smallest work load as possible. There's also the option of turning her minor into a second major. Here is what she looks like now: She won't pose for photos anymore, so we rarely get full frontal face. We have to paparazzi her! The man child is on his final full semester of college, then a couple of summer classes and done. College wasn't as easy for him, it took some work and growth, but his last two semesters were 4.0 so we feel like he's really got his legs under him now.  Oh you want a photo?  Let's see what I can dig up. I lifted this from his Facebook page.  It is his self portrait... and with the exception of some beardage and the fact that he has chan...

Yesterday, I came across an article posted by HSLDA on Facebook. It was about the increase of black homeschoolers, and the reason mentioned for it was parents wanting to remove their children from racism. The comments section was not pretty. People said things like:  newsflash - at most public schools where the behavior of the students is unruly and out-of-control, teachers bark and yell. it has nothing to do with the color of the students! So OK. I get it, we're supposed to ignore racism and micro aggressions and keep our kids in school, or say that we are homeschooling for some other reason... any other reason. Well. what about this? https://www.ted.com/talks/alice_goffman_college_or_prison_two_destinies_one_blatant_injustice In the United States, two institutions guide teenagers on the journey to adulthood: college and prison. Sociologist Alice Goffman spent six years in a troubled Philadelphia neighborhood and saw first-hand how teenagers of African-American and L...

We're supposed to be living the dream with our fancy schmancy apartment due to my husband's job in NYC... and in theory, it is going great, but the timing is wonky.  We don't want to sell he house in GA and we have dogs that we can't have in the apartment, so hubby is spending a lot of time alone in NY and I am spending a lot of time alone in GA. I am managing to keep myself busy enough with the community theatre, but this distance is just difficult.  The fact that he's not exactly thrilled with his job does not help... so I am keeping an open mind about what might happen next because I certainly don't want him to stroke-out in order to make me happy with a little time in NY now and then. I'm kind of frustrated. I need to try to enjoy my minutes in NY as much as I can while I am here because I don't know how long it will last. Oh, and also, I am working on getting my homeschool book finished and my time in NY is the best time to work on it... so th...

So after I decompressed from homeschooling (vegetated for about a year), I gave a though to what I had liked and what I did not like about the activities I'd participated in as the kids grew up.  What I loved the most, was working on costumes, so I volunteered for a few local theatre and eventually, found one that would allow me to costume and learn at the same time.  That was just what I needed. A year later, and a few hundred costumes later, I was asked to join the board.  Hmmm... Ok.  Not easy, but important.  Cool. So that is where we are right now.  I love this place.  I love the people.  I love how we entertain, encourage, and include the community.  I want to help raise money for our little theatre, so we can be a big theatre and we can get more kids engaged, we can get more community members creating.  We can make more people like me more involved in the community. With that said, here is the link to my fundraising page. ...