Not Another Homeschool Blog

I read an article yesterday called Home-schooled and illiterate at Salon.com . The writer begins by describing a family she knew when she was younger that homeschooled poorly. They were conservative Christian and it seemed, from her looking in that the family did not value education for the girls most especially. The article goes on to state that other homeschooling moms usually from the quiverfull movement, bless their hearts, try, but get overwhelmed by  just having and caring for the kids they have, never mind actually educating them, and so they get lost in the fray.  It infers that even the most the most well meaning homeschool moms, fool themselves that they can handle homeschooling but they can't. Of course the article throws in that there are some very diligent homeschooling parents who can and will  do a stellar job. But they add that in order to make sure that kids get the best education while homeschooling, there should be severe oversight.  That's ...

Well.. It's been 2 years and 3 months since I last had a child I could call a homeschooler. My youngest is now a college Jr.  I think a thoughtful retrospective is in order.   So, here are 8 things I would do differently if I were to homeschool all over again , and a couple things I would do the same. 1. Consistency is visiting museums, parks, playgrounds, and shows weekly.  I think I did this well when they were both in middle school, but the wigglyness of them when they were little and the busyness of them as high school students got in the way. But, It was a great bonding time and I wish I had been more consistent. 2. Food control. Kids do what you do, and I did not mind what I was eating very well, nor what they were eating. The kids and I had too much access to the fridge. I should have planned ahead better and kept fruit on the table instead of a free-for-all. 3. I should have been more strict about deadlines for assignments.  There were plenty of times...

update: GETT gave me a partial refund, but would not communicate with me.  It's been some kind of week.  I wrote about the problem with Time Warner and Acceller in my last post.  I am waiting for my reimbursement that was promised AFTER I wrote a blog about it, tweeted it, and forwarded it to Acceller. So everyone knows not to trust Time Warner, that is not a big surprise. But what about your friendly hot dog vendor.  A couple of days into my first trip to NY to apartment hunt back in April, or was it May, I heard about the following new story where a hot dog vendor was caught charging $30.00 for a hot dog.  This was the day after I paid $6.00 for a hot dog and a Snaffle.  I found out later that should have cost me $3 to $4 and prices should have been posted.  I walked by that same vendor yesterday, and I really wanted to punch him.  I'm just tired of people being dishonest like that. Update of GETT situation, (below) no one would speak to m...

Don't mess with a woman who takes notes I knew getting an apartment in NYC had its pitfalls.  Needless to say, I got ripped off by companies that you would expect to do good business... but wait, they are monopolies, why should they bother.  I should have expected to get ripped of. It went like this.  I called ConEdison to set up my electricity.  That went well. Before I ended the call, I was asked if I wanted their help in setting up my TV and Internet. I said sure.  They said, OK we are transferring you over to someone who will verify that your Electric was set up properly, and then they will help you with your TV and Internet.  I thought this meant I would be sent to another department within Con-Ed, but that was not the case.  They transferred me to a company called Acceller (AKA Home Connections), and no one ever once mentioned that I was now dealing with a company that gets paid to "help me" set up my utilities. I asked the operator (nam...