Getting a New Schoolroom....

So, we're finally getting the basement finished.  It's been 3 1/2 l-o-n-g years, 2 contractors, almost twice the money planned for, buckets of tears, and many months of tension to get us to this point....but it's here.  We're moving things downstairs this weekend.  We've been without a school room since before Alivia was born...our old school room started out as being her bedroom until she decided at 6 months old that she didn't like her room and needed to sleep with us.  (Of course, how could she like her room?  It was filled with boxes of papers and books, a very large bookshelf, and a desk with a computer on it...I never got to make the room up for her because the room was still crammed with all of our school stuff!  A vicious cycle for sure...)  Right now, that "old school room" is home to the same boxes, bookshelf, desk and computer, but also my oldest and his cot.  He decided several months ago he needed his own room and his own space and would be happy to sleep on a cot to get that.  So we rearranged a bit and got him his own little space where the cot fits in that room.  (This room will be his own room when things get downstairs, but for now he's sharing it with all the other old school stuff.)

We finally have the basement mostly finished (aside from a bit of trim, a built-in bookshelf, a stair rail, and a cabinet in the bathroom), but the schoolroom is to the point that I can move things down there and start setting up shop.  Now comes the hard part:  organizing.  I have so many ideas and thoughts on how to do it and what I need to purchase and my mind is just spinning with all that has to be done when I start unpacking all those boxes of curriculum and supplies!  Terry will get the big stuff moved around for me and get our school desks brought back over from storage, but I have so much to still do when that all gets here.

So I wonder, what are your favorite items in your homeschool room that you are happy you spent the money to purchase?  Is there an item or a couple of items that you can't do without?  Is there something you didn't buy that you wish you had?  I figure this is my shot to have my room set up the way I want it so I want to make sure I have thought it through.

But, in the end, I have learned a few lessons from this last 3+ years and I wanted to share some of them with you.

1 -- I am a much more patient person than I (or anyone else!) thought I was!

So many times through this process, I've felt like a 2nd thought or an after thought.  I've been quite frustrated and sadly, I've vented my frustrations to a few people when perhaps I shouldn't have. Thankfully, I have vented to friends who were trustworthy and sympathized with me, but also encouraged me as well.  At one point, during this pity party I was having, my sister asked me, "What would you do if Terry came home and said that something happened and you'd not be able to get the basement done for at least 10 years?"  That really made me stop and think about how *I* was handling myself and how much patience I was offering my husband.  This was no picnic for him either...after all, he is the one who ends up with a then-2-year-old's feet in his back every night because she slept crossways in the bed!  God was offering me an opportunity to increase my patience and it was up to me to grasp that opportunity.

2 -- I am actually pretty good at this submission stuff!

Terry will laugh at me if he ever reads that (which isn't likely!) because he is always telling people I'm the boss in the family and that I wear the pants in our relationship.  But we both know that I only make most of the decisions in our family life because he isn't able to from a but-I'm-always-at-work standpoint.  I decide on things that need immediate decisions.  However, when it comes down to it, I defer back to him.  Always.  If he says "no" (flat out) to something, I obey.  {Yes, girls, I did say the word OBEY....look it up, it's in the Bible....we're to obey our husbands!}  If he wants something handled a certain way, I oblige.  Never has that belief or principle been tested more than in this basement project!  Several times throughout the last 2 years of waiting and dealing with a deceptive contractor, I asked Terry if he wanted me to call the guy or step in and deal with the situation.  Every.single.time he said no and said he would handle it.  His way of handling it often consisted of not doing anything for weeks.  I had a few people that said, "You're better than me!  I would have ignored what my husband said and just called the guy (or dealt with it all) myself."  Really!?  How can you do that in good conscience!?  Knowing what the Bible says about marriage and obedience and the wife's place, how can we?  Now, I realize that the Bible is speaking of spiritual matters and I've had several women who say, "Oh, I'll do what he wants me to when it comes to spiritual matters."  But would you really?  If you don't obey and follow his lead on things that aren't spiritual in nature, then why would you on spiritual matters?  And why would your husband think you would?  Why would he even try to lead you on spiritual matters if you buck his authority on everything else?  And really, when it boils down to it, isn't obeying your husband in general a spiritual matter simply because God told us to do it??

So....

February 12, 2014....

Here it is, all these months later and I'm just now coming back to finish this post.  The above portion was written back in August of last year!!  Truthfully, I forgot my password and had to track it down.  HA!  But my mind has been mulling over this whole post and I really wanted to come back and finish it.  We are in the basement and fully out of storage now...we completed the basement and began the process of getting the remaining items out of storage in October.  We finished the storage portion in December and finished the year of 2013 by being all in one location! 

The one last item I think I've learned greatly through this process has been:

#3.  I am a forgiving person, but it takes work.  

I have greatly struggled with the deception of the contractor we had hired.  It's something that I didn't like even having to go through...WHY was God putting us through this?  We only tried to help this person and here was how we were repaid?  But I slowly came to a point that I had to let him go out of my mind and focus on what *I* could learn through it all.  What was God trying to show me?  I think I learned to forgive and to really forgive.  I had to tell myself what I am always telling my children:  I am the only one in control of ME.  I control how I respond and how I react to things.  My not forgiving him, or holding a grudge, would not make it better for anyone within my house.  It wouldn't change him.  It wouldn't make a difference on whether or not he does the same thing to someone else.  He controls himself, I control me.  So, I had to make myself let go of that grudge and that anger so that it wouldn't spoil the good that was happening right within my own home.  I needed to refocus my energies on what I did have control over instead of the areas I didn't.

So in a nutshell...that's where we are.  We are IN our new schoolroom.  We've been using it for a few months and we love it.  There are multiple issues that we deal with (more in a new post!) here in the basement, but the kids and I love having our school area separated from the rest of the house.

End of August!?

{I have no idea what the deal is with Blogger.  It is getting to where it doesn't want to work anymore.    At least now I can insert pictures, but I can't use my signature that I love so much.  :(  }

This picture is one we took last Christmas when doing family pictures with my family.  We each took turns getting some shots of our kids and our families and the grandparents with the kids, etc.  Fun times.  I'm so thankful I had/have a camera that enabled us to get this done so well.  But while my family was "posing" my nephew was snapping the pics.  When I was going through them, I came across this one that he snapped when we were apparently being goofy.  Shocker, eh?  Although you can't see PadaThree's face in this shot, it's still just a perfect shot of our family and is my favorite of all the ones we took.

We're nearing the end of our 3rd week of school and so far things are going well.  PadaTwo is still putting massive pressures on himself, but so far this year he seems to be doing very well with the rather rigorous school schedule I've set for him.  He's managing and for that I'm thankful.  PadaOne is rocking his school, naturally.  And PadaThree is fumbling through dealing with the times that she can't get her way with her bubbies.  I'm grateful for the schedule we seem to be keeping.  It has helped me tremendously to have a schedule again.  I'm not being a nazi about it, but I'm trying to keep them on task to get their work done each day.  Sometimes we start at 9:30 and some days (like today!) we don't start until 11.

We begin moving things down to the basement this weekend and I'm thankful and fearful.  Now comes the hard work for me:  organizing it all!  Not only do we have to clean out and go through all the items in storage, but now I have to find a new home for everything.  I know how we are...we'll get it all in the basement and we'll start using stuff before it's all set up and we'll work out of boxes for a while and stuff will never get fully unpacked/put away.  I sincerely do NOT want to do that this time and desperately want to get it all organized before I let the kids move down there for school.  SO thankful mom is coming to help with this portion of it!  Hopefully before too long I can start using all those things on Pinterest I've been pinning for my homeschool room.  And also hopefully I can post pictures of my own to share what my new basement/school room looks like!  Woot!

I cannot believe that August is over already.  This weekend is Labor Day weekend and we jump into September with both feet.  Crazy.  Fall is here....and our schedule is just as crazy as ever!  Bring it!

Summer is gone!

Summer is officially over, which means school is back in session.  I could.not.be.more.relieved!  Our summer has been extremely crazy and busy and we're just exhausted.  Now, we're turning our sites to the fall and our fall schedule, which is already starting to look equally crazy, and we're looking at making some tough decisions regarding what we take part in and what we skip.  I'm so happy to be back to a schedule for our days so that we all know what to expect and everything gets done like it's supposed to.  

Brent is starting 7th grade this year...and he's already jumping in with both feet.  Clayton is still finishing up 2nd grade stuff from last year.  Sure he's behind, according the Public School standards, but thankfully I don't have to worry about that yet.  I know he will catch up!  The cool thing this year is that already he's starting off with such a great attitude and he's doing GREAT!  He is reading so much better and actually *comprehending* what he's reading.  He still has to do things in small snippets, but he's doing it and that's what matters!  Alivia has decided she needs to do school as well this year, so I have purchased the Rod & Staff Preschool set for her.  So far, she is loving it.  Does a couple pages every other day or so.  I'm also making some activities for her that I got off Pinterest (love my Pinning!) that I hope will occupy her while the boys are both doing independent work.  

I've rearranged our schedule this year a bit too....the boys will have work that they will both do at the same time and I will work with Alivia while they do.  Then, when I need to work individually with one boy or the other, I have them occupying her in another room.  It's working okay....not perfect yet.  But we're only in the second week of school!  

We are still upstairs working in the kitchen for school.  It's not my ideal setup, but we'll manage till the basement is finished.  Hopefully we're only a few weeks from officially starting school downstairs.  Hopefully.  

Time to get back to the madness!

Science Experiments!

I often review books for Luxury Reading. Recently, I reviewed Time for Kids Big Book of Science Experiments ...a book all about science experiments for kids of many different ages. The book was surprisingly good! Most times when I see books like that, the items needed for the experiments will cost me more than the book itself. This book, however, was full of several experiments that I could do with just the items we had on hand. I think this one below was our favorite!

We got to microwave bars of soap! Strange, yes, but quite surprising what the results were. We predicted at first that the soap would melt and get all over the microwave. Since this is a relatively new microwave (after something else got melted in it a few months back!) I was a bit leery...but the other experiments in the book that we had done thus far worked just the way the book said they would, so I tried not be nervous on this one. HA!

Each bar took less than a minute to transform into what you see below. The white one is Ivory...what is called for in the experiment. We decided to try out another brand to see if they both did the same thing...our standard brand is Irish Spring.

(Please don't fill my comments with how they shouldn't be standing that close to the microwave!)

This one decided to sprout legs...and arms.

...and growing some more...

We call the Irish Spring one our "frog" because of the legs it sprouted. Crazy!

I have to be honest...I don't remember completely (at all) what the reasoning is for why the soap does what it does...or why one brand resulted in such a different "blob." Our favorite, though, was the Irish Spring...simply because it made a shape we could identify. :-D The really cool part of it all was that the soap bars held the shape that they formed in the microwave. AND, after they cooled a bit (they were quite hot when we pulled them out!), we could take a piece of the soap and still *use* it as soap! The microwaves didn't change its usefulness at all. Pretty nifty!

There were other experiments...cleaning pennies with vinegar, making boats of aluminum foil (different shapes) and seeing how many pennies it took to sink the different shaped boats, staining a cloth to test out which items in the house are the best stain removers, etc. Really fun stuff...and again, VERY easy! And how great for me that I got to count 6 or 7 credits of science that day!!!

4-H Meeting at the Fire Station

On Friday we had our first 4-H meeting of the year...and since it was National Fire Safety Week, we had it at the Fire Station. Mr Jeff showed us around and put on his gear for us. (Did I mention that our 'little' 4-H group is made up of all homeschoolers?? LOL) After he finished with his gear, the kids got to explore inside the fire truck, which of course, they thought was completely awesome!

There were all kinds of gadgets on the outside of the truck too. Knobs to push and things to look at!

One particular door that opened was truly fascinating to Brent....the one with all the sharp objects!! LOL He was "wow'd" by the axes and such that you see below. I'm sure you can tell his jaw is hanging open as he leans on the truck looking at all of it!

Near the end of the tour of the truck, the kids all climbed in the back seat area and sat still long enough for a posed shot!

One of them (I don't remember which one) asked about the 'heat sensing gun' to help them find people in a fire. (I am thinking it was Brent cuz he knew about the camera from our trip to the firehouse in Jackson last year...) Mr. Jeff got it out for us and was showing them how it works. Below, you can see his hand in the camera screen where it is on the door. These camera's are really neat...cuz for a few seconds (maybe 15) after he moved his hand, the heat imprint was still visible on the screen. Really cool!

Reason #997,247 to be a homeschooler...

Class surprises lesbian teacher on wedding day
Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, October 11, 2008

A group of San Francisco first-graders took an unusual field trip to City Hall on Friday to toss rose petals on their just-married lesbian teacher - putting the public school children at the center of a fierce election battle over the fate of same-sex marriage.

The 18 Creative Arts Charter School students took a Muni bus and walked a block at noon to toss rose petals and blow bubbles on their just-married teacher Erin Carder and her wife Kerri McCoy, giggling and squealing as they mobbed their teacher with hugs.

Mayor Gavin Newsom, a friend of a friend, officiated.

A parent came up with the idea for the field trip - a surprise for the teacher on her wedding day.

"She's such a dedicated teacher," said the school's interim director Liz Jaroslow.

But there was a question of justifying the field trip academically. Jaroflow decided she could.

"It really is what we call a teachable moment," Jaroflow said, noting the historic significance of same-sex marriage and related civil rights issues. "I think I'm well within the parameters."

Nonetheless, the excursion offers Proposition 8 proponents fresh ammunition for their efforts to outlaw gay marriage in California, offering a real-life incident that echoes their recent television and radio ads.

"It's just utterly unreasonable that a public school field trip would be to a same-sex wedding," said Chip White, press secretary for the Yes on 8 campaign. "This is overt indoctrination of children who are too young to have an understanding of its purpose."

The trip illustrates the message promoted by the campaign in recent days, namely that unless Prop. 8 passes on Nov. 4, children will learn about same-sex marriage in school.

"It shows that not only can it happen, but it has already happened," White said.

California Education Code permits school districts to offer comprehensive sex education, but if they do, they have to "teach respect for marriage and committed relationships."

Parents can excuse their child from all or part of the instruction.

On Friday, McCoy and Carder, both in white, held hands on Newsom's office balcony overlooking the rotunda and recited their vows.

"With this ring, I thee wed!" Carder said, shouting the last word for emphasis.

After traditional photos, the two walked out City Hall's main doors where the students were lined up down the steps with bags of pink rose petals and bottles of bubbles hanging from their necks. McCoy, a conferences services coordinator, was in on the surprise and beamed as the children swarmed around Carder.

The two said they have participated in the campaign against Proposition 8 and planned to travel around San Francisco on Friday afternoon in a motorized trolley car with "Just Married" and "Vote No on 8" banners.
The two met on a dance floor two years ago.

"This is one girl I can honestly say deserves happiness, and it came in the form of Kerri," said Carder's friend Dani Starelli.

Creative Arts administrators and parents acknowledged that the field trip might be controversial, but they didn't see the big deal. Same-sex marriage is legal, they noted.

"How many days in school are they going to remember?" asked parent Marc Lipsett. "This is a day they'll definitely remember."

Carder's students said they were happy to see their new teacher married.
"She's a really nice teacher. She's the best," said 6-year-old Chava Novogrodsky-Godt, wearing a "No on 8" button on her shirt. "I want her to have a good wedding."

Chava's mothers said they are getting married in two weeks.

The students' parents are planning to make a video with the children describing what marriage is to them.

Marriage, 6-year-old Nolan Alexander said Friday, is "people falling in love."

It means, he added, "You stay with someone the rest of your life."

As is the case with all field trips, parents had to give their permission and could choose to opt out of the trip. Two families did. Those children spent the duration of the 90-minute field trip back at school with another first-grade class, the interim director said.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's not controversial for me," Jaroflow said. "It's certainly an issue I would be willing to put my job on the line for."
----
Now, I realize this is California and not where I live, but still. If this isn't another reason to homeschool, I don't know what is! So sad....

Grades Report...from LAST year! HA!

Okay, I know it's a little late for this, but, well, I just got them done! LOL We schooled all summer to make up for what we lost last year with Janice's illness/hospitalization and Terry's surgeries. So, we had just finished with last years' stuff when we jumped straight into this year...I had no time for grading or posting to my 'grade book' (which is just an Excel spreadsheet with multiple tabs that I created last year so it could do all the figuring for me!). So, here we go:

Phonics:
9769/10165 = 96% A

Reading:
4135/4297 = 96% A

Writing:
618/627 = 99% A

Math:
11167/11586 = 97% A

Art:
505/517 = 98% A

So, obviously, B was 'promoted' to 2nd Grade! LOL He did really well last year and is actually past his actual grade when it comes to many aspects of his schooling. We've decided to change Mathematics curriculum this year to Modern Curriculum Press Math...it's sequential, vs the spiral that we had been doing in the past 3 years. We're still using Rod and Staff for Phonics and Reading, and they also sent us a Social Studies book this year that Brent LOVES! It's doing a general study of the world geography, and he's learning all the continents and some of the individual countries within them. Very cool!

2nd grade is definitely more work for him (and me!) but he's really enjoying school this year. Plus, it helps that Daddy is teaching math this year too! :)

More later!

Caterpiller.....BUTTERFLY!

YIPPPPEEE! We had a butterfly 'hatch' yesterday. I had a homeschooling friend here and the kids were playing and one of them came in and said, "Mom, one of the butterflies is out!" So we all ran to look and sure enough....there it was. We let it 'dry' for an hour more and by the time we got back into the kitchen, it was near the top of the container. So I put my finger in there and it just crawled right up on my finger!!! :) We slowly walked it outside and Clayton asked if he could hold it....it crawled over to his hand and then just took off flying! The kids all watched it fly around a bit till it flew to the point we could no longer see it. Here are a couple shots of it:

New Crayons!

So, I got the boys each their own box of Crayons (64) for this year so that we wouldn't have the issue of not having a particular color when needed or "he lost the green!" LOL I remember when I was in school and you'd open up that new box of colors on the first day of school and they would be all organized and in order of their color schemes.... So nice!

Well, not anymore! NOW they are just haphazardly put in there, with no order at all! It was WEIRD to see and just bothered me! Well, apparently it bothered Brent too! Cuz on his first "break" from schoolwork when he could have gotten up and run around or gotten a drink, he took off his glasses and said, "I think I'll sit here and organize my colors." LOL I just about fell over....he has them now, "not perfect, but at least they are better than they were." (According to him.)

I just don't get it...why'd they change it?? Just a minor oddity in life and I thought I'd share it!

Caterpillar update

Well, I was wrong a bit....they are swallowtail caterpillars, not swordtail. Ooops! LOL

But we now have 3 chrysalis's! :) I'm so excited....one of them went up the side of the container and did it's thing and became a green chrysalis. Then we had 2 more that went up on the stick that we put in there. For one day (yesterday) they 'hung back' by attaching their lower feet and creating a 'girdle' to hang with. They spent that day and then yesterday evening they were still looking like the caterpillar. No biggie. But, within about 4 hours (by bedtime last night), one of them had transformed into its chrysalis (green) and then by this morning the other one was a chrysalis (brown). I was a bit confused by the difference in color of the chrysalis, so I did some looking. Here is what I found:

There seems to be a bit of a difference in the look of the resulting butterfly, but I don't know that for sure. hehe

From what I have learned online, we have a couple of weeks for them to be like this and then their chrysalis will become transparent and they will emerge the within the next 24 hours. So, we shall see! :)

7 New Additions

And no they aren't babies! LOL

We have caterpillars! A fellow homeschooler emailed out that she had several sword tail caterpillars in her back yard and offered them to anyone interested. Of course we were! We went and picked up 7 and took some of her parsley (what they were eating) to get us going. Within a few hours, all the parsley we had was gone and we needed to buy more!

So after cleaning out a see-through bucket for them to live in and adding some sticks (for the chrysalis stage) we got them set up in their new home. They are devouring the parsley and I have no idea how long it will be before they are entering their chrysalis. There are 3 larger ones, 2 medium ones and 1 smaller one. So it will be nice to watch them grow and change.

My friend told me that it is normally 2-3 weeks in the cocoon before emerging as a butterfly. We can't wait! I will post pictures when we get them...the caterpillars (or "calipitters" as Clayton calls them!) are gorgeous!).

Homeschoolers say, Enough already!

I received this article from a group I'm on. I really lik what she has to say...very well stated.

Homeschoolers say, enough already
by Patricia Lewis
World Net Daily

It happens. Some idiot parents have their children yanked out of the home because of abuse or neglect. The typical reported scenario is the kids were often malnourished, were rarely seen by neighbors and sometimes had untreated injuries.

And naturally, they never went to school. Instead, they were "homeschooled."

At least that's the conclusion formulated and trumpeted by reporters across the country whenever one of these horrible cases comes to light. Close upon the story's heels comes a fresh outcry of "Homeschoolers need more regulation!"

Never mind the vastly more common examples of abused children in public schools. Whenever an abused child is described as homeschooled, the extrapolation starts. All homeschoolers are like that. Therefore they need more regulation.

The stated or implied reason for additional regulation is that homeschoolers are a secretive lot who have something to hide. They must be doing something nefarious or they wouldn't be so adamant about keeping the government out of their private lives. See these poor pathetic abused kids? There's proof.

Grunt.

Government officials are embarrassed to acknowledge that, despite the unending billions of dollars poured into the public schools over the past 50 years, a bunch of uncredentialed yokels are showing them up. Their hostility is understandable, really. Homeschoolers are a threat. With often extremely limited funds, they persist in putting out sharp, polite, balanced, astoundingly well-educated young adults. Gosh, I'd be threatened, too.

So, with the twisted logic so endemic in government circles, they conclude: "The homeschooling system is working well, and it is working outside our control. Therefore we must fix it."

It is true that there are kids who fall through the homeschooling cracks. There are some "parents" (I use the term loosely) who allegedly homeschool their kids but actually do nothing. Some people even use the homeschooling excuse to keep outsiders from seeing the bruises. It happens. There are all kinds of people in this world, after all.

But what is absurd is that, when this rare situation occurs, suddenly all homeschoolers are suspect. This is like saying that just because a female teacher sexually exploits a teenage boy, then all female schoolteachers are lecherous abusers and must be treated as such.

Talk about guilty until proven innocent.

There are indeed hundreds of thousands of kids who are falling through the cracks and receiving inadequate education – but they are attending public schools. How else can you account for exorbitant dropout rates? Embarrassing test results? Graduates who can't read their own diplomas? Schools have passed beyond serious concern into the realm of laughing stock.

So before you attempt to clean my house, get your own house in order first. Or, to expand the analogy, don't you dare pass laws that require me to keep my house in a certain and precise order when you're living in a sty.

Anyone who has read the news in the last couple months is aware that a California judge, with the stroke of a pen, outlawed homeschooling in that state. Needless to say, this caused cries of protest from outraged parents across the country.

The Homeschool Legal Defense Association (one of the greatest inventions since sliced bread, in my opinion) teamed up with various other state and national organizations and helped convince the Court of Appeals to reverse this decision. This caused an enormous sigh of relief among all homeschoolers.

The California victory is just that – a hard-earned, intensely fought, righteous victory. But I can't help but see it as a temporary stay of execution. Yes, homeschooling is once again legal, but just watch – it will become even more complicated. My suspicion is the government wants all homeschoolers regulated to the point where parents may as well give up and stick their kids back in the cesspool … er, public schools, and the government won't stop trying just because they got kicked in the pants this time.

Thanks to the constant vigilance of HSLDA and other supportive organizations, homeschooling is now legal in all 50 states. States can no longer impose such unconstitutional absurdities as home inspections (can you imagine?). However, to a greater or lesser extent, states still try to discourage homeschoolers by imposing restrictive and unnecessary bureaucratic paperwork.

What on earth do people think will happen if homeschooling is more strongly regulated? What benefits will occur if parents are forced to comply with ridiculous rules and regulations and government mandates? Portfolios. Testing requirements. Attendance records. Curriculum approval. Mandated subjects. Instruction plans. Quarterly reports. Annual assessments. Immunization requirements. Receipt of health and medical records. Parental qualifications.

Come on, already. These are all unnecessary burdens on homeschooling parents. The more requirements parents are forced to comply with, the more they get frustrated and intimidated. And – here's a concept – the more it distracts them from their primary role, namely educating their children.

Of course, maybe that's the point.

According to Ian Slatter, Director of Media Relations for HSLDA, on average homeschooled children score just as well on standardized tests in states with low regulation as they do in states with high regulation. In other words, government-mandated regulation is a waste of taxpayers' money and parents' time – and has no effect on the test results of homeschooled students.

• The academic achievement of homeschoolers is indisputable. According to the National Home Education Research Institute:
  The home-educated typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests.
  Homeschool students score above average on achievement tests regardless of their parents' level of formal education or their family's household income.
• Whether homeschool parents were ever certified teachers is not related to their children's academic achievement.
• Degree of state control and regulation of homeschooling is not related to academic achievement.
• Home-educated students typically score above average on the SAT and ACT tests that colleges consider for admissions.
• Homeschool students are increasingly being actively recruited by colleges.

Enough is enough. The data are in and the case is closed. Homeschoolers don't need more government regulation.

We need to be left alone.

------

Frustration

I try really hard not to 'preach' to people about homeschooling. I know that if they need help or information, they will ask and I can offer the help they need (or send them to the right source). However, when they have asked for help and plainly know what they would like to choose, but then go the 'normal' way because of pressure from family, it gets really frustrating. And then to hear them continually groan and moan about the fact that they are having to send their child to PS and how horrible it is, when they know they have a better or different choice, and yet have chosen not to do so.

Such is the case with someone I know. I have talked at length with someone explaining that they cannot allow their family to determine their direction in raising their family. If they truly feel they should be homeschooling (as I was told) they should be strong enough to do what they feel is right. I also explained that their family would come around (and used my extended family as a prime example; myself personally as another example!) and see that they were not 'harming' their child by homeschooling and that they could do a great job, perhaps a better job that the PS.

And then to make the decision and then bemoan the decision is truly bothersome as well. If you make a decision, deal with it. Don't complain about it, especially if you had full control over it. If you aren't happy with the decision you made then change it. You can always change your mind and do what you truly feel is right.

Why are people SO against homeschooling? Why do they think that they have to conform to what their family wants them to do? What happened to doing what we felt led to do by the Lord and letting Him guide our footsteps?

These things I have been pondering....

Reports are on the way!

I called and they apologized for the delay...Dr. Worth was working on some extra stuff for the boys to do at home to help them. (Isn't he great?!?!?!) So they went into the mail today and we should be getting them soon...I can't wait!

Recent activity

This past weekend, we were in Salem, after going to St Louis for Terry's appointment. He's been released!!! I am so thrilled! LOL She is still concerned about one small area, but said that as long as it doesn't get any pain or heat in it, he's okay. Yippeeee!

On our way back to J's on Sunday afternoon, there was a snake in her driveway, and she HATES snakes, with a passion. Since she was sitting in the front seat with me, I figured she saw it and I just ran over it to kill it for her...well, Terry tells me later that she probably didn't see it and would've been fine if I'd have just not said anything. Oy. Anyway, we go over to look at it when we get out (me and the boys that is!) and I call Terry over there. This apparently was a mama snake and she had eggs inside her still! Well, not anymore...now they were laying on the driveway cuz I squished them out of her! I felt (still feel) so bad about it! You can see the eggs in the pictures below. In the left one, there is one egg off by itself that you can see. The others are still attached to her. And poor thing, at this point, she was still alive. We did put her out of her misery though....

Over the last few weeks, as you know, we've been raising tadpoles into frogs. Well, here are a couple pics of our attempt at this. Naturally, the frogs all died within a day of becoming frogs (which created a major issue with the boys regarding pets!), but at least we got to see the process happen! ;)

Brent has lost his 2 top-center teeth over the last couple of weeks. Hehe. He's so cute with them gone and even talks a little funny without them. Here's a picture of him without the teeth...notice Clayton in the background peeking into the picture? LOL

Dr. Matthew Worth

Well, I'm finally finding (taking) the time to write this. I figure if I don't just take the time, I won't ever find the time, so time to write! {Warning: It's a long read!}

At the Homeschool Expo in St Louis, Terry went to hear Dr. Worth while i was in another session. He came and pulled me out of my session and said, "You have to hear this guy...he's so on top of things." So we sat in on the next 2 sessions where this guy talked basically non-stop for the next 3 hours. Wow! We knew at that moment, we wanted the boys to see him and get evaluated. He was describing Clayton (especially) to a T.

So our appointments were for June 5. The first thing he did was sit down in a room with us (me and Terry) by ourselves to discuss the boys' history, medically and developmentally. We also discussed any concerns that we had and any things that threw up red flags for him during the talk. Then he started with Clayton. He had C come in to an exam room and he started by having C stand with his eyes closed and raising both arms at the same time to the point of being level. Then he would touch one of C's fingers and say, "Touch your nose with that finger while keeping your eyes closed." So C would do that. This happened several times with different fingers. Then he put his arms back down and had to repeat the process with his hands palm down (the first time was palm up). One thing he asked us during this part was if Clayton had ever broken his right elbow. We said no, and he pointed out how hyper-extended C's arms/elbows were, and said that is a sign of a neurological mis-connection or misfire. (who knew???)

Next he put C back up on the table and showed him a long piece of cloth with red and white stripes. He told C to look straight at him but as he passed the cloth in front of him, to count only the red stripes. It was wild to see what C's eyes did as he counted! They drifted off in the direction the cloth was going...which apparently isn't supposed to happen! So Dr Worth said, "Well, because of that, you get to wear some special goggles!"

He puts these wild goggles on C's head and turns on the TV in the room...we can see C's eyes on the TV screen! First he noticed that one of C's pupils is slightly larger than the other. Next he has him hold something in his hand and look directly at that while he spins C very slowly on a rotating chair (just a regular office chair). C's eyes were bouncing all over the place with the distraction of his surroundings, but would always bounce back to the object he was holding. Then Dr reversed the direction of the spin and C's eyes didn't do it as bad, but they still did it. This apparently isn't supposed to happen either. A persons eyes aer supposed to stay still while focusing on that object, even while spinning.

Next, while still having the goggles on, he pushes C up to the laptop there on the table. He shows C this red ball that is going to go from the left of the screen to the right. He tells him to look at the middle of the screen and count how many times the ball goes across the middle of the screen. Well, as he's counting, C's eyes are everywhere, almost jittery and jumpy. They do this same thing in revers (ball going from right to left) and his eyes are the same way. Then Dr spins him to the right (slowly) several times and has him repeat the ball thing again...and his eyes are a bit better and not so jumpy. WOW!

Next, still with goggles, he has lines (black and white) going from the top of the screen to the bottom. C is supposed to count the black lines as they cross a certain part of the screen. Well, the idea is for the eye to move slightly up and down, but smoothly and not jumpy-like. C's eye's didn't move at all. He said it's almost like there's no connection going from the eyes to the brain. Then they did it with the lines going bottom to top and that same thing happened...nothing.

Oh, and one thing he did (without the goggles) was to have C stand with his right hand flat (palm up) in front of him and place his left hand on it, palm down. Then he was to turn the left hand back and forth tapping the right palm and just keep doing it. Then they reversed it (right hand on the left), and went back and forth again. Apparently, the hand you write with is supposed to be more consistent and steady in this process, and C's weren't.

After the goggles, he had C go play a game with a nurse (was a video game type of thing that measured reflexes and responses). We found out later that when he did this, C's responses were way off. He was either ahead of or behind the timing, depending on if it was left or right side, when they are supposed to be equal.

For Brent, he did the same things...same type of tests, but Brent's weren't near as extreme as C's. When Brent did the lines moving up and down on the screen (with the goggles), his eyes moved just like they were supposed to and we were able to see the difference in the two boys. And to see just how extreme C's situation was.

After he examined and tested the boys, they went back to the waiting area with mom while we went back into the consultation room. Dr Worth then spent the next hour (give or take) with us describing what he saw and his thoughts on treatment. Brent, he said, is dyslexic. But he gave us some ways to help with that part of the brain...things we can do at home. With Clayton, he suggested Interactive Metronome therapy to help with it. There are certain areas of the brain (and I'm not really sure of all the names of it all) that aren't functioning properly due to an inability to process what they are receiving from another part of the brain. If I'm not mistaken, it mostly deals with the Temporal Lobe, Frontal Lobe, and the Cerebellum. (Now, I could be wrong on some of that, but I hope not! LOL)

He said that with Clayton, he thinks that C would be the type of kid that would fall through the cracks in the PS system, cuz he doesn't test severe enough to warrant an IEP or special therapy or special instruction, but he also isn't on the 'normal' side enough to be able to function properly in the PS setting. He told us that it's probably a good thing we homeschool so that we can see and catch these things with Clayton so that we can get him the therapy he needs so that learning is a joy for him, not a burden.

{ Did I mention that I LOVE Dr. Worth???? :) }

It was so very nice to have the validation from a professional! I/We have known in our guts that something wasn't right with C for a while now, but everyone we mention it to says, "Oh he's just a boy" or "Oh, he'll grow out of it, you're just over-reacting". Grr...I got so tired of those comments! I knew in my gut that something wasn't right with my little boy and I finally have someone willing to help me work it out! And it's good for C, cuz now he knows that he is okay and that alot of it isn't his fault...but it is fixable so he won't have to get so frustrated and have meltdowns for no reason, like he's been doing.

Now we just waiting for the official 'report' from Dr Worth's office...which he said, "When you get this, it's gonna be filled with medical jargon....CALL ME, and I'll go over it with you." (He's so helpful!!) Once we get that and get going on the process of therapy and other solutions, we'll see how things turn out. :)

What kids miss out on by being Homeschooled...

A few days ago, someone on a Yahoo group I'm on was asking for help in the decision of whether or not to homeschool. One of the members posted the below (and graciously gave me permission to share it):

Recently a speaker at our homeschooling support group said to tell reluctant relatives to volunteer at a school for a day and see what school really is like nowadays. Most likely, they remember their own school experience, which was 50 or more years ago! Those schools do not exist anymore. Even the school that you remember as a child is not like that anymore. Go and see for yourself and take your mom...walk the halls of your local high school and see.

Yes, homeschooled kids do miss out, this is true. They miss out on the daily fear of violence, bullying, name calling or sexual abuse. They miss out on exposure to a constant string of expletives, sexual talk and innuendo. They miss out on regular exposure to drugs, sex, homosexual agenda, mundane lessons that teach to the lowest (slowest) common denominator, bad teachers, and constant peer pressure to conform to the world. They also miss out on being taught a worldview that hates God and teaches that truth is relevant because there is not black and white. I have met a large quantity of homeschooled children in the last 18 years and I find the vast majority of them to be superior in social skills to their public school counter parts. There are always shy kids and out-going kids, regardless of schooling choices...those are personality traits.

I found this to be so true and really summed up much of what I believe. I'm so glad my kids are missing out!

End of School Year

Last Friday night, our homeschool coop did an end of school-year dinner together. We all brought some of 'show-off' pieces from the year and the kids got to get up and sing all of their songs from States Classes that they've been doing all year. Miss E has been a WONDERFUL teacher to teach all of our children all 50 states through this year! Wow....she is GREAT! About half way through the year, the kids started taking a state each and gathering the information and giving a presentation on each week. Brent did 3, and would have done more if he could have! LOL Here is a video of their States Song:

Recent Promotion...

The boys (as you may remember) were promoted recently to yellow belt at Tae Kwon Do. Well, the picture of it was in the paper a couple weeks ago and I got a color copy of it from the newspaper office! (They were REALLY nice about it!)

Our Tadpoles have legs!

Recently, a friend of ours was able to find a whole slew of tadpoles that we all divvied out and brought home to raise. We've had them in a container (probably equivalent to a 10 gallon aquarium) about half filled with water...there are 7 tadpoles. Slowly over the last few weeks, we've watched them grow in size. We feed them the boiled, frozen lettuce that we were told they liked. Well, yesterday we looked closely at them and noticed that they have legs! Their legs have officially sprouted and the more exciting parts begin happening now. (below is an example of what they look like.)

Well, then last night I was making more lettuce for them (boiling it) and I got distracted with Clayton. Next thing you know, I started catching whiffs of this burning smell. But I had the windows open, so didn't think much of it at the time. Then Terry comes back and says, "Did you mean for this thing you have on the stove to burn?" Well, DUH! Of course not! So I ran to the kitchen and saw that it had burned dry...only lettuce crisps were in the bottom of the pan and they were VERY black! Oy. So I set it aside and was worried about ruining my pan. BUT, thank goodness, this morning I was able to soak it and scrub it and it seems to be fine. :) Whew!

Hopefully soon I'll be able to post some pictures of what our frogs look like as they get bigger! :)