Why Parents Drink

I have been a busy bee lately. We just finished up our annual testing and will be leaving this afternoon for a much needed family trip. I am leaving a funny story for anyone who happens to stumble on by.

The boss wondered why one of his most valued employees had not phoned in s ick one day. Having an urgent problem with one of the main computers, he dialed the employee's home phone number and was greeted with a child's whisper. 'Hello?'
'Is your d addy home?' he asked.
'Yes ,' whispered the small voice.
May I talk with him?'
The child whispered, 'No.'
Surprised and wanting to talk with an adult, the boss asked, 'Is your Mommy there?'
'Yes.'

'May I talk with her?'
Again the small voice whispered, 'No.'
Hoping there was somebody with whom he could leave a message, the boss asked, 'Is anybody else there?'
'Yes ,' whispered the child, ' a policeman '.
Wondering what a cop would be doing at his employee's home, the boss asked, 'May I speak with the policeman?'
'No, he's busy ', whispered the child.
'Busy doing what?'
'Talking to Daddy and Mommy and the Fireman ,' came the whispered answer.
Growing more worried as he heard a loud noise in the background through the earpiece on the phone, the boss asked, 'What is that noise?'

'A helicopter ' answered the whispering voice.
'What is going on there?' demanded the boss, now truly apprehensive.
Again, whispering, the child answered, 'The search team just landed a helicopter .'
Alarmed, concerned and a little frustrated the boss asked, 'What are they searching for?'
Still whispering, the young voice replied with a muffled giggle. ..
'ME .'

Finally, some recognition

There was an article in our local paper on Sunday about home schooling. It was well written and painted the growth of home schooling in a positive light. Something that I completely appreciate. Read the article

While I appreciate everyone's concern regarding my choice to home school my kiddos, I find it quite amusing that so many people pigeon hole us as one single group of "religious freaks". This is noted several times over in the comments of the article above. The idiotic comments were almost as fun to read as the article.

Books Books and more books

Whenever I need a recharge, I read. Today, I felt the need in a big way. I joined a book club. One of those personal ones where you get 5 books for your introductory offer, then you are required to purchase 4 more over the next 2 years thing. This one, I did all for me.

Found a bunch of vegetarian cookbooks, meditation books, yoga, green gardening, all that jazz. Nothing that my kids will want to steal from me. At least not yet. THEN, I went to the library. I grabbed 4 more. All home schooling related. I seriously need a recharge in that area. I am trying to locate one that will give me some advice on getting my act together. You know, the whole mom, taxi driver, event coordinator, educator, social guru thing. But without it throwing the bible at me on every page. For now, I settled on these:

The Homeschooler's Guide to ... by Vicki Caruana
Home Learning year by year - by Rebecca Rupp
The Homeschooling Handbook by Mary Griffith
Homeschooling for Success by Rebecca Kochenderfer

Now, if I could just find that one titled How to get them to eat all of their broccoli - I would be all set.

Monday Schmonday

Why is it so difficult to get things rolling on Mondays? The kids really don't want to do a thing today. I feel the same way. IOWA test prep and then a day of watching the Discovery Channel might be in order.

Does anyone else have this issue on Mondays? If we did away with them, then Tuesday would become our blah day. Then we would have to do away with Tuesdays. Pretty soon, nothing left...just me...my kids...and the Discovery Channel. If we could put the TV outside, right next to the pool, that wouldn't be half bad.

Religion and Homeschooling

Let me start by saying, I am not home schooling for religious reasons. Well, unless it's considered religious for me to thank god every day that I don't have to shop for school uniforms and back packs anymore.

My kids attend an enrichment program on Fridays. It is a Christian based program. Several of our friends attend there so it was a natural choice for us when we added that into our plan. On our first day there, I was told that I had to remove my nose ring. It was a chip really and not a ring but a facial piercing none the less. I also had to cover my tattoos. I have 3 of them. All beautiful pieces of artwork that reflect part of my soul. I agreed to the two conditions anyway.

We go through 2 semesters at this program. We loved it. The kids made friends. Now, we are faced with the end of our year. I contemplated applying to teach a class next year. A volunteer spot. Computers and web design. I look over the application to find question #3 asking about my church and question #4 asking what my feelings were about Jesus Christ.

I am not an atheist. I am not part of some satanic cult. I am spiritual and most of all, I am respectful. I do not offer up arguments about religion, I sit quietly while others preach, no matter where I am and I still bow my head when people around me pray. I am the picture perfect non religious person. You know, aside from the facial piercing and the ink. They won't allow me to teach a class because I am not what they consider a Christian. Their words, not mine.

All I want to do, is offer a class in web design for some kiddos. Nope. You aren't good enough to teach here, Queenie. I would be aok if they were judging me on my ability rather than my religious beliefs. I am good enough for them to take my hundreds of dollars each month but not good enough to volunteer to teach. Doesn't the bible tell people not to judge? Yet here I am, being judged.

I just don't get it.

How many do I get?

I am talking about mulligans. Redos. I find that I do them often, especially when it comes to parenting and home schooling. I find things that I think are great, only to discover after I try them, that they suck.

I am in the process of gathering my resources for the new school year for us. We don't really take time off around here. We just take a week or so here and there as a break. It works for us very well. Keeps the kids from losing their mojo. When we get burnt out or have a bazillion things happening, we take a break. No biggie.

I am just coming off of one of these breaks now. I was sick for a few days and things just fell apart. The house, school, the rest of our life. LOL! I took a week to get back in check. Organized, cleaned, rethought some things....

I get flooded with articles and what nots regarding home schooling daily. My email box is a constant source of chaos for me. PILES - I tell ya. I have decided that I am just going to post this useful and extremely entertaining info as I get it. Not worry about only posting once per day. Who needs rules anyway? Right?

Here come the crazies

This is my third blog. Fourth if you count the Guild blog I have for World Of Warcraft. It's been a long time coming with an even longer time of me trying to decide what I wanted to do here exactly. I have at the time of this post, been home schooling for two years. I am a virgin. A babe. A newbie. In that two years, I have been reading everything that I could get my hands on about home schooling and child development. You know, so I could be sure that my kids wouldn't lynch me.

I am not a religious woman. We did not pull our kids out of school so we could be closer to god, find our purpose in life or walk with Jesus. We pulled them out of public school because our public system was failing my kids. They were bored beyond belief and were quickly on the road to becoming trouble makers. My son was the best paper airplane maker in all of 4th grade. He was proud. His teacher didn't think it was amusing. Considering that I taught him most of the models he would create, I was proud dammit.

My kids are creative, smart and simply amazing. I knew that I needed to save them. They deserve so much more than to be pigeon holed. So here I am. A home school mom. I don't have a clue what I am doing half the time. But I plan to blog about it. A. Lot. Hopefully, my trip into the oblivion will help someone...or at least make your morning coffee a bit more entertaining.

So, Zoe over at Chic & Sassy Designs got me all hooked up with a design that I love, that didn't break my bank account. She didn't cause me to rip out my hair and she saved my fanny when I didn't have the patience to install this thing properly. Thanks Zoe!!! If anyone needs a design, I highly recommend her. Easy breezy, friendly and just look at this place. Fab right?

So....here I go. Launching. Again. Fasten your seat belts.

Mothers

1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE.
'If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning.'

2. My mother taught me RELIGION.
'You better pray that will come out of the carpet.'

3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL.
'If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!'

4. My mother taught me LOGIC.
' Because I said so, that's why.'

5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC.
'If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me.'

6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT.
'Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident.'

7. My mother taught me IRONY.
'Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about.'

8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS.
'Shut your mouth and eat your supper.'

9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM.
'Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!'

10. My mother taught me about STAMINA.
'You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone.'

11. My mother taught me about WEATHER.
'This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it.'

12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.
'If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!'

13. My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE.
'I brought you into this world, and I can take you out.'

14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION.
'Stop acting like your father!'

15. My mother taught me about ENVY.
'There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do.'

16. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.
'Just wait until we get home.'

17 My mother taught me about RECEIVING.
'You are going to get it when you get home!'

18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE.
'If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way.'

19 My mother taught me ESP.
'Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?'

20. My mother taught me HUMOR.
'When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me.'

21.My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT.
'If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up.'

22. My mother taught me GENETICS.
'You're just like your father.'

23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS.
'Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?'

24. My mother taught me WISDOM.
'When you get to be my age, you'll understand.'

25. And my favorite: My mother taught me about JUSTICE.
'One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you!'

A Burning Question

I need some advice. I know we are a home school family so our lines are a bit wider when we define our education but what I need to know is.....would this be considered music class? We just got it and I really hope so because it's all we want to do. I am thinking it may be tricky to get into our portfolio. What do you think? Ciao.

No, its not ToysRUs

But its close. Yesterday, we spent about two hours at the book store. My kids love books. They love toys too, they aren't complete freaks. However, they love books just as much.

I have noticed that this seems to be the case with most kids that home school. My kids are slowly finding that there is always something cool at the bookstore. The big test came when they had the choice of hitting the mall complete with toy store, or heading up to the book heaven. They debated for about 2 minutes and then all 3 yelled "Barnes and Noble". We are hopeless geeks. I love it.

Ciao.

MULLIGAN!!!!

That is what I say when I need to start over on something. I believe it is a golf term though. Not an everyday thing. I find that I used to want "do overs" more often. So today....about this blog....I say ...MULLIGAN.

I have good intentions here. I really do. I started homeschooling two years ago. Pulled my kiddos right out of public school the last day of the year. And we haven't looked back. I realized rather quickly that our nice little family wasn't in the norm for home schoolers. We made the choice to homeschool for the sanity of our family. Period. It wasn't religious. It was because our public school system was failing us and I didn't want to wait and watch that happen.

The decision came after I realized that my middle princess would be entering 3rd grade and she could barely read. My oldest would be entering 5th grade and he was bored stiff and that I would again have to hope that his teacher would see this quickly and not punish him because he was brilliant. My youngest had just spent her first year in an "extended foreign language" program and knew exactly three words in Spanish. I knew then that I could do better for my kids. Even without a degree.

And so our adventure began. I had no clue what I was doing. I struggled. We fought. I had to deprogram the kids. Oh how many times I heard that first year "That's not the way we did it in school". I wanted to choke someone. I questioned myself. But, I stuck with it.

Here we are, approaching the end of our second year and I feel like we have finally found our way. Finally. I am more comfortable. The kids are more comfortable. It is just all around better.

So, today, I am re-launching this place. My plan here is to fill it with all things mommy and homeschooling. I am self taught in just about everything that I do. I have resources galore on homeschooling and the things we are learning. I plan to share that all, here. Pardon the dust and the chaos. This is just us. Hope you all will enjoy.