Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop

What am I missing here?  We have been officially homeschooling for 30 "school" days now.  Family, friends and random folks are politely asking, "So, how's it going?"  It isn't quite the rhetorical question of, "How are you?" to which no one is actually looking for a truthful answer.  The "How's it going?" comes after the "Hey" and "How are you?" conversational starters.  The "it" in the "So, how's it going?" question, is always referring to homeschooling.  So I take a deep breath and think before I answer.  How is it going?

The answer is, "Shockingly well."  "Really well."  Hmm.  

I must admit that I am quite surprised by this.  I was expecting to be going a bit crazy by now.  Stir crazy or even a bit "postal" even were some possibilities I wondered about.  I think my husband is still holding his breath before he walks into the house each evening.  What will he find?  Has his family imploded or are we still doing okay?  Check!  We are all okay.  No one is going crazy.  The kids are not at each other's throats. In fact, they have never gotten along this well.  Hmm.

Am I missing something?  I am starting to wonder if I am delusional.  Could this really be working out so well?  Uh, yes.  Are the kids actually learning? Hmm.  Maybe that should be the new area of concern.  Are they learning? How would I know?

Yes, they are learning.  I have math tests that came with each child's math program.   They are doing extremely well on the tests.   They are reading books. They are writing and creating.  They are applying what they learn. (This isn't too hard to check up on because as their teacher, I know exactly what we have covered.  So I can tell when they have made a connection to new information.)  They are actually retaining the information that we have covered! 

For example, after studying Ancient Egypt, we had a field trip to the Carlos Museum.  While examining a coffin, the kids started identifying all the gods in the hieroglyphics.  They did an amazing job of making connections while examining the various artifacts throughout the museum.

Holy Cow!  This homeschool thing seems to be working!  Man, when the other shoe drops, it is going to really stink.  Because to be honest, right now this is really fun!  It is a lot of work, but truly rewarding to watch your kids thrive.

  

Survival of the Nitty Gritty

If you have read my prior blog posts, then you know I have tried some pretty fun things to ease my children into the homeschool lifestyle.  However, as we all know, field trips alone will not adequately educate a child for today's world. As boring as it is, we all need to know how to spell and use punctuation. Like it or not, no one will make it in this world without math.  So, it was time to buckle down to the "Nitty Gritty" studies that my kids were dreading.

Good News!!!  We have made it through over a week of all subject homeschooling without anyone dead, maimed or bleeding.  I call that a success!  I would be lying if I said that the kids did not complain or have some meltdowns. They were to be expected.  I also anticipated testing of boundaries and comments about missing school friends.  I was not disappointed there either. Check those of the list, boundaries were most certainly tested! However, I met the challenges without loosing my cool and turning into a screaming banshee.  Success again!

For all of you who think that not turning into a screaming banshee is a poor definition of success, then you must have something that I lack, namely... PATIENCE.  Patience is a virtue that I simply do not have.  I think that when St. Peter was distributing patience in heaven, the line must have been too long so I probably just left.  For those of you whose kids are still in brick and mortar schools, search your conscience.  Weren't you just a little relieved when school started back up this year?  Any thoughts of, "Phew, we made it through summer"?  I think you see where I am going.

I have noticed that homeschooling has a double-edged sword of time with your children.  24/7... no breaks.  It is a lovely thing and it can also be extremely annoying.  I can tell that we are going to have to figure in some mental health breaks for Mommy.  Or as an alternative, my husband can go ahead and reserve a room for me now in the psych ward.

So did either child have any interesting moments during this past week of nitty gritty work?  Yes, for both of them.  My 2nd grade son has issues retaining rote facts. If it is not interesting, forget it!  Challenge him, and he is all over it.  He had no problems keeping up with his 5th grade sister in science and history.  But, math facts???  He can't be bothered.  He did have a lightbulb moment when something finally clicked.  We were listening to counting songs in an attempt to get the information to go in a different way. He asked about the lyrics where 9 would "slurp" (sound effects included in the song) one of the number it was adding.   The idea is that 9 is stealing one to make 10 and then leaving the rest.  Eureka!  He laughed and shockingly-- remembered!  The "slurping" noise got his attention long enough to let the concept sink in.  Then it was a simple jump to see that 8 steals 2 from the number you are adding it with to make 10 and 7 steals 3.

How exciting to see a lightbulb moment!  You mean to tell me that I have been letting his teachers have all of these???  Shame on me!  I'm glad I didn't miss his first steps.  This feels about as exciting as some of the baby milestones. Why would his intellectual milestones be any less important than his physical ones? I believe I have found the Holy Grail "PERK" of homeschooling.  This must be why so many families have chosen this path.

Did my daughter have any revelations this week?  Why yes she did, thanks for asking.  Hers also came during math.  She has always gotten math concepts extremely quickly.  So quickly that she has developed a nasty habit of not being required to think.  She is used to things being so easy, that she tends to freak over small challenges.  Her knee jerk reaction is to think that she can't do it if the solution isn't readily apparent to her.  This is one of the main reasons we wanted to homeschool her.  She has a beautiful mind that needs to be challenged.  Her first mental challenge came this week when she was required to combine factoring, algebraic thinking and mental math all together.  It was quite a shock!  It even caused to her to roll on the floor in tears crying, "I can't do this."  But with a little encouragement and showing her just how much she did in fact know, she attempted it.

It took real effort and (gasp) "thought" to find the solution.  I explained to her that she could do it, but it would take a genuine thought process to find the answers.  It was a challenge.  Her response was, "I like easy better."  But we stuck with it for about thirty minutes and then she conquered it.  Her smile when she realized that she could do it lit up the room.  Genuine accomplishment of a challenge!!!

Once again, I had a fantastic feeling that I had helped guide her.  No wonder teachers put up with poor pay and unruly classrooms.  The "Ah-Ha" moments of children must be addictive. Greedy me, I get to keep all of my children's "Ah-Ha" moments for myself.

The nitty gritty of homeschooling is going to be a bumpy, exasperating road.  I have glimpsed some of the perks, however and I think the journey will be worth it.  Educating my children is not going to be a sprint, but rather a marathon.  I hope I have the endurance for the challenge.

Sneaky Education

I believe that any parent knows just how difficult it is to get a stubborn child to voluntarily eat vegetables.  You might find it easier to grow wings and then fly away to the moon.  For many families, this analogy would hold true for education.  Not too many children are going to eagerly climb onto the sofa next to you and say, "Oh please Mommy, may we learn grammar, spelling and math now?  Please, PLLEASSSEEE!" So like hiding vegetables in purees of pasta sauce, I would like to be diabolical and trick my kids into learning when they least expect it.  Perhaps I need to glue on a pencil mustache and start wearing a black cape as I eerily chuckle "Wa Ha Ha."

As a homeschooling family, my husband and I are now solely responsible for taking knowledge and somehow cramming it into our childrens' heads in such a way that it won't leak out their ears and be lost forever.  Ideally (Please laugh at the word "ideally," we all know how best laid plans have a way of working out.) knowledge would be acquired as a symbiotic part of their lifestyle-- simply, easily, seamlessly, painlessly etc.  Activities that are a normal part of daily life would provide countless teaching moments that the children would eagerly absorb like little sponges.  Ahh, can't you just hear the angels singing?  (I also have a unique opportunity to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge, feel free to inquire through the Comment section.)

Since I am not normally completely delusional, I wouldn't expect things to be quite so simple or work so smoothly.  But after our Florida vacation, I guess the joke is on me.  Who knew that the spark of curiosity could so easily return to my children?  But it did...

Our beach vacations have always involved getting out and seeing what the area has to offer.  We love trying to find educational things to do rather than just pure "tourist trap schlock."  This year we made a special point to go to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium so the kids could meet Winter the tailless dolphin who is starring in her own movie this year, Dolphin Tale.

They had a blast, despite the sweltering heat.  Although a bit shy at first, they began to ask the volunteers more and more questions.  We expected a semi-quick visit to the Aquarium and instead stayed for over five hours.  It was amazing to watch as they would listen to an answer, think about it for a minute or two and then come up with another question that was an extension of the first.

Would they remember? Would it sink in?  Oh my, but yes!  My son became intrigued by the horseshoe crab.  After a few minutes, his sister, who was not quite so enthralled with the horseshoe crab went off with her father to learn about something else. Forty-five minutes later, they came back surprised to see that we were in the exact same spot, studying the exact same thing. How often do seven year old boys focus on something for that long?  He excitedly dragged his sister over and began to explain to her everything he had learned about the horseshoe crab.

For us as parents, this is what "Homeschooling" is all about-- learning as part of our lifestyle.  Following up on the interests of our children and taking the time to allow them to learn.  Perhaps we need to re-name "Homeschooling." Maybe we should start a campaign to call it, "Stopping to Smell (and Learn About) the Roses.  I am hoping that "learning" won't be quite as difficult as getting my kids to consume vegetables.  Maybe I won't need a diabolical plan after all...

First Day of Homeschooling

Monday, August 1st was our first day of homeschooling.  Nobody (neither the kids nor myself) had any idea what this was going to be like, but we had to start sometime.  Since we don't live in Utopia and I am not June Cleaver, I knew that we were going to have "issues."  Okay, okay, I know that we are going to have knock down, drag out, explosive, screaming hissy fit kind of days.  Days were I will want to pull out the checkbook to write a check to their old private school or walk down to our neighborhood public school (which is less than a mile from our house) and throw them in.  Luckily, our first day wasn't one of those.  Phew!!!

Since I have been doing a lot of research on homeschooling before jumping off the "brick and mortar" ship of schooling, I knew we were in for "adjustment issues."  Since I like to pretend that my mother did not raise a fool (on most days)-- although we probably shouldn't ask her what she thinks about that one-- I knew I needed a plan.  Hmm... kids will feel very weird when all of their friends return to school.  What can we do?  Bribery!  Yet in an educational kind of way...  I love it when a diabolical plan comes together.

We have begun homeschooling with a unit study on Roller Coasters.  I have timed it so that our field trip to Six Flags will be next Monday when most all of the public and private schools have their First Day of School.  Every now and then I have sparks of true genius!  What kid can feel sorry for him or herself when screaming their lungs out while racing along a white-knuckle grip roller coaster?

Are they actually learning "real" stuff?  Yes.  They now know, understand and can explain Newton's Laws of Motion.  In two days, they have done experiments which illustrate the principles involved in each of Newton's laws.  I even snuck a little math in on my daughter when she had to calculate how many people rode the Switchback Railway on Coney Island when the fare was a nickel and the creator LaMarcus Adna Thompson recouped his $1600 investment in just three weeks.   Shh, don't tell her.

I did get a spontaneous hug and a "I love homeschooling," from my daughter on Day 1.  I need to take a mental picture of that incident, because it may be a long time before I ever have another one.  Was it all smooth sailing?  No.  The same darling daughter had a meltdown when I asked her to write-up Thompson and his life.  But it was resolved without Mommy freaking out, she did it and even apologized.  Apparently prayer works!  

Why should my kids love homeschooling?  Because I have set them up!  First we study roller coasters and have hands on "experimentation" at an amusement park.  Second we will be completing a unit study on Chocolate.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Boy the sacrifices I make for my children!  The taste testing for this study will be traumatic, but somehow I will manage.  Third we will be taking a vacation to the beach while everyone else is in school.  Only then, when the kids kind of like the idea of Mom as the teacher, will we begin the nitty gritty of math, spelling etc.

Who knows, maybe, just maybe I won't wind up in a padded room of a psych ward until after Christmas.  A truly crazy thought, maybe this will be the best thing we have ever done...

Summer of Forts

There are a couple of things that always let me know that summer is here: oppressive heat (after all they don't call it Hot-lanta for nothing), miraculous popsicles that can produce a smile, no matter what the circumstances, injury or indignity and forts.  Fort building is a cherished pastime by my children.

Every summer, king-sized bedsheets are pulled out of the linen closet and every binder clip in the house is commandeered for fort building.  No more mere draping a sheet over a chair and crawling under.  No, we create tent cities that last for weeks.  My son especially likes to sleep in his fort creations. Last summer he slept on the floor of his room in his fort for over a month.

As the school year ended this year, things were in turmoil.  After all, we were embarking on a whole new endeavor...homeschooling.  Would we ever see these school friends again?  How were things going to work?  What is it going to be like to have Mom for a teacher?  (The kids seemed to be filled with equal parts of trepidation and excitement on that one.)

The moment school let out, I was in a frenzy trying to get all the kids uniforms cleaned and tagged for the school's Used Uniform Sale.  Camps started for the kids.  Everyone was up late.  "Ahh Mom, who needs a bedtime when it is summer?"  Things were starting out kind of chaotically, but in a good way.

The other morning, I was checking my email when my seven year old son came in and gathered all the pillows off my bed.  It is quite an amusing sight since a king-sized pillow is just about as big as he is.  My curiosity was piqued. "Where are you going with all our pillows?"  Silly me, I should have known the response.  "I'm building a fort in the living room Mommy."  Oh my, how could I have forgotten the siren call of fort building?

I ventured downstairs and found the living room completely blocked off by all of the dining room chairs.  He had dragged in barstools from the kitchen. Pillows were strewn about the whole room.  In each nook and cranny a stuffed animal could be found.  There were Gronkels, Deadly Nadders and of course a Night Fury lounging by the fireplace on those aforementioned pillows dragged from my bed.  (For those of you who missed How to Train Your Dragon, those are dragon stuffies from the movie.)  There were pillows, a sleeping bag, flashlight and the specially beloved stuffies laid out ready for sleeping.  There was a DS corner for electronics accompanied by stuffed chaperones. Everywhere you looked he had put one of his stuffed friends.

That night as I tucked him in downstairs in his entire living room fort, he decided it might be a bit too scary to sleep all alone with no one else on the ground floor.  So we moved him back upstairs with a few key stuffed friends and put him in his own bed with promises to make a fort in his room the next day.

So it is officially summer.  My living room is a fort and my son is sleeping on the floor of his room in another fort.  I think my heart will break a little when my little man is too old for forts.  Even though it is a little difficult (both physically and to one's personal dignity) to crawl in and out of the forts for goodnight kisses, there really isn't anything sweeter than to tuck him into his sleeping bag surrounded by a stuffy army.

Attacks on Georgia Charter Schools

Shocking Newsflash:  Our school systems nationwide need help.  Oh wait, that is not news.  There are many people trying to affect positive change in education.  We personally have decided to homeschool our children in our own particular attempt to address our children's individual educational needs. We are not alone by any stretch of the imagination.  Millions are taking the ultimate responsibility for their own children's education.  Others are attempting to affect positive change within the existing framework of schools. Charter schools have been popping up all over the country in the last two decades.

According to the US Charter Schools website,

"Nearly 3,000 new schools have been launched since state legislatures began passing charter legistlation in the 1990s.  Chartering is a radical educational innovation that is moving states beyond reforming existing schools to creating something entirely new.  Chartering is at the center of a growing movement to challenge traditional notions of what public education means."

According to the State of Georgia's Department of Education, there are 109 charter schools in Georgia. (The statistic does not include schools within a charter system.  Georgia has 8 charter systems comprised of 61 schools.) Georgia's charter schools are public schools of choice that operate under the terms of a contract. They receive public funding, cannot charge tuition, must be secular and are required to serve all student populations.  They have produced results-- real, measurable improvements over their traditional public school counterparts.

So when you have something that is new, different and actually working, what should you do?  Why attack it, of course!  Not only were they attacked in Georgia, but the statutes which authorized their creation have been declared UNCONSTITUTIONAL by the Georgia Supreme Court in  Gwinnett County School Dist. v. Cox.  On May 16, 2011, the majority issued a  twenty-four page opinion outlining why the Georgia Charter Schools Commission Act is  "clearly and palpably unconstitutional."  While the Court acknowledges in their own words that:

"the schools established thereunder represent the efforts of well-intentioned people, motivated by their genuine concern over the current condition of this State's general K-12 public education, to provide the children of this State with an alternative and, in some cases, a superior educational opportunity.  In holding the Act unconstitutional under the unique provisions of this State's Constitution, we do not in any manner denigrate the goals and aspirations that these efforts reflect.  The goals are laudable." (pp. 23-24.)

While the majority may not want to denigrate any goals or aspirations, they have instead, utterly destroyed the efforts, achievements and hopes of Georgia's charter schools.  While reading the majority's opinion, I did not find their reasoning to result in a "clear and palpable" understanding of the Act's unconstitutionality.  In fact, the majority appears to go to great lengths to distort the meanings of a "special school" in order to achieve the result of unconstitutionality.  Hmm...

A cynic (oh goody, I am one) might think that there is something else afoot here.  Charter schools are different from traditional public schools here in Georgia in that they have autonomy and flexibility.  They are not governed by a local board of education, but by an autonomous non-profit board of directors.  Might this have a bit more to do with money???  Money that the local school boards don't get to control.  Money that the local school boards lose when each child who attends a charter school is not registered in one of their own schools... Hmm...

Since the Georgia Charter Schools Commission Act is "clearly and palpably unconstitutional," the majority's logic and arguments must be irrefutable if their finding is so "palpable."  NOT!!!  Actually the more clear and compelling arguments are found in the dissenting opinions.  In Justice Melton's dissent, he concludes that there is something more here than a simple constitutional analysis:

"The Legislature, whom we must presume intended to act in a constitutional manner, created a law to provide for special charter schools to enhance our educational system, and it included evidence on the face of the statute supporting such a constitutional intent.  Nevertheless, the majority looks beyond this basic principle to reach a result that simply cannot be explained in the context of the applicable law and the undisputed facts." (p. 3 of Melton's dissent)

If the majority's reasoning "cannot be explained in the context of the applicable law and the undisputed facts," then what is the majority doing?  A cynic might suggest that they are playing politics which is clearly outside of their purview.  Ah yes, I am a cynic indeed!  For I believe that the majority was in fact playing at politics.  Justice Nahmias has quite a bit to say about why the majority is wrong in its conclusion.  His 75 page dissent is joined by Presiding Justice Carley and Justice Melton.  Perhaps things aren't as "clear and palpable" as the majority would like for us to believe.

"But the policy debate and the political process no longer matter.  The majority of this Court has announced the new policy and removed the issue from the political process, unless the General Assembly and the people of our State bear the delay and enormous burden required to correct the Court's error through a constitutional amendment."  (p. 74 of Nahmias' dissent)

Is it any wonder that the homeschool movement is growing at an exponential rate?  When people try to change the system from within,  Georgia has a very chilling message for them.

Alice Cooper and Homeschooling?!?!?

It is official.  School is out.  My children are no longer enrolled in an accredited school, nor are they going to be.  We are now on our own.


As you can imagine, the final day of school was quite emotional.  My daughter had been at her private school for five years.  She said on the way home this afternoon that her whole life is changing.  It is true.  No wonder she has such mixed feelings and is emotional.  It is a huge upheaval.  Then out of the mouth of babes... "It's no big deal for you Mom, you're not going anywhere new."  My calm response was a shouted, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME???  (Deep Breath-- followed by a much calmer response) I may not be "going" anywhere, but I am taking on a HUGE new responsibility.  There is nothing more important to your Daddy and I than your education."


[Gulp!]  At least my brain filter was working well enough not to speak my next thoughts aloud... "Oh *#@&, what have I gotten my self into now?"  Just about every parent at the class parties asked if I was ready for my "new adventure." My joking response was that I should have stopped by the liquor store yesterday and stocked up before the kids got out of school.  We all laughed at the idea of homeschooling via Margaritaville.


I can honestly say that the parents of my children's classmates, their teachers and the principal have been remarkably supportive and encouraging.  I do, however, feel quite confident in my telepathic abilities on reading quite a few of the parents.  Their thoughts came through loud and clear... "Better you than me, Sister!" Maybe so...

What kid hasn't sung "No more pencils, No more books, No more teacher's dirty looks" on the last day of school?  It is a ritual to mark the end of each school year. This year, however, Alice Cooper and I have a bit more in common with homeschooling in our future.  That is about as frightening as a picture of Alice Cooper! Brrr!  Never thought I would have much in common with Alice Cooper...  (In all honesty, I probably still don't but the lyrics of the song "School's Out" are quite telling.)




School's out for summer
School's out forever
School's been blown to pieces

No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher's dirty looks

Out for summer
Out till fall
We might not go back at all


Indeed our family might not go back at all... Who knows what homeschooling will be like for us?  Hopefully it will not be a Grand Failed Experiment.  Only time will tell.


But when my daughter also asked in the car this afternoon, "Mommy can we make a baking soda volcano this summer?"  You must know what my answer was, "You Bet!"  I will just need to do some research so that I can learn how to build a baking soda volcano.  This might be our first homeschooling project.  We can all learn together.  God Bless the internet because I would be lost without it. This homeschooling thing might turn out to be a lot of fun.  If I don't wind up in the psych ward first that is...