Tomorrow, It's Official

Tomorrow, all of the local school kids start public school. The neighbors already started yesterday, at a charter or private school (I'm not sure which it is).

Suddenly it all feels so real, so rebelious, so subversive.

I'm not sending my son, who is of compulsory school age, to school.

The weird part of it, here in California, is that homeschooling is basically setting up your own personal private school. The thing is, the only official form to fill out is simply a notification to the state that you already opened your school. I don't have to ask anyone, I don't need to be approved, I just let them know that it already happened. The funny thing is, I can't do that until October 1st, when the website goes online again. (They turn it off every year, so people don't file at the "wrong" time. Weird.)

Anyway, it makes me feel like we're in some sort of weird truant limbo, even though we are not. We're just like every other private school in the area. Some have more students, some are religious, they turned school into a business, etc.. But they don't have any more official paperwork than I do.

It just feels so much more real when you imagine all of the other little kids going off the school with their backpacks and lunchboxes, their crying moms waving and smiling. And my kids are sleeping in, eating breakfast together, coloring castles with me in the kitchen, and playing happily together downstairs.

It feels so real to me, because they got so very used to doing their morning lessons, then running next door to invite the girls out to play. But now their friends aren't home. And I don't even know when they will get home -- yesterday we never even saw them. Maybe they went out for dinner after school? All my kids know is that suddenly their summer playmates are gone, and their afternoon is just a little sadder and more lonely. Luckily we have park day today!

Do You Homeschool in the Summer?

Some people choose to homeschool during regular public school time, other school year-round. What do you do?

Here at Yet To Be Named Private School (in CA homeschools actually register as private schools -- however as my son is only just compulsory school age this fall, we haven't needed to file until this year. The forms are accepted in October, and I have no idea what we will name it yet!), we decided to school, well, whenever. We have no real given timeline for school.

We reserve beautiful days for going outside and playing. During rainy season, we tend to stay in more and do more school-type stuff. Last summer, we did quite a bit of work simply because it was 100 degrees every day and no one wanted to be out in that. So this year I fully expected to get a lot done this summer. We took a big break to move over the winter, and took a big break last october to go on two big trips to see family (including a funeral). We took a break for weeks while I was in the horrors of intense morning sickness. And now... we're still on a bit of a break. See, every day has been 70 degrees out. Beautiful! And we have lovely neighbors next door that the children love to play with for hours every day.

So I actually cheered this morning when it began to rain here in Silicon Valley. It never rains in August. Our rainy season is fall and winter, and it rains nearly every day for several months. Summer does not have rain at all, hence why we have all those great fires.

But rain! Today! In August! Let's have school!!

So Behind!

Sorry for not keeping this updated. Life has been busy. I'll try to get everyone up to speed quick, and maybe post more when I get a chance. :D

1) I was working 25 hours a week, part time. That ate up a ton of time. But we parted ways amicably when it became clear I could not uphold the quality of my work and the time required.

2) Because I was having all day migraines, sinus pain, stomach aches, and other problems.

3) Due to, apparently, the fact that I'm gluten-intolerant (and possibly still have issues with soy and dairy). I tried going gluten free because I couldn't think of anything else to do (and my sister is gluten-intolerant, plus my allergist suggested I should get tested.. um.. two years ago. I think I forgot to because of a headache!). All those symptoms and more started clearing up within *days*. I no longer have oddly swollen feet in the morning, weird tingling in my fingers, sinus pain, migraines (well, some, but not every day!), back pain, all my IBS symptoms, and so forth. I previously thought it would take months to see any difference. No... I was sure in three days.

4) I've been coping with trying to not eat gluten. If I accidentally ingest a little (say, in paprika that uses gluten-containing stuff to prevent clumping) I get a migraine and gastrointestinal distress for about two days or so. A month or so ago I ate a bowl of pasta just to see if gluten was really the problem, and I finally felt better 10 days later. I spend a lot of time researching things...

5) Just after I finished work, I also got pregnant! So while I feel better from not having gluten, I'm now exhausted and nauseous for a much happier reason.

6) I may start more part-time work soon, but I expect it will work out better. Fewer hours, less ambitious deadlines, no required time in the office (there IS no office!).

If anyone has any tips or tricks about homeschooling while pregnant, please leave a comment! I spent this morning just trying to walk through the house and not lose my breakfast (lost that battle) and I can't imagine trying to engage a 6 and 3 year old in anything useful. But I want to keep up as much as I can, since I imagine we'll lose more time when I'm near the end, and when there's a new baby!

How's That Homeschooling Going?

Okay, okay, I'm really bad at keeping up on my blogging. I admit it. Partly, it's because I'm a very private person, and I live in fear that my real life will be blasted across the internet for everyone to know until the end of time. It's really a very scary prospect. Especially when freedom seems to be a little more rare than before, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, we've been doing pretty well. Our official studies took a break for a few months while we moved to a new house and visited family members all over.

History -- we completed SOTW vol 1. We skipped through some chapters when I read it, but then listened to the whole thing all over again on the CDs. (I love those!!). Now we're just starting vol 2 and enjoyed making Celtic warrior outfits.

Math -- we do this in fits and starts. It's nice that way. We've completed MUS alpha and just started on Beta. His understanding of math is really noticable -- I think he's really getting it! He had problems with place value and a few other things, but I think alpha (and time) helped sort that out.

Art -- we've gone nuts with coloring and watercolors!

Science and engineering -- He takes a local science class with a really neat guy. Plus I still throw science lessons in randomly whereever they happen. As a former scientist, that's pretty easy for me. We get out a lot of books about animals, too. We visited a tide pools, aquariums, a farm, and all sorts of other wonderfully sciency things. We also have a neat book from the library called "Build It!" which investigates all sorts of engineering principles in a very hands on way. It's been fun so far. Plus he has legos and 27 million other building tools.

Reading and writing -- Not there yet. He's been doing mazes and dot to dots. He sometimes types notes to my character in Warcraft (from his character). He'll get there when he does. I'm not going to push him. I invite him to read with me sometimes, but he doesn't like it very long and still seems to guess a lot. Oh, and my husband is teaching them some japanese characters (read and handwriting) -- it also goes into art here, as he had them painting some shoudou with them.

Music -- we've listened to jazz and blues and irish folksongs this month. We have some nice medeival music for a fwe months from now when we get tothe appropriate bits of SOTW vol 2.

Grammar -- Mad libs! And I sometimes get ideas from First Language Lessons, but I skip a lot and don't go by the script. Oh, and I keep trying to explain and explain to the girl about pronouns. She uses 'her' and 'she' incorrectly.

We saw a musical last weekend. That was nice! It had some homeschooling friends in it. We had some other plans for this weekend, but most of them fell through due to health and weather problems. Oh well!

Back to Business!

Well, after a whirlwind crazy month, it's time to get back to learning! We were gone to a funeral, then had a week of basically goofing off, then a week of vacation visiting relatives. So... three weeks later and the kids have gone completely feral. They spent two weeks running amock with all of their cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles, and now they just want me to amuse them!

Hah!

Time for work, kids!

Oh, today was horrible. The two year old is SO two. So so so two. My son refused to have breakfast, because then I would make him sit down for school stuff! So we went to the library and they both ran all over and acted like crazy monkey people.

Whee.

Tomorrow we're making pie with grandma!

Away For a Funeral

Sorry to not post for a week. Had a sudden funeral to attend. Anyway, I'll just take today to write a list of 10 happy things.

1) My kids and dh are still healthy.
2) We found incredibly cheap airplane tickets so we could all go to the funeral.
3) I'm learning to knit!
4) The kids adored seeing their cousins.
5) I have such a nice job that lets me work from across the country at night, or move my hours to different days.
6) My dh has been such a pillar of strength and helpfulness for the past couple weeks. I've been tired and listless (upset about things...) but he's taken up the slack, keeping track of the kids and things way more than usual.
7) My children haven't made my head explode yet. (They are seriously annoying lately. It's just one of those phases, I'm sure, but do they have to have them at the same time?!).
8) I love our park day groups. It's so nice to have so many people come to them!
9) Going on another trip soon to see their grandfather (my father-in-law).
10) And more cousins!

Homeschool Memoirs #3: Routines

I signed up for the Homeschool Memoirs meme and then promptly did absolutely nothing with it. So, here I am, playing catch up.

The theme from week three was routines. We're not really that into schedules, but we do have plenty of routines.

The most important routine is that every night, I read to my son for about an hour at bedtime. Any book he wants. The favorites right now a Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Boxcar Children, Magic Treehouse, Timewarp Trio, A-Z Mysteries, Secret of Droon, Calvin and Hobbes, and Harry Potter. So yea, mysteries and fantasy for the most part. (With lots of historicalness.)

The week starts on Sunday. That's the day I plan the week out. I get out all the books and see which sections we'll do, make a list of any books we need form home or the library, get materials together, make any printouts we'll need, and write the plan down. In this time, I also follow up on any tiny bits of learning I meant to impart on the kids -- maybe a topic or concept that should have been covered in the week and wasn't, but isn't really a big enough chunk to bother focusing on for the next week.

On Monday, I go to work in the mornings while my husband works from home and watched the kids. Monday afternoon, we go to park day.

Tuesday is stay home day. I catch up on housework, rest a little, read the news, and we do a large portion of our school for the week! It's the day we read from Story of the World and First Language Lessons. It is sometimes the day we go to the library, too. Usually I'll read from the books while the kids color the activities or play with clay or something like that.

Wednesday is soccer and park day. Yes, it's a lot of park time. We go to the park at 11:30, bring a picnic, and stay until 4 or 5 pm! The night is usually mom-has-a-rest-time. (Good for reading!)

Thursday I go to work most of the day, and husband works from home. This is a pretty freeform day for hte kids, where they mostly play. At night we may go out to eat and then go to the grocery store. I usually read some books to them when I get home. Many of those books are for school, like a biography about a historical figure, something about a particular animal or plant, history mysteries, magic treehouse book, something from the Living Math cirriculum, and so on.

Friday is Fun Day. I catch up on cleaning in the morning, we do some more school things. Often this is the day we'll do a little art project, or science experiment, or finish some printouts. Then, if they haven't been actively fighting me all week, we go out! I often let them pick. Places we often go include: Chuck E Cheese (it's math! Really!), The Children's Discovery Museum, Ardenwood Farm, other museums, star parties (astronomy), etc.. Sometimes it ties into something we learned that week, but usually not. One week we went to Krispy Kreme. It actually tied in! That week my daughter was obsessed with industrial robots and machinery, so we watched the donut machines.

Saturday is karate for the son, and a visit to their grandparents' house.

We have lots of other routines (via FlyLady), but that's pretty much it!

One, Five and Ten Years Ago

A lot of magazines do a feature where they show you what was being published 50, 100, and 150 years ago. (Or any other range of dates). I really do love those sections, and find them interesting. So I think I'll make an attempt to do so here!

I don't have anything that old on this particular blog, but I can grab things from my other one. ;)

Four years ago, I was just beginning: Introduction

Three years ago, I was trying to get my house in order, but I think my most stirring post was about being a Working Mom. (And wow, three years ago I was thinking of moving away. I didn't realize I have been wanting out for that long.) And yes, that post is from August, but oh well. :)

Two years ago, I was enjoying Boneless Chicken Broth and Kitchen Science.

Last year, I was not enjoying my health: Under the Weather.

I hope you've enjoyed this. It was fun for me! Dear readers, what were you up to in the past few years?

Misandry and Society

I ran into this excellent article about men, boys, and misandry. I adore Dr. Helen.

Embracing Happiness

Right now, it's easy to find negativity. The elections, the mud slinging, the financial sector's problems, and so forth. The news and TV are full of it. And it tend to drag me down. So now I'm going to do something a friend of mine used to always encourage -- I'm going to list 10 happy things. Just ten things to be grateful for, and happy about and to embrace because life just isn't that bad at all!

(See also: Losing Sight of the American Dream)

10) I have my health. I'm really healthier than I have been in years. I've sufferend from sinus migrane headache things for a few years now, and after having my wisdom teeth out, going to 87 doctors to get allergy medications that work (among other suggestions), trying to cut out and add different foods, and so forth, I feel better on a regular daily basis than I have in years.

9) My husband has his health. He has also been trying for a few years now to get his things under control. He's been suffereing from daily horrible migranes for two years. He has had his sleep apnea treated, lost over 100 pounds, and had foot surgery. I think he feels better, for the most part, though the migranes are a constant battle still.

8) My son has his health. Okay, he's generally not one to have issues that are obvious. He is getting really good at getting to sleep and staying alseep. He's better about using the potty at night. He is getting more patience and self control. All good things.

7) My daughter has her health. Since moving and taking her out of daycare, her asthma has compltely gone away! It's absolutely wonderful. The eartubes were perfect -- her ears are gorgeous, and the ear tubes are now out. She regained her hearing and she now talks like crazy. :)

6) My job isn't so bad. Seriously, I really would prefer to not have to work, but if I do, this is a good job. I can do a lot of work from home, I can work at night. It's part time. I get a very nice wage. My boss is spectacular. I have an amazing amount of independence. Yay!

5) We have a wonderful homeschool group. My son has friends who love the things he does. He can play with kids his age, or kids twice his age or older! I think that's a heathy thing. And we don't have to deal with weird school rules that make no sense to any of us.

4) My son is, in fact, learning things. Yay! His path is certainly not a normal one, but hey, that's why we homeschool.

3) My daughter is just precious. She is learning too, but just 2 year old things. She loves zombies and aliens and cats and horses. She has such a weird, glorious little personality. And I will make sure she's allowed to be weird and not have to keep her real personality inside just to fit in.

2) The weather is lovely. I like this time of year, even if it virtually kills me through allergies. I don't like hot or cold, so fall suits me. :D We're really not doing a ton of homeschooling right now, since I love to be out in nice weather and sun. We'll get a lot more done in the winter when it's cold and rainy, just as we got a lot more done in the summer when it was too hot to go out. Not that we're doing nothing, it's just a bit... minimal.

1) I love my husband. I know it's been a hard time on both of us, trying ot figure out what we want to do and where we want to go, but he always stands by my side. No matter how crazy I am, he is always there for me. He will always support me and I don't think I could cope with life at all if he weren't there, contantly carrying me above it all. I hope I do the same for him, even if I do feel like I am dragging him down all the time.

Playing School

I was catching up on my Carnival of Homeschooling reading today, and ran across a post about a homeschool family where the kids love playing school.

My son loves to do the same thing.

If you ask him about school or if he wants to go to school, he screams and bursts into tears and attempts to imbed himself into my internal organs. The last time this happened was at park day. I was talking with a new member about how we homeschool -- here in CA there are several ways to do it, and I said that we would be using the private school option, and my poor son looked at me in horror, like I'd stabbed him in the back. I had to quickly explain that it was our little tiny homeschool private school of two, and he still looked at me accusingly for a little while.

But he loves to play school.

Sometimes he's at a magic boarding school (yes he loves Harry Potter). Sometimes it's sword class, or magic class. Sometimes he pretends that he has to sneak out at night and go to school (I have no idea where that comes from). Sometimes he just sets two chairs side-by-side, inviting his sister to take the other, and sweetly demands that I hold "class". The last class was about snakes, the current household obsession.

It's weird. I would probably be concerned if it weren't for the fact that he flips out at the tiniest mention of school.

Random Thoughts on a Science Teacher

I was reading A Homespun Cirriculum this evening, and thought I'd share with you this one thing:

Wow! Mr. Mac has been doing this a long time!

We win!

New Ruling in Homeschool Case

We're so lucky to have the resources we have, who pulled together and did such a spectacular job.

So, How's He Doing?

I was just wandering around the internet, reading random things here and there. I do this a lot. I find that if I'm not reading something, I really don't know what to do with myself. My brain constantly wants words inputted into it -- it's really the only thing that makes me shut my mouth! I guess my brain either wants tons of information coming in, or tons of information coming out. (It's even full duplex -- meaning I can input and output at the same time. My mom, brother, and I can have a conversation where all three of us are talking at once and we all hear everything that's going on and may actually be having one, two, or three conversations simultaneously. And people wonder why I love IM and hate phones.)

Anyway, I was reading some of the articles online at the new Secular Homeschooling magazine and ran into the article So, How's He Doing?. Natually, as I'm reading, I start wondering how I would answer the question, and think about her answer and if I would say the same thing or something different.

At first, I thought to myself about the challenges we've had recently. He's five, and I'm trying to intice him into some more formal studies, like reading (we failed at 100 Easy Lessons, and after a few lessons of another program, he's not really interested), Story of the World, or Singapore Math. We just switched over to trying Math-U-See... and I'm trying not to be pushy. I'm really just so different from my son (he takes so strongly after his father) that I know I have to teach him in a way that is just quite unnatural for me. I read (and write) manuals. I read books cover to cover. I want to read everything in the "right" order and read it all. My mind is constantly stuffing more things into it, ruminating about it, spitting stuff out, having conversations about it, and just living every fact every second of my existance. My husband (and seemingly son) just pick a fact here or there, don't follow up on it, and don't talk about it much. But they will remember it for eternity, while I may read the same thing 20 times before it sticks in the web of my consciousness.

So while I was reading this article and thinking about my trials and tribulations in trying to figure out what to do with my son, he approached me. He was holding one of those little paper umbrella toothpicks that you often get in tropical drinks. His cousin gave it to him last night after dinner when she was finished with her coconut juice which came in a real coconut. So he had the toothpick, and he looked at it a moment, then held it up in the air, and declared, "This is my jelly fish!" and then proceeded to move it exactly the way a jellyfish moves. He closed the umbrella top slightly as it zipped up through the air, then opened the top fully whle his jellyfish slowly drifted downward. Then it zipped up again, and drifted. His face was filled with happiness as he watched his jellyfish moving through the air, and turned his twinkly eyes toward me to make sure I was watching.

Then I remembered the night before. He had the same umbrella in the car, but this time he was inserting the bottom toothpick end in a little hole in the seat in front of him (the little hole where a post for the headrest would normally be, but we temporarily removed the headrest while the seat holds the baby's seat -- it makes it way easier to LATCH and de-LATCH it.) I was watching him put the umbrella there, the little pink paper top of the umbrella sitting flush on the seat back. He then picked up the umbrella and closed it, and slowly "walked" it over to the other post hole and opened the top part of it again. "Blackhawk of the Lakota picked up his tent and moved east," he narrarated. The story unfolded silently in his head while he was looking at his teepee. A few moments later he piked up the toothpick again and moved it back to where it had been before, in the other post hole, "Then Blackhawk moves back west, where the buffalo are."

Yeah, I like our life, too. He's doing just fine.

Homeschooling Questions Answered

Another blogger had homeschool questions on her blog, so I am posting here to answer them. I figure there are as many different ideas about homeschooling as there are snowflakes, and we may have a weird twist on it all. Who knows! At least it's something to blog about. ;)

So, here are my answers for I'm Just Sayin'.

1. What was your motivation for homeschooling? Was it based on religious reasons? Was is it based on curriculum - did you want more freedom in choosing what your children were being taught? Was it based on socializing - wanting to have more control in the people with whom your children came into contact with? Was it based on logistics - the nearest school being 20 miles away? What made you finally decide to go this route?

It's so so so so many reasons. I picked it for *so* many reasons, and I love it for completely different ones! I guess I'll have to just hit the high points. I'm the youngest of four, and none of us had an easy time at school. My brother ended up dropping out, all due to the administrators acting shamefully towards his health problems and accusing him of lying about them. I, personally, didn't enjoy school -- I'm shy and usually hang out with people older than me with shared interests. That didn't usually happen at school. As a parent, I see a lot of wasted time at school. I'd rather let my kids spend that time playing or daydreaming, or building something. Or teaching themselves something. Further, I want to have freedom. Freedom to travel in November. Freedom to drop everything and go to a museum. Freedom to do school in bed because we're a little bit sick. Freedom to have a hot lunch together in the kitchen.

For me, it's just (to use a loaded phrase), a alternate lifestyle. We're not doing school at home -- we're doing learning as life. It's not something that happens somewhere else. It happens all the time where we are, and lets go out and have a great time doing it. And lets do it together! Or not! Whatever works best!

2. Don't hate me for asking this. How to you handle socialization? What steps do you take to make sure your children are around other children and adults? Are you active in a home school group? Do you spend a lot of time at church activities? Maybe you utilize the local Y for activities and they meet friends there?

We go to park day twice a week, for 3-4 hours those days. My son has done some fun summer camps (science and theater) and might do those weekly after summer. He's acout to join cub scouts. He meets kids spontaneously at the park all the time. :D Oh! And he's in karate.

As for adults, they are with me at the grocery store, restaurants, etc.. They have come to work with us from time to time when appropriate. They see grandparents, and parents of their friends multiple times a week.

3. Do you use the public school system for any part of your child's routine? Some children here come to the school for band or chorus, or maybe for science class. Do you send your child to the public school to take advantage of any of their programs?

Well, my son's only 5, so no. :D I don't know if I will. I can see the value in having more kids for a good sized band... but I'm not sure it would mesh well with our lifestyle. ;)

4. Do your children begin and end school at the same time each day? Do they have a strict schedule, at least as far as waking up and reporting to the school area of your home? If not, when/how will you transition your children into following a more rigid schedule - awaking at the same time each day so that they can follow a routine outside of the home like for college and work?

Gosh no. Nononono. Aiie. :D Wouldn't work. Some people do. We.. don't. One of the joys of homeschooling (for us) is that we can do math for 4 hours if we want to. Or skip it on a day that your math brain just isn't in there. He has plenty of time to figure out how to get up in the morning.

To turn the question around... My husband is a Systems Administrator. He has to go into work at night or on weekends often. He has to carry a pager and drop everything when there's something that needs to be done. What are you doing to prepare your kids to stay up until 3 am to reconfigure an important server? Or to drop everything they're doing and drive 30 miles away to the data center? Of course you aren't doing anything. That would be silly. ;) If they end up with a nighttime job, they'll figure it out when they get there.

My son does have a few things he needs to go to on a regular basis with a schedule. He knows when park day is, that's for sure! He gets up for karate. This summer he's had two camps, which had a schedule. He knows the library isn't open at 2 am. ;)

5. How many spelling bees has your child won? Oh, I'm kidding. We all know most of the recent national spelling bee winners have been home schooled children. I just wanted to throw a little funny in there?

LOL! Considering my family, this is not likely. ;)

6. Do you have a sense of humor? It's probably a little late for me to ask that but...

Well, I like to think I do...? :)

7. Where do you find your curriculum? Do you shop for it and order it? Do you create your own?

Sure! Both! ;D Some things he goes to classes for (like karate and a little science camp he went to). I bought a few Math cirricula, and we're trying those out. For some things, I just make it up as I go -- my degree is in molecular biology, so we just grab things in the kitchen and mix them together. My Intro to Proteins involves jello and a pineapple. ;) We also just go to the library and pick out anything interesting. He's learned more about history and geography from the Magic Treehouse books then I thought possible.

8. Do you have any worries at all about teaching your teenagers the higher level math and sciences? I, for one, could not teach chemistry to my children but I could probably teach them calculus. Is this a concern for you?

Not me personally, though I know a lot of people worry about it. Like I said, my degree is in molecular biology, so the science and math are covered. ;) But the thing is, there are so many cirricula out there for math and science, and online classes, co-op classes, community college classes and so forth, that I don't think anyone should be worried. If you need something, there is someone to fill that need. Even if it's sending them to grandma for math class, or trading with a friend or whatever.

(When I told my mom we were homeschooling her biggest fear was that I would try to teach creative writing. Apparently she doesn't like my stories! ;) My husband, however, wants to be a sci-fi writer when he grows up. And I know about half a dozen cirricula, online classes, etc..)

9. What bothers you the most about the reputation home schoolers have? What things do you hate to hear people say about you for your choice? I really hope you don't say that it's my previous post.

LOL! No, not your post. Though I do disagree with it. ;)

I'd say the thing that bothers me most is when people imply (or say outright!) that I don't care if my children learn anything or that I'm abusing them or something. And really the only reason I mind that is because it invites legislation that would annoy me.

I don't care what people think of me, and I don't care to judge other people. :D So have a big giant happy fun time in public school! Whatever works! (That's my motto)

10. Be honest, do you, at least in your mind sometimes, judge those of us who choose public school? Do you ever think we are making a bad choice for our children? Are you vocal about that disapproval?

No, I really don't care. :D I figure people do what they think is best. I try to think all people are capable human beings who love their kids. Everyone has different wants and needs and situations! I think more people might choose homeschooling if they knew more about it, but that's just my own opinion. I'll tell people about it if they ask me, but i don't cram it on people who don't want to hear it. (You asked!! :D)

11. Is "home school" one word or two? I've seen it both ways. With spellcheck, it shows it as ONE word when used as a verb, but two words when used otherwise. Please enlighten me.

Oooh! Oooh! Pick me! Pick me!!

I'm a writer, by trade. (Yes, I know I said my degree is in biology. Biology doesn't pay well, and doesn't invite telecommuting...) Some words start out as two-word phrases and slowly meld together as they become more common. One spectular example is "email". Not that long ago it was "electronic mail". Then "e mail". Then, it gets a little closer, with a hyphen "e-mail". Finally, people just shove it together, "email".

In my profession, we have "on-line help", which is slowly becoming "online help". (Or OLH).

So it was home school, and will eventually be a unanimous "homeschool". I usually use one word. But maybe we should call it "hschool". I would love to watch people try to pronounce that. ;)

Still other people call it "home education". Or the people who unschool might just call it "unschooling" in order to seperate themselves from other homeschoolers. (Oh, if you think that homeschoolers are an all-inclusive club of public-school hating, you've never seen the "you chose the wrong kind of homeschooling" fights! I think people will find any way to seperate themselves from others to feel high and mighty. Um, not to say that unschoolers are evil. Note: we lean towards that way. Sort of. I dunno. Maybe?)

Ok, I hope this makes sense. I wrote it quickly while the kids were eating lunch.

Carnival of Homeschooling, v. 133

The 133rd Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Red Sea School.

My favorite entries are:

Nature in Your Own Backyard -- because we have an iguana for a pet (she's a little old lady, at 15 years of age now) and we love to see pictures of iguanas. (Note: Iguanas are not great pets. I love our dear old girl, but I will probably never have another one, especially with kids around.)

The Dark Side -- because it *isn't* us vs. them, and we should stop turning every decisions into us vs. them. I'm a big fan of personal resposibility and not putting your nose into other people's business. Let's just figure people know what they're doing and that all humans aren't idiots.

CA Homeschooling Case Update

Tammy Takahashi has all the detais (that are public) on her blog: California Juvenile Court Drops Out of Homeschooling Case

Homeschooled: The Movie?

It looks like DreamWorks picked up a script for a movie called "Homeschooled" by Chris Poole and Mike Arnold, to be produced by Scot Armstrong.

The synopsis of the plot is "a 30 year old man who was homeschooled heads off for college".

I really can't see this (considering the people involved) ending up being anything more than a horrible farce full of the worst stereotypes possible. Yay.

On the one hand, hey it means people know enough about us to ridicule us! On the other hand, I'm sure the homeschooling community will get all up in arms like they did over the Subway contest, and that will only give us more bad PR.

Latest News in the CA Homeschooling Case

Just got this in email:

A joint brief filed by California's three statewide homeschool
organizations has been accepted for consideration by the California
Court of Appeal in the case known as In re Rachel L. The court's
original decision specified, among other things, that parents need a
teaching credential to homeschool. The decision was criticized by
homeschoolers, teachers and government officials. Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack
O'Connell both issued press releases in support of homeschooling,
and Assemblyman Joel Anderson introduced a resolution supporting
homeschooling to the California Assembly in response to the case.
The court granted rehearing and vacated its original decision in
March 2008.

California's three statewide homeschool membership organizations --
California Homeschool Network, Christian Home Educators Association
of California and Homeschool Association of California -- have been
working together for several months in a united effort to preserve
independent homeschooling in California. These three organizations
represent homeschoolers across the state. Their amicus brief was a
cooperative undertaking of the law firms Baker & McKenzie LLP,
representing CHN, Munger Tolles & Olson LLP,representing CHEA, and
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, representing HSC.

The Carnival of Homeschooling Is Up!

It's over at Mom is Teaching.