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We recently added another board game to our collection. We LOVE games and mom especially loves games that have some earth friendly message or that encourage a curiosity in nature. A few weeks back I won a $50 gift certificate to a homeschool store, I used part of it to buy The Farm Game for Kids. I have to say that this is one enjoyable and educational game.

The game has three levels of play so it is almost like having three different games in one. The first level is for kids starting at age 3. Basically you go around the board collecting produce (eggs, apples, corn, or watermelon) if you land on a produce space or you chill out on a playground or school bus space. When a player reaches the Farmer’s Market stand, play stops and produce cards are counted. The player with the most produce wins.

In the second level, for ages 5 and up, you use two dice. One to move on the board and the other to calculate how much you get paid for selling produce. So if you move 2 spaces up on the board onto a watermelon space and you roll a six on the other die then you use the produce chart to deduce that you have earned $12 selling watermelons. When a players reaches the market the game stops and money is counted to determine a winner. This level is great for teaching how to count money.

The third level, for ages 7 and up, involves both dies, money, and the produce cards. It gets a bit more complex but basically you use the dice and the chart to determine how much money you get based upon how many produce cards you have collected…so more math is required for this level.

All three levels are fun and it inspires a curiosity in farming, an awareness of the value of food, and it is great for teaching basic math concepts and chart reading. The game is colorful and well crafted too. It is an awesome game for homeschoolers teaching math concepts and if you are just playing for fun you aren’t disappointed there either. I highly recommend it!

And while your here, check out some of the other educational, eco themed, socially conscious games we like.

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And who says you need a classroom to learn? This week my kids and I have done so many fun and educational things together I am in wonderment about why I didn’t take this approach before. My son requested that homeschooling commence immediately…no break for summer. This is just fine with me as it allowed me the opportunity to show him first hand how he can in fact learn without sitting at a desk doing drills or being lectured at. I included pictures from my flickr stream if you are interested.

First up we went to visit honest to goodness castles right in Ohio. They are called The Piatt Castles, built by two wealthy brothers. They were named after the Mac-A-Cheek valley where they reside, Mac-A-Cheek and Mac-O-Chee. The names of the castles, the valley, and the stream that runs through it are all derived from the word, Macachack, the name of a Shawnee village that was located there in the late 1700s.

It was a great experience getting to tour both castles, one of which has most of the original furnishings. One of them even has a secret underground passage found only 2 years ago. It led from the house to the conservatory. Both castles had their own chapels too, which was incredible to see.

My kids and I learned about Ohio history and about how people used to live in the 1800s. The indoor toilet at the larger castle was fascinating. I also loved the fact that for each section or room in the castles there was an activity table set up for children to play and draw. Some of the activities included building castles, creating a mosaic, and playing with old fashioned toys.

Next up we went to a classic car show downtown and to The Popcorn Museum. My oldest son is a huge car buff so the car show was a big treat for him. He also got to pose next to the Speedracer car so he was a pretty happy camper. His great-uncle had a car on display too.

The Popcorn Museum was fun too. Highlights included seeing a huge collection of popcorn wagons, getting to see a train exhibit, and my son’s fave…getting to see a stuffed horse named Prince Imperial that belonged to Napoleon the third and lived in the 1800s. The horse was absolutely gorgeous and had a mane that was so long it dragged the ground by several feet if left down. He had the world’s longest mane.

The people at The Popcorn Museum really rock…they know their Marion history and that are happy to tail you around and answer any and all questions you have about just about anything. When you leave everyone gets a bag of of fresh popped popcorn.

Next up we visited The Harding House, which is the home of former US President Warren G. Harding. I have toured it several times…very interesting. My daughter also got to visit a little one room schoolhouse nearby too. All of these adventures have been getting marked with a sticker on a  board game we got from our local visitor’s bureau….just something they cooked up to make summer learning fun.

Yesterday we went to COSI, a hands on Science Center. My 9 year old nephew said it was the best science museum he had ever been too and since this kid has been to science museums in probably 5 continents that is saying something. It was REALLY fun and educational. The highlight for me was the CSI exhibit. Basically we walked into a crime scene…a skeleton in the desert, we had to look for clues and then go to the lab where we evaluated 8 pieces of evidence. We compared bullet casings, matched DNA, matched hair samples to the species, and looked under a microscope to identify pollen. Then we went into the coroner’s office to view our deceased on a slab and determine cause of death and then finally we visited Grissom’s office to report our findings. SO FUN!!!!

This is my oldest sketching the crime scene:

Other points of interest included a bottle rocket, a mini submarine, a news station where kids get to be a part of the action, a 45 minute movie about climbing the Alps, the recycling exhibit, and robotic trucks the kids had a blast with.

They also had MANY videos you could watch of surgeries and medical procedures. I personally LOVE that…I wanted to be conscious for my colon resection even - they said NO.  We watched a birth, a postmortem sperm retrieval, and gasp…a circumcision. It was beyond gross and made my nephew almost yack. I think all parents should have to watch that video before they decide to get their boys cut (something I am against). I can guarantee after watching NO ONE would have it done. It is a horrific, ghastly process.

Well, this made for one eventful and fun week…and we aren’t done yet. This homeschool stuff rocks the planet.

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TGIF! Have an awesome weekend everyone!

I had a wonderful vacation in Florida recently. My family stayed at a resort right next to The Magic Kingdom. Of course we had fun at the Disney parks but I think the kids enjoyed Sea World and the just hanging out at the pool the most. I was really excited to get home though…Florida was HOT and dry. It really made me appreciate Ohio more. I was downright giddy when we pulled up to our house and it was cool and rainy.

I have been slow to blog lately…I have been gardening, spring cleaning, preparing for guests from Mexico next week, and doing a bit of fiction reading. I wrote about why I love being a work at home mom and the Twilight series of books I have read on some other blogs. I’ve also been organizing files and pictures and getting a new computer up and running which is always fun…not. But here is pic from vacation:

Okay….interesting links for the weekend.

First up I loved a post from The Good Human about planting a row for the needy. When I was making new year’s goals in January this was a goal I had…to plant extra and give the surplus to the needy. It is a truly awesome idea for helping out the needy in your community. It is incredibly easy to just plant a bit more than you need and then donate to food banks or shelters in your area. If all the small family gardens were to do this imagine how many mouths we could feed.

My garden is looking GOOD! I have plenty of lettuce and spinach ready to eat now. Still growing is cabbage, zucchini, cucumber, beans, tomatoes, squash, and watermelon. I still have a lot of planting I need to get done NOW.

The rest of the yard looks beautiful too. I LOVE spring!

I ran across a link to a cool game called Earthopoly. I think I need to buy this. Players become caretakers of a variety of global landmarks and charge other players carbon credits for landing on them. Convert the carbon credits into clean air and help the fight against global warming! The paper is recyclable and the printing is done with soy-based inks.

The game is full of plenty of helpful information and educational for players of all ages. The game won’t change the world, but it can help educate us all in ways in which we can. I especially love the game board pieces…things like a piece of wood, a Lima bean, a shell, etc. It looks like a great game for the family.

I am anxiously awaiting another eco game…more on that when we get a chance to play.

As I stated in my last post I am officially a homeschooling mom now. Woot! I pulled my son from public and notified the superintendent of my intentions. His teachers were actually excited for him and they gifted us with tons of reading books, workbooks, math books for the next few years, etc. This week I need to make a portfolio to keep track of his progress and meet state requirements. I am also hitting yard sales looking for fun learning items. This week I picked up books and a very well maintained flute. I am hoping that one or more of the kids will want lessons. Fun times ahead. This week we are hoping to visit a science museum, go to a National park, see a play, and visit some Indian caverns.

Homeschool link love for this week: A great post about learning outside with sidewalk chalk.

In other family news…I had a tragedy in my family…well it feels like one anyway. My last co-sleeping child has moved out of my bed and into her own. I can’t even tell you how depressed I have been about that. And people say attachment parenting and co-sleeping creates dependent children…hogwash! It creates dependent parents is what it does! LOL.

Oh well, another article I liked that natural moms should read this week is about vaccination and the future of the process…like aluminum toxicity, immunosupression, allergic and asthmatic Conditions, and future Pandemics/Epidemics.

And it is time for me to say goodbye for the weekend. I am seeing a movie this afternoon and my daughter is expecting her new big girl bed to be delivered.

So what is new with you?

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Homeschooling is one of the most misunderstood institutions in the world as we know it. Many people are misinformed by the powers that be, that homeschooling is not good for children. What they share are mostly myths and fallacies. When I had my first child I dreamed of homeschooling. I imagined studying world history with my kids as we actually traveled it…taking in the ancient pyramids of Egypt or the visiting the Colosseum in Rome. Well, it didn’t exactly work out like that. My oldest had many health problems and when it came time for him to go to school according to the public school schedule, he had so little socialization under his belt it was sad. I think I could count one hand how many times he had “played” with another child and have fingers left over. Since kindergarten is supposed to be about fun and games I decided to let him go to public kindergarten and live it up. He had a blast too. Then he wanted to continue going to public school which as you may recall from previous posts is not the same bed of roses and we will be homeschooling for second grade.

Despite the fact I did not hoemschool I very much supported it and it really angers me when I see people spouting off about how homeschool kids lack social skills, are falling behind in math and sciences, can’t get into college or are being indoctrinated by Bible thumping, prejudiced parents. The last one is really common and it bugs me the most. I am not particularly religious and not a bit prejudiced about other races and nationalities. If anything I want to homeschool because I feel the opposite is true and I want my kids exposed to all different kinds of people and many different belief systems. There is something seriously wrong with any institution that says you can only find truth and knowledge here.

How does one debunk those homeschooling myths? Let’s examine a few and consider the facts of each.

Myth: Homeschool children are not socialized

In his book, The Hurried Child, Dr. Raymond Moore writes, “”The idea that children need to be around many other youngsters in order to be ’socialized is perhaps the most dangerous and extravagant myth in education and child rearing today.”

The truth is that a homeschooled child who is around his parents and siblings more than other peers are more self-confident, respect themselves more, and, feels more worthy than those who are bothered with peer pressure on a daily basis in traditional school. Children model behaviors that they see. Do you want your children modeling the behavior of their peers because that is what they are most commonly exposed to 9 months of the year?

The homeschool community is very good at providing activities for homeschooled children and families. There are sports associations, theatre arts groups, teen circles, books clubs, and more. And just like traditionally educated children, homeschool kids have friends who they hang out with too. Why so many people don’t “get” that is beyond me.

Myth: Homeschoolers Can’t Get Into College

In the past this may have been true, but today many colleges welcome homeschool students. Homeschoolers are eligible to apply for any college they wish to attend. The fact is a homeschooler can attain the credits, grades, and all the necessary requirements it takes to get into college.

There are many colleges that do not look for a diploma or GED for admissions requirements from a homeschooler. They are looking for capable, motivated learners, and responsible people to attend their schools. Colleges like Brown, Harvard, Princeton, Georgetown, and MIT accept homeschoolers because they see the students have great leadership skills, a strong work ethic, and stronger moral values.

There is no need to fear that a homeschooler can’t get into college when there are over 1400 colleges who accept them.

Myth: Parents Need to Have Credentials to Teach

The fact is that a parent does not need a teaching degree to homeschool because children learn in so many different ways. Traditional schools tend to focus on teaching one type of child; the auditory learner; and credentialed teachers are trained to teach in this manner. The homeschooling parent for the more part focuses on teaching according to the needs of the individual child.

When it come to teaching the child a homeschool parent has many options such as online charter schools, guided curriculum, homeschool co-ops where parents work together to teach children, and tutoring. I know if there is ANYTHING my child wants to learn that I cannot teach I will connect them with the resources they need. In that sense you are more like a learning facilitatior than a teacher.

With the homeschool family, the sky is the limit when it comes to teaching. There is no set way of learning for the homeschooled child.

Debunk the myths of homeschooling by being wise and knowing for yourself the truths about homeschooling. And when someone says something that you know is not true, enlighten them with the facts.

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Homeschoolers will really love this deal. BrainPop is a site that offers a subscription service to a large collection of animated movies about various educational topics. Their movies ROCK!

They have put together a collection of earth and environment movies and from now until earth day you can view them for FREE. My kids that been watching them all day…short movies about the planet, the atmosphere, energy, gas and oil, pollution, etc. It has been awhile since I went over some of this stuff during my school days so I am finding it really interesting too. Good stuff!

Enjoy!

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One of the most frequent questions I get from readers is “How can I raise my kids to be green?’ This is a good question but I think it is more important to think beyond the concept of ”going green”. More is required. They need to think about the world ”community” and how it is impacted by the decisions we make. There is a popular saying that “kids won’t protect what they do not love”. We need to raise kids that have a nurturing character and a compassionate heart.

It all starts with teaching them to love and care about themselves, the world around them, and the other people that reside upon it. What we need are kids who can be leaders, heroes, and pioneers. Kids who will realize the importance of community and that it extends beyond themselves to all the people around them and all the organisms around them. So how do we teach kids to care about themselves, the planet, and each other?

Well, if I knew the exact formula I would be on Dr. Phil right now. I have a few ideas though and I would LOVE to hear some of your in the comments. I might “think” I am doing a good job now but my kids are still very young. There is nothing like a community banding together to discuss the needs of the community and we are a community of compassionate mamas here right?

Teaching our children to understand what it can be like to live in someone else’s shoes is an excellent way to introduce children to the whole notion of caring for others and the world around them.

Whether it’s a stray kitten abandoned by its mother, an old man begging for change on the street, or a Habitat for Humanity family that doesn’t have a home… how we observe the situation and share our thoughts with our children will go a long way in teaching them to be compassionate human beings. Don’t just expect them to develop compassion and empathy, model it for them daily.

People who don’t care about other people or the environment have a negative impact in our communities that can be seen.  Whether it’s garbage on the ground or the shrieks of children who’ve been bullied in the schoolyard, the impact of uncaring and insensitive people is around us.  It’s a behavior that we don’t want to see in our children and that we can counter by teaching our children to be people “who care.”

As parents, we want our children to appreciate the good things in their lives and to be cognizant of their role in this world as a contributing human being. This is one reason I really like the ideas I spoke of in my green birthdays post: 

 I read about a woman that orchestrated a puppy-themed party for her child to benefit a local animal shelter. She made dog-bone shaped oatmeal cookies for snacks and In lieu of birthday gifts, guests brought donations, dog food, leashes, water bowls and toys for the abandoned animals. All the kids and especially the birthday boy LOVED it and the animal shelter brought puppies for the kids to play with. I also read about an Africa-themed party, where kids built a grass hut and collected donations for African children. These parties were fun and they taught the guests a valuable lesson about helping others.”

I love these ideas because they demonstrate how we can use our blessings in life to make a difference in the lives of others and they make it fun, which we all know is important. Opportunities like these teach our children that getting is great but giving is even better. It gives them an opportunity to be empathetic and caring and to make a difference. When they start getting a regular taste of that, they will be hooked.

Visit your local Humane Society and ask if there are volunteer opportunities for your child/children.  Your child might be able to be registered as a dog walker for the society. Humane societies are often in need of old newspapers, paper shredder scraps and towels for pet care. Suggest your child collect this material for donation to your local Humane Society.

Giving service to others is a wonderful way to teach children about compassion and action.  There are many ways to get children involved that are sensitive to the needs of those receiving support and to the safety and well being of your young volunteers!

Select a family shelter or children’s services center in your region and find out if they would be willing to accept children’s snack packages put together by your child and their friends or siblings.  You and your kids can purchase healthy snacks like granola bars, dried fruit and crackers.  Package these items into small lunch bags that are decorated in any way your children choose.

Encourage your kids to decorate these snack bags in a way that would appeal to them since many of the children who may receive these bags will be the same ages as your kids. If they can , allow your kids to spend some time there and get to know the children and why they are there.

Volunteer as a family at soup kitchens, community clean ups, and other charitable events. Caring children learn to be that way when they are shown compassion and care in the home and when a parent takes the time to teach them their role as stewards of our world.

And how exactly does one encourage compassion for the planet. Well there are numerous ways:

Introduce your children to the concept of what we do with garbage and where it goes when it leaves the curb so that they might think twice about how they discard items, especially recyclable ones. Kids should be informed that our garbage can hurt us. Our habits can be harmful to our one home.

This week my 4 year old daughter had questions about this after seeing the cover art on the 11th Hour DVD case. I remember her concerned face when she asked about why there was big foot stepping on our earth and crushing it.

Another “garbage” related learning opportunity is created through composting.  Create a compost pile in your yard or kitchen and involve the kids in the task of ensuring that organic waste like food scraps are placed in the compost.  Observe over the weeks as the compost becomes rich soil conditioner for the garden. This process is good for them to see and provides a basis of understanding when you teach them about non-recyclable items that don’t “return to the earth”.

Teach your kids about the products that pollute our environment like our cars and get into the habit of walking, using mass transit, or riding a bike to destinations, whenever possible.  Energy conservation is also a lesson they can learn about. My 4 year old already makes sure to turn off all electrical appliances to “save the power”.

When you are outside with your children take the time to highlight the beauty of the natural world around them. Encourage the kids to sniff the unique scents of spring, summer, and fall. Create a whimsical children’s garden for their enjoyment. Above all let them get out and get dirty and ENJOY nature. Help them build a fort, a sunflower house, or even a teepee so they can create an outdoor haven just for them. Read The Dangerous Book for Boys or The Daring Book for Girls with them and show them how fun outdoor play can be. If you don’t live in area where they can get outdoors and enjoy themselves make sure to plan regular trips to parks, lakes, nature conservatories, and wildlife preserves. They need to love it or they won’t have it in their heart to protect it.

With these tips, your children will learn to not only embrace nature but will grow into adults that will respect the environment because they know, understand and appreciate what is at stake.  They will recognize their responsibility to be conscious inhabitants of earth who respect the grandeur and balance of nature. 

In closing I thought I would share a couple things we did in my family this week.

First we did a homeschool project where we created a tree community. I wrote out instructions for it here. But here is the basic idea: 

* Draw or trace a big tree (without leaves) on the paper, poster board, or a white board.

* Tell children that a tree is a community just like the one we live in. It has life and activity. Ask them what kinds of things they might see in a tree, such as nuts, flowers, sap, fruit, seeds, birds, squirrels, insects, spider webs, a bee hive, a nest, and leaves. Write them out on the board.

* Invite children to paint or color it, adding all of the elements they have decided belong to the tree “community”.

* Discuss what would happen if the tree were cut down or otherwise harmed and how the tree’s community would fare. Also discuss how “we” would be affected.

I like this project because they can see how our everything is intertwined and the actions of one can affect everyone. It also shows them our eco system is a living thing, just like a community of people and it can suffer and be harmed…just like people can.

To make it easier to discuss the earth as a whole and all of the other people and places it is helpful to have a globe on hand. My kids love to use ours. We also have an awesome toy designed to help kids appreciate the planet and “hug” it from Peace Toys. It is a huggable earth pillow and it has won several awards. Just place on the family couch or on the bed for easy hands on reference. We love it here, me included. We usually cuddle up on the couch with it and read.

Second, we “planted” a tree in our playroom/homeschool room. Actually we got a cutout tree at a homeschool supply store but we are really enjoying it. I put up the tree and I put hook and loop sticky tabs on it to attach the leaves. On the leaves we wrote things we can do to be kind to our planet…aka plant a tree, reusable bags, turn off the lights, donate to an eco charity, etc. We can either leave them up there as a reminder or take them all down every month and then put them up one at a time as we put them into action. That way we can measure how we are doing. You could also extend this to include some activities designed to show love for the community and other people as well.

Some pictures are below.

So as you can see, I think going green is just one part of a larger issue. We need kids with character and integrity that care about the whole world around them…human and non human. We need some heroes and pioneers because the children really are our future. I have met some amazing moms via the Internet community (and this blog) and I am really encouraged that many moms are seeing the importance of this and are raising kids who care.

Before I go I encourage you leave me a comment and share your ideas and tips. We can all learn from each other.

Also you might want to check out the following awesome book: Teaching Kids to Care

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A few days back I wrote an article about how I see the public schooling system failing us. It had much to do with the fact that in general public schools require all students to meet the same cookie cutter standards. Because everyone has to fit a certain mold and be proficient in the exact same things at the exact same levels or beyond they make a HUGE mistake. They are focusing on weaknesses.

Your child may be excellent at reading and writing. Perhaps they can write beautiful poems or decipher some of Shakespeare’s deeper passages. They truly master the language arts. BUT instead of focusing on those strengths that child is pulled from those activities and interests to devote more time and energy to what their teachers consider their “weak” area….perhaps math. That was me. My son is the flip side of the coin. His strengths are mathematical, mechanic, and artistic. He struggles in reading and writing though, so his teachers spend monumental amounts of time (his and theirs) trying to “fix” this deficiency.

Well, I read a book recently that takes on this problem and calls it not so much an issue of where your child goes to school but a problem of a personal nature for children and their parents. The effort towards societal change and a re-valuation of our inborn strengths begins at a personal level. We ALL need to see that it does no one any good, individually or in a global sense to focus on our weaknesses instead of our strengths. We NEED to help our children find their strengths.

The book is Your Child’s Strengths - Discover Them, Develop Them, Use Them by Jenifer Fox.

I really liked this book because I feel that an education should not be about test scores, getting into the right college, or job training. It should be a discipline and a life. A journey to find out who we were, how we fit into the world and what we can bring to it. We want to bring our best so it makes sense that we would want to find our strengths and nurture them at every turn. If we focus on our weaknesses and split our focus like that, we will be only half what we could be.

Fox defines weakness as a feeling of depletion, a constant draining of energy.

Weakness personified is a persistent and cunning thief, creeping into your life and the lives of your children masked as hope and constantly nagging, “Look at me, fix me, improve me, and then you will be happy.”

She asserts that focusing on your weakness translates into a weak life and we need to focus on the opposing quality…strength. Our children can discover their strengths with our encouragement, nurturing, and sustained approval. In the first chapters of the book Fox shows us how we may be unwittingly sending our children disapproving messages and inadvertently focusing on, and causing them to focus on, their weaknesses.

Beyond that, Fox says that we must change what we teach, how we teach, and the outcomes we expect from children. Amen to that!

We foster weakness when we force children to sit all day long absorbing content for which they will never have any use, then chastise them for not showing any interest.

If they don’t see the value and practical application they won’t retain the information making for a monumental waste of time and energy. But 20 years from now they may get the opportunity to go on the Are you Smarter Than a 5th Grader TV show and get trounced, not because they are stupid, but because their minds are programmed to forget the relatively useless factoids they don’t need to live and work.

The book then goes on to explain how we discover our Activity Strengths, Relationship Strengths, and Learning Strengths and those of our children. The fact that we all have unique strengths in all of these areas is exactly why standardized schooling is so bass ackwards. Fox shares many personal stories from her own life and her dealings with teachers and students and how she used certain techniques to draw out their particular strengths and their awareness of them. That leads to the last half of the book which is full of workbook exercises that parents, teachers and children can use to discover and develop their strengths.

This is a truly valuable book for teachers and parents…FULL of “aha” moments. Ms. Fox has been working within schools for 25 years and her insight and experience in this area is wonderfully valuable. It is also important to mention that this book is for public schoolers AND homeschoolers….this book is beneficial for both.

Technorati Tags: book review, Your Child’s Strengths, Jennifer Fox, public scool, homeschool

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Okay..here we go….the first project in my Big Green Spring Clean. Well, actually it is my second. It was such a nice day yesterday I started cleaning up sticks and leaves from the yard but that will be ongoing.

Anyway…I decided to start with the first room in my basement. It will serve as a playroom and homeschool room for the kids but as you can see from the BEFORE pictures below it was in a sad state. On the left side of the room I had a bounce house that the kids would almost never play on. So that got moved to another room in the basement and I “hope” the kids will let me sell it at a garage sale.

The right side of the room was full of miscellaneous junk and tubs with toys which were scattered everywhere. Much of the stuff was my brothers as he moved in with a 2 bedroom apartment’s worth of stuff and his bachelor pad (also in the basement) is only 20×30. I moved all that stuff out into the next room over and he and I will figure out what to do with it.

We also have a problem keeping the stairs and landing clean as whenever someone (including me) is too lazy to take something downstairs we just er…uhm… throw it down there. I vow to put a stop to that.

So here is what I did in the room:

1. Scrubbed the wood stairs and banister with BabyGanics floor cleaner.

2. Scrubbed the epoxy floor (also with BabyGanics) and realized that it needs a new coat of paint but I am thinking I may wait on that until I can tile it.

3. Set up a couple of my old fabric cutting tables to use for arts and crafts and homeschool projects. On them I put bins for supplies. I also put up some educational posters and charts from a rockin education supply store I just discovered.

4. I put all the toys in plastic tubs I already had on hand and we will get one out at a time.

5. Set up a music area with an electric keyboard we haven’t touched in years and daddy’s old acoustic guitar. Now we can jam down there together.

6. Put an unused futon down there for seating, as well as a couple chairs.

7. Put a TV and DVD player in one corner for videos. If my son ever develops am interest in video games this would be a good place to keep them.

8. I took my daughter’s wood play kitchen from her room and put it down there. Since she never spends time in her room she might get to play with it more now.

9. Moved most of the kids books and games to the playroom on bookshelves. We also have a special basket for library books so we don’t loose any.

10. Cleaned out the small windows in the basement…cobweb city. I used BabyGanics Window and Surface Cleaner.

11.  Cleaned some rugs and put them down on the floor including my favorite pink rag rug I got a garage sale last year.

12. Put up baby gates to keep my youngest away from the stairs and from wandering the rest of the basement…at least until it gets spring cleaned too.

I also made a really cool discovery. I have a laundry shoot underneath the carpet in my closet! I saw it from the basement side of the floor. So someday when I finally rip up that carpet to see if the hardwood underneath is salvageable I will have a laundry shoot.

I also put together my yard sale wish list for this room: homeschool supplies, a desk (preferably an old fashioned school desk), a sewing desk, and art supplies. I also started my “to be sold at our yard sale” pile.

Still to do: Get a desk or table for my laptop and for sewing. Also the stairs have a banister but are otherwise open (an accident waiting to happen) so that needs to be addressed pronto.

Here are the AFTER pictures:

The kids and I LOVE it. Spring Cleaning is going good so far. How is yours going?

Technorati Tags: spring cleaning, playroom, homeschool

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A couple days ago I was using that wonderful Internet tool called Stumbleupon (SU). If you are not familiar with it…basically you join, you choose the type of web sites you like to surf (aka parenting, homemaking, gardening, etc.) you download the SU toolbar and then when you hit the Stumble button on your toolbar you get taken to a random site  or blog that matches your preferences. You can give them a thumbs up or a thumbs down and you can leave reviews. I get LOTS of traffic from Stumbleupon as people submit my blog posts for surfing (the SU link is at the bottom of every post).

As I mentioned, I like to surf using Stumbleupon because I like to visit new sites and find cool links. Primarily I surf sites related to homeschooling, parenting, homemaking, and environment.

Now of course you may be wondering what in the sam dickens this has to do with public school. Well, I found a ‘cool’ article that basically berates public education and talks about the author’s experiences and those found in the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. Calvin the cartoon despises school.

My first thought was that the author was being a bit harsh. After all I really liked school for the most part. I had lots of friends, I had nice teachers (including the dreamy Mr. Belden) and I got good grades. School was pretty much a cake walk for me. BUT as I was reading this man’s thoughts I started to remember my older brother who did not have such an easy time in school. Of course that has more to do with the fact that he is a clinical genius and was smarter than every teacher they could muster up and he was bored out of his mind.

Then I started to recall how my husband hated school with a passion and then some of the remarks about school making us compliant and docile started to hit home. When I graduated highschool (at 16) I went immediately into college so I could get a “good job”. I didn’t particularly care if I liked the job I just wanted a job that meant good money because school teaches that freedom isn’t free. Good citizens get good paying jobs like drones or worker bees. Basically public school encourages sheepism. If you want happiness you have to pay for it.

Remember what that CA judge said recently after he declared homeschooling to fall outside our constitutional rights as parents. He said the primary function of public schools is to teach ”good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare”. Barf…

Fast forward several years and I was doing marketing and advertising and I was good at it. The money was good and I had financial freedom. But after only 4 years I wasn’t happy. I wanted to be home with my son and I was about to have another baby and I didn’t want to have my kids being raised by someone else. If I was passionate about my work that might make it easier but having to go to a place I was coming to dread every day while someone else got to see the first smiles and hear the first words was unbearable. Public school didn’t teach me to figure out what I loved and what I was passionate about. Not in the least.

Education should not just be about learning academically. It should also be about learning about yourself and finding what energizes you. Now after more than 4 years at home I have found what energizes me. I love to write, I love to blog, I love to design web sites and graphics, I love affiliate marketing, I love activism, I love community involvement, I love helping my kids figure out what energizes them and being there for them 100%. The pay isn’t quite what it used to be but I am free and happy. You can’t put a price tag on that. I wake up every day excited to be right where I am.

Looking back I can see how I could have seen the signs when I was in school but I had public school induced tunnel vision. I did what I was told…period…end of story. Well, I can’t say that applies to me anymore. If only my mother had homeschooled me. She used to to tell me I could do anything in the world I wanted to do…that if I could dream it…I could do it. But I learned to not believe her. Now as she tells my kids that same thing I am right there beside her telling them more of the same.

If I had been homeschooled and allowed to pursue the things that interested me and energized me I can pretty much guarantee that I would not have done much math. And this would have been a-okay. Math doesn’t interest me…in the least. I walked away from public school thinking I was math challenged but all it took was a cool college chemistry teacher to show me that I could do math just fine….when it had practical application. My apparent inability to grasp math in school had a negative impact on my overall opinion of myself. 

Now my seven year old son, who during spring break made a graph calculating the number of gallons of water that could potentially be held inside the Delaware dam near our home…is struggling with reading and writing. His teachers tell me I need to work him hard on those two issues but yet he wants to sit on the couch with his notebook and work with numbers. How long will it be before he starts to feel academically inferior simply because his strengths lay somewhere else?

Public school might work out famously for some but the reality is that for many others it is simply NOT a good option. My brother, my husband, Calvin, B.R. Merrick…public schools strangled them. School for them is drudgery. And even those people who think their public school experience was positive (like me), they might unexpectedly find that their schooling made them docile and they forgot to dream and find a life’s work that energizes them and actually makes them happy.

It also should make people realize that if homeschooling isn’t an option (and for many it isn’t) parents need to be on guard that their kids are not pushed and molded into something that just isn’t them. I think my son’s teacher thinks I am a bit “out there” with my advice to my son about not conforming. I have gotten lecture notes from her about why she thinks something I have “taught” my son is not appropriate, LOL. It is almost always about how I tell him it is okay to color outside the lines, so to speak. But yet when face to face and I explain MY view on this or that she concedes that perhaps that is the way things “should” be but it is not the way they “are” in public school settings.

But still I am letting my kids choose…public or home schooling. That is unless public schooling is proving to be harmful to their sense of self worth…either way I will be actively involved in the whole process.

Other points in the article I liked…Merrick gives ten life lessons that you learn from public school. Number nine is “stay away from the weird kids”. I had too laugh at that one but it is true. How many schools teach that diversity in appearance, attitude, and opinion is a good thing? They don’t. They want everyone to be the same….like sheep. The kid with pink hair and a dog collar who recites Tolstoy gets ostracized while in my experience they were the one most likely to be interesting.

Number one is ”Learning, like work, is not meant to be enjoyable.” Ugh…I actually caught myself saying this essentially to my oldest the other day. We agreed that he would finish out the school year at public and then we would start our homeschool adventure. Well, I have been having a tough time getting him motivated to go.

Payton: Why do I have to go to school?

Mom: Because for right now it is your responsibility.

Payton: Why?

Mom: Well, it is kind of like a job. You know how Papa doesn’t like to go to work everyday but he does it anyway because it is his job and his responsibility. School is your job….even if you don’t like to go.

Somebody slap me! I just told my kid that learning is drudgery and not meant to be fun. Why don’t I just compare it to how I have to clean the toilets in the house. Maybe that would go over better. I think I need the homeschool experience more than he does.

Anyway, kudos to B.R. Merrick for an insightful article.

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