Organized and Ready for School

After procrastinating for weeks, I finally got it together and organized all of our new school supplies and curriculum.  When I first started homeschooling my children (this is our third year), I had a very narrow view of what it would look like.  I ordered a bookshelf for the kitchen, a lamp for the kitchen table, and planned on having the kiddos do lessons in there on my laptop.  It didn't take long for me to realize that we had far more options than basically recreating the typical school environment in our kitchen; even I had been somewhat brainwashed into believing that that was what school should be like.  In mere weeks, we found our groove.  Little G enjoyed working in his room, so we got him a table and chairs set.  Reezle preferred the comfort of the couch, where she would curl up with the big pillows and our older cat, Sticky.

The kiddos both have backpacks and lunch boxes, even though we homeschool.  It's so much fun to take lessons to the park or the beach when the weather is nice, or to a little coffee shop to sit by the fireplace when the weather is chilly and cabin fever is starting to set in.  We don't have to worry about whether our school can fun field trips; we simply take field trips whenever we like.  The zoo, the aquarium, the arboretum, orchards, farms, and even homeschool skating events are on our calendar, and it will be wonderfully, blissfully uncrowded.  I don't miss having to cram our entire family life into school vacation dates.  I don't miss homework.  I don't miss feeling like strangers were raising my children.  I love picking up and going wherever we want to go, whenever we want to go.  And, since most of our family is out of town, we don't have to worry about scheduling visit around a school schedule; we take school with us.  School is anywhere that has an internet connection!

I digress.  We're grateful for the opportunity we have to do this our way, and I tend to get a bit excited about it.  On to our school spaces.  Top left and bottom right is Reezle's setup in her room.  Because their school is web-based, they each have a good computer of their own.  The shelves are much fuller now, with her reading materials and hardcover books.  Top right is some of Little G's setup, which includes some of his own extensive collection of books and a new yellow dry-erase board.  K12 actually supplies dry-erase boards, but my kids wanted the fancy, colorful ones and I caved.  They literally use them until they wear out, so I'm cool with it.  They're great for math and spelling practice.  And finally, bottom left is the bookshelf in our living room where we keep the printer, extra books, flashcards, math games, extra paper, and any DVDs or CDs provided by K12.  I realized quickly that keeping everything in one central location was going to be impossible.

Our various organization locations

The kids were so excited to have their materials that they asked me for writing prompts to earn their supplemental workbooks.  They can be prolific writers when they have incentive, heh.  Both of them filled about four pages each, front and back, with really cute stories.  And yes, my son has blue hair and my daughter is wearing rabbit ears.  I pick my battles.

Getting an early start

We're doing a more family-centered, independent model of K12 this year, and we have the same teacher for both children, which usually isn't the case.  Our current teacher was Little G's teacher from last year, whom he was crying over losing as his teacher as the school year drew to a close, so both of the children are extremely happy about this.  I am very happy as well; she is wonderful and very much dedicated to her students and their success.  I know this confuses people; I homeschool, but my children have teachers.  I could make this post very lengthy, or you could research K12 for yourself here.

I will be writing much more about our homeschool journey soon!  But right now, the kids and I have cucumbers and zucchini to pick from the garden.  I'm hoping last night's epic thunderstorm and rain helped things grow.

Home Gardening

One of the things we love most about summer is our organic garden.  All of us love veggies, and nothing beats fresh ones right out of your very own garden.  This year, we've all taken turns watering, pulling weeds, and carefully picking.  Little G and Reezle both planted flowers along the perimeter and they did a fabulous job.  I was really impressed because it's the first time they've done that without any assistance from us.  With everyone assigned to a task and working together, our planting went quickly. 

Little G waters newly-planted seeds, tomato plants, and flowers

It was a slow summer in terms of garden growth.  Our weather has been strange this year, and we think that the decline in the bee populations isn't helping matters.  But Reezle and I love our zucchini, and once it starts to yield, it's the gift that keeps on giving.  Well, unless you get squash bugs like we did last year.  So this little one was a welcome sight!

Delicious organic zucchini

The other day, Little G asked if he could check the garden to see if any more zucchini had grown large enough to pick.  This is what he found!  Needless to say, we've been eating lots and lots of zucchini!

Little G's proud zucchini harvest

For perspective on how gigantic these bad boys can get, this is Little G holding the zucchini that is in the far right of the picture above.  He said he got his exercise picking these, and he wasn't kidding!

Little G and big zucchini

We're also getting some delicious cucumbers, and the rain over the past couple of days will no doubt move things right along.  No tomatoes or peppers yet, everything is still very green, but hopefully soon.  I wish we could garden year-round, and I've been looking into hydroponics and various greenhouse setups.  Our winters get blistering cold, and stay that way for long periods of time, so I need an option that will be able to withstand occasional sub-zero temperatures without failing.  However, even if I could have an option to extend our growing season so we can start earlier in the spring and continue enjoying fresh produce even after the first frost, I'd be very pleased with that.

ABC Mouse Commercials and Claims

If you've watched any children's television at all recently, you are no doubt familiar with the commercials for ABCmouse.com, an online "early learning" program designed for preschoolers.  A quick look at their website revealed nothing innovative or spectacular for all of the hype.  Admittedly, though, I went there already having a negative bias due to their sketchy advertising.  ABCmouse.com touts "A full online curriculum for preschool and Kindergarten", for ages 3 through 6.  The cost is $7.95 per month or $79.00 per year, similar to other paid learning sites.  My issue isn't so much with their cost or the curriculum, which appears average across the board, but with their advertising.

The ad that I've seen most consistently features an adorable little girl named Aaliyah.  The first thing that caught my attention was, "...my two year-old granddaughter, reading, writing..."  Most children learn to read at 5 to 6 years, somewhere between Kindergarten and second grade.  My children started very early, reading books just after their 4th birthdays, having mastered many sight words when they were 3.  Now, I realize that there are outliers, opposite ends of the bell curve, but most people are astounded when I mention the age my children were when they began reading.  I have a video of my son at 4 years, 2 months, reading a book called Thank You, Bear.  Now, someone is going to convince me that a 2 year-old child is reading, and writing, when every other child her age is still working to develop language and motor skills?  Oh, and that ABCmouse.com was responsible for this reality-defying child genius?  Oh, please.

As if that weren't obviously fake enough, another thing caught my attention.  The woman providing this absolutely amazing testimonial refers to Aaliyah as "my child" at the beginning, but "my 2 year-old granddaughter" at the end of the commercial.  That screams fake testimonial as much as a toddler reading and writing.  Further, the website states that it is intended for ages 3 through 6, and the woman claims that her child/grandchild started at 1 1/2 years.  I'm impressed with a baby who has enough motor coordination to use the computer well enough to enjoy a website with learning activities intended for children twice her age or older!  Someone should take this child in for study, because surely this is a new step in human evolution, a super being, and she should be studying at Harvard by Kindergarten!

Just when I thought ABCmouse.com couldn't possibly annoy me any further, I saw a new commercial this morning.  I tried to find it on YouTube so I could provide a link to it here, but I think it's too new.  It features another little girl named Tyvena.  Her father is explaining how he is not a teacher, and ABCmouse.com is like having a teacher in the house.  He goes on to say more disparaging comments about parents, making it sound like we're incapable of doing anything for our children except hoping for the best and getting them into school and education-related things as soon as possible.

These commercials discredit the site, I don't care how helpful it might be.  Further, while my children do attend a web-based school and I can speak the many virtues of the internet and its resources, why do people want to have their 1 1/2 year-old child online?  My children read very early, in my opinion, and it was because we read to them daily, took them to the library, and encouraged them.  Parents are teachers, the first and most important teachers children have.  To have some for-profit internet education site saying that parents aren't teachers, and that their sketchy business can turn babies into geniuses, makes me angry for every parent who takes that message to heart and every child who gets ripped off as much as their parents who have lost belief in their ability to be a hugely positive force in their child(ren)'s learning experience.

It all sounds like a bad diet scheme or something, touting everything from toddlers reading and writing to bringing parents and children closer together, fixing problems and producing results that even professionals couldn't.  Now those are some lofty claims for a website which, to me, doesn't appear to differ in any way from a plethora of similar free online resources.  The claims may sound amazing, but there is nothing that website can accomplish that another early learning website, or better yet - time with your child in a library - couldn't accomplish.

Watch Aaliyah's commercial here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rptW5Hp9psg

Recommended reading:
Thank You, Bear by Greg Foley

Online resources:
abcya.com - "the leader in free educational kids computer games", for grades K-5

The Schools Are Pathological, Not The Kids

I read this article today, and it claims that 1 in 10 boys at age 10 are taking prescription meds for ADHD.  I was appalled, and yet sadly unsurprised.  My opinion might not be popular, but I do not believe that many children have a disorder, any disorder so severe that they need to be drugged.  Of course, doctors who want financial kickbacks from the drugs they shove on everyone and teachers who want obedient little zombies will tell you that the drugs will bring out the best in your child and make your and your child's life better. 

Photo credit: stoptherobbery.com

Now, I get that some people do have focus problems, and among them there is a subset who struggle so severely that they do, for a period of time or in certain circumstances, require intervention.  Drugs, though, should be an absolute last resort after all other options have been completely exhausted - and I'm not just talking about the patience of parents and teachers, which I believe is frequently the case.

I'm not necessarily blaming the parents and teachers; the Every Kid Gets a Trophy generation is grown up, and things have only gotten worse as they start having children of their own.  Generation Y has been raised on Ritalin and happy pills, while the real problems that exist in families and classrooms are not properly addressed.  Unhappy?  Here's a pill, because you must have depression.  Stressed out?  Here's another pill, because you must have anxiety disorder.  Having trouble concentrating in school?  Obviously you have ADHD, because there's no way it has anything to do with the mundane, repetitive, unfulfilling experience you shuffle through day in and day out with little to no reward for your efforts beyond what all those standardized tests say.

The larger problem is the structure of our society, particularly traditional education and the increasing demands on children with the concurrent deterioration of the real work of childhood, namely play.  Children need free time to grow and develop, but when are they getting it?  Childhood has been pathologized like a disease, while at the same time, schools are removing recess, shortening lunch and free periods, and burdening kids with huge homework loads so that they have no free time to develop who they are as people.  I guarantee that more free time, play time, recess time, and/or physical activity would do a child far more good than any prescription drug.  Big Pharma would disagree, as would the people who want that child's time to be their own.  I guess it works for the system, doesn't it?  Make sure kids' time is always accounted for, keep pouring information that they care little or nothing about into their heads like empty containers, structure their lives to the point they have no say or will, and medicate them into submission when they appear restless, frustrated, bored (termed ADHD, oppositional/defiant, and autistic by allopaths and drug companies).

Parents largely turn to doctors and drugs to help them with their children because the direction of our society.  When I grew up, my dad worked and my mother stayed at home.  Mother was a fast food junkie, but when she wanted to cook and we sat down for family dinners, it was great.  It was close and I felt like part of a family.  The painful regimentation of children's schedules, testing for the sake of scores to bring money into school districts, the degeneration of the family unit, the mountains of homework which effectively obliterates any potential family time and adds stress to the household, the epidemic of bullying, not to even mention the poison in our food, courtesy of Monsanto, are all contributing factors to the problems our children (as a societal whole) face today.

Even as a child, I realized the flaws in education.  Of course, at the time, I was simply a child who was annoyed with school and early mornings.  People do not generally listen to children.  That, in my opinion, is a mistake.  To maintain my sanity, I would ask multiple times per day to go to the restroom because I was so painfully bored in class.  The days were, in my opinion, far too long.  It felt wrong, and I often compared it to a 13-year prison sentence, having to be forced out of bed, day after day, into a place I didn't want to be with my perfectly age-matched peers.  Why were children treated so poorly, I wondered.  I used to look around at my classmates, wondering how they managed to sit there, still and at least feigning the appearance of attention, for that duration.  That was not how I learned.  I suspect, if I were that child in school now, people would recommend Ritalin or some mind-numbing drug to shove me into submission.  I was simply bored, and I don't comprehend how people can't grasp the concept that many children probably are.  That's not a disorder; it's the way the education system is set up that is pathological.

I consider traditional public schools to be brainwashing centers and prisons for children which slowly but surely detach them from their families and drain their will, individuality, and curiosity from them.  Education is not about learning, it's about test scores and money.  Children are miserable, then they get drugged, and then a portion of them do crazy things and people wonder why.  Healthcare has become sick care, where doctors no longer treat the disease, but prescribe pills to mask symptoms and to deal with normal feelings and emotions.  Childhood has become a disease with a number of diagnoses.  People are no longer eccentric, daydreamers, creative, or strong-willed; now they are autistic, ADHD, defiant, and need to be medicated.

The public education system needs serious overhauling.  Will it actually happen?  Not soon enough, if ever.  The trajectory doesn't look good, and I have little hope.

This is why I homeschool.

Recommended reading: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto, Thomas Moore

Devolving

When the internet first started becoming popular, I immediately protested and said I wanted nothing to do with it.  As far as I could tell, this was yet another stupid fad and people were spending entirely too much time - in 1997, mind you - staring at computer screens.  But then I started college, and with all of the wonderful free software they provided me and the size of the reports I had to write, I relented and decided to get a computer.

Admittedly, I was quite fascinated with the large electronic setup now hanging out on my old desk, whining its way through its very first dial-up connection while my mind began entertaining the various possibilities available to me via internet searches.  I'd heard of chatrooms, and I did find myself in a Korn one (don't hate) with a bunch of kids who thought they were, like, so totally awesome because they knew their way around a few simple commands.  That scene lost its luster real quickly.  I suppose I had this exciting, utopian view of the social networking world being much more like it is now, with people sharing real things and having meaningful debates.  I didn't consider the endless, monotonous stream of location check-ins, pictures of various unappetizing food fare, or the incredible number of parents willing to post inappropriate and humiliating pictures of their own children; but, truth be told, I do enjoy many of the interactions I have through social media.

Eventually, in the days before MySpace and Facebook, I did find some interesting message boards to participate in; I even designed my own Webpage, which was popular for more than a decade and brought literally thousands of people into my life.  I certainly spend more time online than I care to admit to, and I wonder how many valuable hours of my life have been wasted laughing at cat pictures featuring funny captions or reading satire.  However, the internet has afforded me an outlet for my desire to write and research.  It has also been an invaluable source of information on a vast array of topics of personal interest, including Monsanto, organic gardening, health, DIY projects, and home remedies.  Just in the past two weeks alone, I learned how to do hair highlights at home, format my SD card on my Mac, and how to get the Mac to see the SD card.  Money and time saved.  The internet helped me to discover that my migraines were aspartame poisoning, when all of modern medicine failed me, and I got my life back by simply not drinking diet beverages ever again.  It allows me to homeschool my children through K12.  It provides the convenience of shopping online, so I don't have to spend a day walking around some mall that I hate, looking for something they might not even have; I can now accomplish in minutes what might have taken hours or longer.  So maybe those cat memes aren't so terrible after all.

But there is the dark side of the internet.  We are new to this, the 30-somethings.  We don't really grasp the full reach of this new cyber world and how "out there" we've really become.  It ranges from annoying to downright dangerous.  That post of your drunk ass in a trash can in a bar might be funny while you're still wasted, but in the morning when your boss that you don't recall "friending" sees it, you might be out of a job.  And the "sexting", how many lives, relationships, and reputations has that destroyed?  We don't always make good choices, but the internet is a permanent record of things that were once lost with the sands of time.  I'm very glad I'm not a teenager right now.

While I generally avoid the more heinous social faux pas of the online world, the great joy I once took in being able to do in minutes in the convenience of my home what once took hours upon hours in a library is also taking a turn for the sewer.  A Google search now turns up search engines within search engines and pages which are nothing more than a collection of keywords, because people buy URLs so they can get paid-per-click, and they will spam you half to death to get you to click.  I feel as if I have been relegated to a few of the better-known sites I found when the internet was far more searchable than it is now, though even many of those have sold out to the point that their pages are 80% ads and 20% content.  The flashing ones, or those featuring particularly shocking or disgusting photos are the real slums and back alleys of the internet.  Even YouTube, which still remains fairly user-friendly, no longer uses the ratings in their search; you have to actually click on the videos before you find out whether it's total garbage, like a fake video telling you to follow a URL to an actual video...supposedly.

The internet is devolving, like the rest of things that humans have a hand in.  We find fossil fuels?  We use them all up.  We find beautiful land?  We destroy it for profit and erect concrete societies.  Locally grown?  Why, when we can be selfish and destroy the planet so we can eat that out-of-season food and run our local farmers right out of their livelihoods?  It's about want, not need, right?  Why improve our health with exercise when we can pop a pill for each health concern?  Why look on the bright side when there's an SSRI to boost your mood?  Why pay the farmer when you can simply pay the doctor and the pharmacy?

Human beings are a disease.  We consume everything we come in contact with.  Just look at Superfund sites, Monsanto, oil spills, nuclear accidents, and any of the other sad atrocities we're responsible for.  We have this amazing technological gift of the internet, and we're turning it into yet another cesspool.  It's sad, really.  But that's okay.  Something better will come along, right?  Something more advanced and higher-tech, and we can leave this lay in ruin behind us as we advance to the next thing we can build up just to destroy.

Waste

Yesterday, I took my children on a road trip to one of the big cities we live in fairly close proximity to.  It was a mixture of fun and git-r-done; the new headboard we ordered to match Reezle's bedroom set, well, didn't.  And since it weighed somewhere in the neighborhood of 956,422 pounds, shipping it back would have cost the rough approximate of a decent down payment on a house; it was easier, albeit not by much, to just load it up and drive it to the store.  And we really needed a day out after the miserable bout of stomach virus that gripped our household for almost three solid weeks.  Hell, let me tell you.

The first thing I noticed about the city was that everyone was in such a big damn hurry to get absolutely nowhere.  I had several people take exceptional risks to pass me (I am not a slow driver, my past speeding tickets can attest to this - but I'm also not a stupid driver), one guy almost causing two massive wrecks to get about four car lengths ahead of me to a red light.  And for what?

I laughed a little to myself, both when I thought this yesterday and as I typed it just now.  I used to be the person in the big damn hurry.  I used to be more than a little impatient as I would sit behind the wheel offering expletive-filled driving instructions and advice to the so-and-sos in front of me.  I guess 12 years in the rural Midwest has changed my perspective on a lot of things.

The other thing I noticed was waste; from the shopping carts that were replaced despite being in near-new condition compared to the ones that work just fine at our local stores to the destruction of acres upon acres of land to put up more concrete structures.  We can't maintain this, whether it's the fossil fuels we're haphazardly wasting, or the buildings that will all lay in ruin once our economy collapses and no one can afford to care for them, we're going to eventually be catapulted rather painfully back to a simpler life.  That in mind, why not scale back now?  Why not take care of what we have and work harder, all of us, on a more sustainable way of life?

On the drive home, I appreciated the simplicity of our little corner of the map.  As houses grew farther apart and farms and fields of corn and grapes became the norm, I thought back a few years to a time when I wanted to live in the city more than just about anything in the world.  I had thoroughly loved Houston, Texas when we visited in 2005 and 2006, and was quite insistent that it was worth dropping everything here and heading down there.  I'm so glad we didn't, for I would now be a part of exactly what I've come to realize must change.

My perspective on many things has changed substantially in the past 7 years.  While the thought of having stores within walking distance and all kinds of fun buildings to go isolate myself from nature and entertain myself within once appealed to me very much, raising children and realizing the state of our world has caused me to re-evaluate how life should be lived.  I've developed a new appreciation for locally-grown, natural, earth-friendly, and non-polluted.  We can enjoy modern conveniences in moderation without destroying the one place we have to call home.  But largely, we don't.  We waste like it's our job, from the overpriced gas-guzzling Hummers to the three serving sizes of beef that supports animal cruelty, Monsanto, Big Pharma, and that new cardiology wing at the hospital all at once.

Sadly, I realized that, while change is coming, it's coming slowly.  It's going to take the skyrocketing price of fuels, getting knocked off-grid by some solar flare, or who knows what kind of mess for people to realize - too late - that we should have done something while we still could.  I fear for a society where modern conveniences have become life-sustaining necessities.  We're devolving.

Reezle's Farm

My sweet little Reezle turns 9 in a few days. It's hard for me to wrap my head around it.

Lately, she's been talking endlessly about the farm she wants to have when she's grown.  "I have a dream for when I'm older, and I plan to follow it," she told me earlier tonight.  "I'll have some cows. I'll only take my share of milk, not what the babies need. There will be plenty." She went on to say that she might like to have a couple of pigs, too, but that she doesn't want to raise anything for meat.

 "I want a really big farm and piece of land. I'm going to grow fruit trees, vegetables, and raise animals. I'll feed my cows non-Monsanto feed. Everything will be natural.  We already get so many delicious things just from our small garden, can you imagine a farm!?"

"I want to make my own honey, but I don't want to hurt the bees. If I want to all these things, I'm going to have to figure out a way I can work, too.  I'm going to get a Master's Degree in something.  Maybe a Doctorate, so I could be a doctor farmer.  If my animals get sick, I can figure out what it is and help them."

"I really want 3 or 4 kids, but I worry that I'll end up not being able to care for my farm. Hmm. I'm going to need a house.  How much is all of this going to cost?  The house, the farm, the animals, and all of those seeds.  Workers to build things.  All of these questions are coming into my mind!  What will I need to wear?  I think I'm worrying too much about my farm."

Indeed, my sweet girl.  But I'm so glad she has big plans for herself, and the confidence to make them.  Whatever she does, I'm sure she'll be amazing at it.