Okay, so we’re sitting around talking, and two of my daughters are complaining about the way that their contemporaries use (or more properly, don’t use) the rules of grammar.  They complained about dangling participles and ending sentences with prepositions…it was enough to make a homeschooling mother cry with joy on Mothers’ Day.

I also had a chance to talk to one of my children about reading this weekend.  She is a voracious reader, and just can’t understand why a lot of the people that she knows aren’t.  I had to confess that I was at a loss to explain that as well, since I am one of those people who will read old cereal boxes if I’ve run out of other material at hand.

Reading has been such a great help with homeschooling for me.  It reinforces both grammar and spelling rules (painlessly) and opens up worlds that might otherwise be completely closed to us.  I’ve been very lucky that (so far) all my children love to read, because without reading, all of schooling is so very much harder.

Posted: May 12th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
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I heard about the Live and Learn Unschooling Conference to be held near Asheville, North Carolina in September.  It sounds very interesting, and seems to be very loosely organized–which is sort of like unschooling itself.

Posted: May 6th, 2008 under Conferences.
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Well….Today is one of those homeschooling days when I start to wonder why my children aren’t in school.  There is something about homeschooling–or any other seemingly countercultural position–that makes me want to present to the world a faultless exterior.  I want our homeschooling experience to be wonderful; I want my children to be happy and involved in learning complex subjects constantly; I want them to be perfectly behaved, but still playful and “edgy”.  I want our house to be absolutely spotless, but still reflect that we are learning here and not consumed with housekeeping.  I want it all.

I forget (or maybe I just want to forget) that we are all human here.  That they are still children and act in childish ways on occasion.  That I get tired and want to do what I want to do instead of what is best for them and our family.  That we can do this successfully–in our own time and with a good outcome.

It never seems to matter on days like this how successful we are.  Last week, I heard my children introduced (by someone I have a huge amount of respect for) as “some of the brightest and most talented children” he had ever met.  Not good enough today.  Not good enough that they have standardized test scores that set them apart from the average child (schooled or not).  Not good enough that they are recognized as artistically talented by professionals in the fields that they are involved in.  Not good enough that people like them and want to be around them.

Maybe writng this was the best thing I could have done for myself today.  Maybe I’ve just reminded myself  that they ARE good enough–and more.

Posted: May 6th, 2008 under emotions, learning.
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