Making Memories

I used to live in the Land of the Plastic People.  You know, the Barbie’s and Ken’s of the world where every home is a museum, you have 2.5 children and only after you have your career and a college fund for the kids at hand, children were seen and not heard “or else”, and houses were museums instead of homes that actually looked like someone lived there.  I feel sorry for those people.  I feel sorry for the stress those people are under trying to keep up appearances (LOL…the British comedy comes to mind or Desperate Housewives).  And where are the memories.

When I was a child, I used to listen to my grandparents tell stories (burning a chemistry set in the bedroom, taking the insides out of a radio and Nana trying to figure out why this new electronic wouldn’t work) and my parents telling stories (football players setting a slugbug on a second story porch, starting riots over being able to wear jeans to school).  We even have memories (getting busted for looking at not-yet-wrapped Christmas presents, getting our first microwave and dishwasher, playing kick the can or war out in the field, having your kid brother beat the snoggins out of Mario Brothers, the Original, and trying to “cook an egg” on the coffee table).

Yep, kids do some things.  You can get mad, you can rail at them…all you’ll do is drive your kids away.  Or you can explain to them (yes, for the umpteenth time…their memory just isn’t as good as ours ) and then call a friend and say, “we’re making memories today”.  When one minute the children are eating, you go take care of wash, and come back to 5lbs of flour explosion in the kitchen and all munchkins involved…yep, we’re making memories.  When your 9yr old is up syringe feeding a sickly abandoned barn kitten in the middle of the night…yep, we’re making memories.  When you’re children make “kites” out of plastic bags and string…yep, we’re making memories.  When the children say, “we’re bored”, you tell them to go chase the goats and they do it….yep, making memories.  When the steers that are going to be butchered all have names (and one looks like Fozzi Bear)…memories.  When more apples are eaten off the tree in the course of a summer than what you are able to make applesauce with at the end of season…memories.

There is a good book out about Nature Deprivation Syndrome.  I think most people have lost the understanding that children need to be children.  Scheduled walks or camping doesn’t cut it.  A kid needs to explore his world.  Bugs can be picked up, gardens of weeds can be grown (aka, give a child a “garden area” and let them do what they will with it), and a skinned knee is just another reason to hug your child.

Evaluations

are done!!!  YAY!

Oh, and the state testing…kids blew that out of the water!  Can I just say that I’m proud of my kids?

One Way to Cut Book Prices

Check out the new Omnibus I page at the top. I’ve found many of the classical works online and have linked them…actually all the ones that are without copywrite issues. Most of the rest are CS Lewis’ Narnia Series, something that families will find at their library if not upon their own bookshelves!

Sad, but too true.

Every Sandwich Tells A Story Contest & Home Schoolers

2. ELIGIBILITY. Contest is open only to legal residents of the United States who are currently over the age of 18 and have children who attend elementary, private or parochial schools that serve grades PreK-6. No home schools will be accepted. Contest Rules

Yes, you read that correctly. Home Educated Students are NOT allowed entry into the contest. In an age where discrimination is highly looked down upon. If this very public contest were to only include private, parochial, and home schools, leaving out the publically educated, the ACLU would be having screaming fits.

Personally, I believe there are three reasons for Subway’s exclusion of homeschoolers. I’m leaving Scholastic out of this portion, because homeschoolers are permitted in their other contests and Scholastic has resolved the first of the reasons in those contests.

Reason #1: the $5000 excercise equipment award included in the grand prize. This equipment is to go to the child’s school, not their home, thus meant to be a means to help many children rather than a few. Scholastic solved this issue in other contests by requiring that should a homeschooled student win the contest, the student would have to choose a school or other non-profit organisation to donate the award to. Subway is also placing the publicity they would get for donating to a “school” above that of ethically running a contest without discrimination. Some would say that homeschoolers have their own contests excluding the public schoolers, but having a group of local homeschooling families hold a contest is no more different than the local school district having a contest for just their own students.

Reason #2: the presumption that those who are home educated have means and resources that those in the public and private school systems do not have them. This is a false presumption. I’ve heard this presumption elsewhere when others have claimed that there are those that “can’t” homeschool their children because of difficult circumstances. I know homeschoolers throughout this country that have and are homeschooling in extremely difficult circumstances. There are also homeschoolers that do not have access to athletic or exercise equipment due to finances or distance from a YMCA or JCC. They learn to make up for this in other ways and learn to do without this kind of equipment.

Reason #3: the presumption that those who are home educated have more time or help to “study” for such contests. This might be true, but only in that there is evidence that their parents are more involved, simply by the fact that they are also their core teachers. More time is not true in the sense that the student still has to meet the requirements of other subjects by the state. They still have tests they will eventually have to take to move one to higher education or to prove their knowledge to the state. They might, like many of their counterparts, simply be exchanging sports for spelling, geography, math, or writing, particularly since many do not have the option of sports available to them.

Simply put, I’m hoping that Subway is simply ill-informed, rather than being intentionally discriminatory to a branch of their customer base. Yes, there are many homeschoolers that like Subway. And due to the health craze, Subway ranks at the top for “fast food”.

A Couple of Wonderful Programs!

Another Option in Place of Binders, Papers, Wall Calendars, and Wall Schedules!

Daily Home Planner

Home School Tracker

Between these two computer programs, one should be able to keep track of nearly everything.

The Daily Home Planner keeps track of each family member’s daily routine and appts (Even colour coded like MOTH! for those of us that run our lives off of colour coding systems and you can view all family members at once), meal planning (includes a recipe log, divisions of recipes, automated grocery lists, and click and drag placement onto the calendar), a phone directory (with room for notes, children, and emergency contacts), a household inventory log, a journal (includes photo upload…limited to one photo per day), an application that permits you to keep registers for all of your bank accts and budget your money, and a place for goals and lists. Daily Home Planner: $35

When recommending the Home School Tracker, please get the Plus edition. It’s worth the money. The Plus edition has more options and movability. It includes a download of the program, a CDR backup, you may download to any and all computers in your home, all future upgrades, and online support. To add to it’s worth, there are yahoo groups for file sharing lesson plans. Yes, you can import lesson plans created by another parent for various books, curriculums, or simply unit studies created by that parent. I’ve had the basic for several years and am upgrading to the Plus edition. The Basic simply didn’t do everything that I wanted it to do and lacks the import capability. However, the Basic edition does work for those that need it and need something that has “free” written on it Basic Edition: Free Plus Edition: $49

(Links to the HST groups can be found in the sidebar to the right )

Cozi: Shared Family Calendar

Cozi is an alternative to the Daily Home Planner.  It’s free, will probably take less time to enter information, has mobile capabilities, but may also not be as multifunctional as DHP.  I have only glanced the program over, not actually put it to use…I’m hooked on the set up of DHP and Cozi doesn’t really appeal to my style.  Therefore, take my observations with a grain of salt on this one as it could still end up being exactly what you are looking for, especially if you are a professional or soccer mom on the run.

Who Would Have Guessed…LOL!

You Are a Sunflower

“When your friends think smile, they think of you. There is not a day that goes by that you can’t find something good about the world and your fellow human.”

This one also suits me

You Are a Canna

“You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that.”

It’s been a long winter.

The weather was up and down, colds came and went, we strove to stay on top of school, and we’ve discovered that the Lord has much in store for us.

My husband will be going back to school, we are due with a babe soon, the goats are back out, state testing is soon followed by evaluations, next year’s lesson planning and curriculum purchasing is underway, and the garden will soon be put in.

BFS-Assignment #12

 

Sewing:

1) Finish sewing the P’s diaper stash.

2) Sew the new babe’s diaper stash.

3) Finish all mending.

4) Sew a few Lord’s Day dresses.

5) Finish the Lancaster Snoods.

6) Sew the project kit.

7) Work more on Frances’ Prayer Blanket.

 

School:

1) Enter Records, Enter Records, Enter Records.

2) Come up with a few more field trips.

3) Call the Evaluator.

 

Family:

1) Plan the garden and orchard care.

2) Deliver our babe.

3) Continue drafting a great wheel.

The Goats Are In!!!

Thank all who prayed for help in this area!!! We had a huge winter storm coming in so hubby and I took fencing to corner the goats. My eldest assisted as well. We trapped Ricky and carried him to the barn (my, he put on some weight these past few months!!!). Lucy started maaaa-ing, because her twin wasn’t with her anymore. For those that don’t know much about goats, they are VERY social creatures. You can never have just one. In fact, they would be happier if we would acquire 5 more of their kind, a llama, or some sheep (which is a future possibility). Well, she was all the more determined NOT to be caught.

Fortunately, the farmer renting the barn came to water his steers. My daughter showed him Ricky in the stall, and after observing my husband’s antics and attempts in the pasture pen, he asked my daughter, “do you think your parents would want help catching that goat?” So, between my husband, the farmer, and the farmer’s middle son (he has ten children of his own)…they cornered Lucy and carried her to the stall.

The smaller area seems to be good for them. They had been in there only one day when I managed to hand feed them for the first time. They laid still for me to pull burrs they had acquired in the field as well.

Of course the storm passed us by…