Excellent Cartoon

This cartoon, by Jason Holm, really sums up the school vs. homeschool socialization issue. He said it would be OK to post it here:

Socialization

 

Whoops!! I think I just pissed off every public schooling friend I have. But if they haven’t yet figured it out, I’m a rebel. Everyone chooses what works best for them. We are fortunate that doing it “our way” is an option for us — one that we are both able to do and want to do. It certainly isn’t for everyone, and gee whiz, some people even think we are weird. ;)

April 27, 2007 | Filed Under Homeschool Issues | 11 Comments 

Inspiration

I watched “The Secret” for the third time the other day. This time I took notes. There was a delay of about a month since the last time I saw it, and during that time I’ve been thinking of ways to apply it in my life. While there are parts of it that are fluffy, weird, and downright infomercial-ish, there are nuggets of wisdom that I need to keep in my mind at all times.

The Law of Attraction states that you draw everything to yourself with your energy, and that like energy attracts like energy. So basically, if you are negative, you will attract more negativity to you, and if you are positive, you will attract more positivity to you. That makes sense on an intuitive level, and I didn’t really need a movie/book to tell me so. However, it was refreshing to hear all the proponents of this way of thinking share their perspectives on it.

Here are some of the ideas I wrote down. Some are direct quotes, some are not, and I didn’t always remember to write down who was saying what.

Thoughts become things.

You attract what you think about most, whether it is something you want or don’t want.

You draw everything to yourself — people, job, circumstances, health, wealth, debt, joy. What you think about you bring about.

Your life is the physical manifestation of your thoughts.

You can change your life through “The Creative Process” which has three parts: 1) Ask — let the universe know what you want; 2) Believe — believe that it is already yours; and 3) Receive — feel how you will feel when it arrives.

I think there is a difference between changing your mindset and simple wishful thinking. It certainly can’t hurt to try!

April 25, 2007 | Filed Under Rants, Moods and Attitude | 5 Comments 

No Words

VT Logo

The Virginia Tech massacre has been weighing heavy on my heart since Monday. I want to write and I don’t want to write about it. There really are no words that can express my anguish over what has happened there. I didn’t want to marr my blog with such macabre news. Worse, I didn’t know just how much this was affecting me until I read COD’s post about the cell phones ringing on the dead. I read his post just before bed last night, and I turned off the lights and layed there wide awake. I finally left my bed and went downstairs and sat on my sofa and cried. It was not until that moment that I expressed the true grief I have been feeling the last few days. I’ve posted vague references to my affiliation with Virginia Tech on other blogs, but nothing here.

I lived in Blacksburg for six years and completed both undergraduate and graduate degrees there. My office was in the building next door to Norris Hall. I lived in the West Ambler Johnston dormitory for two years. I can only imagine what those actually involved in this incident are feeling. It must be something a zillion fold more than what I am feeling. Every hour, the story about the killer becomes more and more detailed. What a horrific life he must have had to end it this way, taking so many other innocent lives with him.

Yet I am unable to blame anyone but the killer. He had a troubled life. Others saw it. Many tried to help him. Many tried to avoid him. In hindsight, there are so many things we believe could have been done to prevent this. But in reality, I just don’t think that was possible. I certainly don’t know the details, but from what I’ve seen so far, everyone did or tried to do all that they could when they encountered this troubled man. In our “normal” experience, a troubled man/woman takes down themselves. We cannot fathom why they take down others, particularly innocent and unrelated others, with them.

My heart goes out to all the families and friends of those beautiful smiling faces we see on the news. They are just faces to those of us who don’t know them, but they are beautiful and sad memories to those who do.

April 18, 2007 | Filed Under Rants, Moods and Attitude | 2 Comments 

Playing with Themes Again

Bear with me while I’m playing with different themes.  If you visit and it looks weird, I’m probably messing with it.  If only I knew what I were doing!!

April 15, 2007 | Filed Under Rants, Moods and Attitude | Leave a Comment 

I Won!

WoW! This is such an honor. I might just be the least prolific blog award winner in the universe. I’d never come close to winning a homeschool blogger award if it weren’t for people who appreciate weird references to old movies! Thanks COD.

Blogger most likely to worship the patron saint of quality footwear*!

Blog Award

 

* For those of you not in the know, that would be Saint Hubbins.

April 10, 2007 | Filed Under Homeschool Issues | 2 Comments 

It’s Enough (I guess)

When it comes to “school” stuff, I always wonder if we are doing enough. Stephanie at Throwing Marshmallows assures me that enough is far too relative to ever determine. She reminds me that kids work on their own timetables and that overall they will learn. That is so easy for me to grasp intellectually, but I continue to fall back on the educational paradigm that is etched in my very being. School takes time. School is hard. Some things you have to learn whether you want to or not. So while I believe in our eclectic style of homeschooling, I often worry because of what I have always thought education was.

Up until about 2 weeks ago, we had no limits on computer or TV time. That wasn’t such a bad thing until the kids discovered Runescape, an online game. Suddenly, their lives revolved around the computer and nothing else. I waited patiently (a couple of months!) for them to tire of the novelty and start to self-regulate their computer time. It never happened. I got frustrated. I got angry. I established limits — very generous limits, if I do say so myself. They used every second of available time, just as I knew they would if we set limits, so today we limited the time even more. They can have 1 1/2 hours a day. They used it up before 9:00 a.m.!

Thanks to limits, we actually accomplished some things. Not having the computer meant they were more willing to do some of the things I suggested. We did a little math. We watched a video about the Potomac River that included a lot of neat history. Then they were suddenly open to learning and begged to do some science experiments. We chose one about oxygen.

It’s only Monday. I’m not going to get my hopes up just yet, but without all day computer gaming I think we may just get “enough” done.

April 9, 2007 | Filed Under Homeschool Issues, Learning | 3 Comments