Video Wednesday

Enjoy!

Video Wednesday

Our story continues . . .

Yes, I love technology/But not as much as you, you see .. .

I think it quite literally is the truth – technology saved my teenager’s summer.

Let me explain.

Summer in Phoenix is like winter in Minnesota. People tend to hunker down indoors, just venturing out for the necessities. Parks are inhospitable and it’s hard to find good places to meet. People go to more pleasant climes, if they can afford it. If not, they just have to wait it out.

With all of the vacations and the lack of a suitable meeting place, it’s really hard for the teens to get together for the summer. My now-teenaged son is inconsolable when he can’t see his friends several times a week. Luckily, one mom who’s a member of the “local” teen homeschooling group (I use the quotation marks because the group meets a long way from my home) put together a Ning group that’s a lot like Facebook, but is a little more controlled. Then, for my son’s thirteenth birthday, my husband and I let him have his own Facebook account (just like all his friends). While my teenager has not been able to see his friends much this summer, his whining about this fact is almost non-existent. He “talks” to and “sees” his friends on a daily basis. I think he probably checks the computer 3 times a day and that has seemed to do the trick.

Now, I think if he thought summer would never end, we would have a problem, but he seems to be o.k. with a summer of cyber-friendships. I check and control his activities and access to these sites, but it seems to be working for him.

Drama class starts again in a little over a week. Hockey practice will start next month. And we should be able to start park days by mid-October at the latest. All should be right with the homeschooling world shortly, but we’ve managed to weather the summer quite well.

(And no, my son and his friends aren't quite like the boys in the previous post, but that video is certainly not that far-fetched.)

Video Wednesday

NO! I haven't posted since February? No way.

Well . . . maybe. You see, I have been kind of busy. You know, three kids, homeschooling, etc.

And no, I don't think it's cheating to start again with a Video Wednesday. I have a point to make, but I'm going to make it in the next post.

Promise.

Anyway, enjoy.

Video Wednesday

The High School Issue

From the beginning, the agreement in our family has been that the kids will be homeschooled through middle school age and then get to decide for themselves if they want to go to high school. My older son is now 12 and I’m beginning to feel the “high school” noose tightening.

Iulius is not sure what he wants to do about school yet – he has some really good homeschooled friends and has just begun participating in a homeschooling teen group and he currently feels pretty satisfied with his life.

I just don’t know how I feel about it.

I mean, I’m a very big advocate of homeschooling all the way through. You may quite validly ask why I’m even considering the high school issue at all.

I can tell you that academic progress is not at all part of the issue. I’m quite confident that I can teach the 3 of them history, literature, writing, and mostly everything else that’s offered in high school better than any other teacher. My husband can take care of the things I don’t know much about.

I’m kind of embarrassed about the reason I’m thinking about high school for the kids.

. . . it’s socialization!

Well, not really, but it is all about the social aspect of their development. Here are the problems:

1. There aren’t a great number of homeschooled teens around to broaden their social circle; and

2. The homeschooled kids there are often live VERY far away from us.

When the kids are young, there seems to be an unending supply of homeschooled kids for them to hang out with. But, somewhere along the way, the kids start disappearing. Family circumstances change and the kids end up in school, or the plan was always just to homeschool in the early years. By the time the kids get to be middle school aged, it’s like the plague has hit or something. The kids are disappearing all the time.

Our local public high school has something close to 500 kids per class. That’s a lot to pick from. I’m sure my kids would be able to find their little niche and make some really good friends, although the academics would be lacking and somewhat ridiculous (for example, our local high school requires 1 unit of music credit that seems to have to be done there, at the school – my kids’ years of piano training can’t count for this particular credit). While it would matter if Iulius’ best friend left, there would be plenty of kids to hang out with.

But, really, you don’t need that many friends. Whenever adults speak of their high school years, they talk about their 3 or 4 closest friends. That’s all it takes for a good experience.

What if those friends live a long way away? I live in the Phoenix area and Iulius’ best friends live 25 minutes and 35 minutes away. The teen group is a long way away, too. Luckily, we have been doing a kind of pony express thing with the kids where I drop Iulius off half way with another friend (thank you LB), and then she takes them the rest of the way. There’s another teen group a little closer by, and it’s mostly girls – very nice ones, too. While this is basically a good thing for my son, I’ve noticed it’s a little difficult for a 12 year old boy to break into a girls’ group (even if he’s read the whole Twilight series).

But, if he went to the public high school, most of the kids would live really close by. Until he is 16, I just have to drive a couple of minutes to drop him off at a friend’s house. And when he can drive, the drive will be a short one for him, which would probably significantly reduce my anxiety. The bus picks him up in the morning to take him to school and drops him off in the afternoon. It’s so easy.

If only it weren’t for the whole institutionalization and dehumanization thing, I wouldn’t give it another thought.

So, what’s the answer?

I think technology is helpful. Email, texting, webcams, blogs, etc., can help keep the kids connected. But, call me a Luddite if you will, I don’t think all of that takes the place of real face-to-face meetings and hang out time.

I might just have to resign myself to driving a lot.

It also might be helpful if we could get together some sort of network of teen groups and individuals and work together to make more local groups, too.

The other part of the answer is to not send my son to school. Then there would be one more potential friend for other homeschooled kids.

(sigh)

Video Wednesday

O.K., this is the kind of thing I'm always searching for when I'm trying to find a good video for this blog. This video was done by the homeschooled kids of a friend of mine. The director is 13 years old, the star is 11, and the costars are 5 and 7. I love the special effects!

Time to Plan the Revolution

Wouldn't it be great to spend the day surrounded by other revolutionaries, talking about the revolution and learning how to go about doing revolutionary acts? Well, if you're in the Phoenix area on March 7, you can have that day. That's right, it's almost time for the HENA Conference! This year it's just a one day affair at Memorial Union on the main ASU campus. Sign up before February 15 to get a discounted rate (there will be no tickets sold at the door).

Full disclosure: I will be presenting a talk about classical education at the HENA Conference. You don't have to show up for it, though, if there's something more interesting happening at the same time. Really. I won't feel bad at all.

Really.

Video Wednesday

This is a pretty silly little ditty.

Bedside Table Reading

This is what my friend, Scott, has on his bedside table (well, not really, but read on). Scott is not only a homeschooling dad, but also a business owner, a writing professor, and an author. You can read his latest published short story here.

What's on the night stand.

Actually, these are in my closet, with only one book on the night stand itself. Said picture of that reality, however, would have been rather boring. From right to left to top, the books are in order of longest time gone without being touched.

Hayden's Ferry Review #42
I haven't read anything from this journal, but it was given to me as a gift when I did a reading at ASU Polytechnic. It sits there patiently waiting for me to have time to read something I know little about.

The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide To Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Bauer
I started reading a library copy of this book about 8 months ago. I then decided that it was important enough to warrant my own copy. Such is the kiss of death. I bought the book and with no pressing deadline to read it, I haven't opened the new copy.

A Cavalcade of Arizona History by Marshall Trimble
This is more of a reference book that I sometimes open while I'm working on my novel. Since it takes place in Arizona, it helps to steal some interesting things from history.

Climbing Parnassus by Tracy Lee Simmons
I forget who loaned this book to me, but I read about half of it before getting distracted. In this case, the distraction was the end of the semester grading, then indulging in lots of other reading over the holidays. I'm certain to get back to it at some point in the near future.

The Heath Anthology of American Literature: Vol B
I'm reading Melville's "Billy Budd" because I got into an argument with a friend over Christmas about the story. I hadn't actually read it, so I my points were a bit blunted. However, I'm pretty sure "Billy Budd" is not "The Caine Mutiny."

This is Our Music by Iain Anderson
A Christmas gift from my wife. My friend wrote this and I've been promising that I would buy it for myself, if only because I make an appearance in the acknowledgments. It's about jazz in the 1960s.

The Philosopher's Apprentice by James Morrow
I don't really know how this made it into the stacks. I suspect when I was at the library I liked the font, picked it up and decided I would check it out. The unambiguous good of the public library system. God bless Ben Franklin.

Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen
Of all the books in the photo, this is the one I really wanted to read, and am now doing so. This made it on to a lot of top ten for 2008. It's about a psychiatrist who believes his wife has been replaced by a simulacrum. But it's also about perception, literariness, language. It's funny, intriguing, and reminds me a whole heck of a lot of Orhan Pamuk, the great Turkish writer.

Escape by Carolyn Jessop
I heard Jessop interviewed on NPR one day, and when I stumbled across the book on the library shelves I grabbed. I actually have finished this one, about the FLDS up in Colorado City, on the Arizona-Utah border. I believe some FLDS members might make a cameo appearance in something I'm working on, so this was research. Horrifying research.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
Essays like chocolate truffles, but less fattening.

Video Wednesday

Just a bit of humor for the homies.



Have a wonderful evening and I'll see you in 2009.

Bedside Table Reading

Many of my friends (both homeschoolers and not) talk about the pile of books teetering on their bedside tables. I'm no exception. My bedside table looks like a miniature, poorly organized, library. Today, I'm going to let you look and tell you what I'm currently reading.


On the top of the pile is Shakespeare: To Teach or not to Teach by Cass Foster and Lynn G. Johnson. I'm thinking about reading Henry V with my boys this year, culminating with seeing a live performance this spring. Cass Foster abridged A Midsummer Night's Dream, among other Shakespeare plays, and I thought he might have some insights on how to teach Shakespeare to my kids.

Next on the pile is Sense and Sensibility. This is the book I'm currently reading to wind down just before I go to sleep. This is probably the 3rd or 4th time I've read it. Jane Austen just never gets old.

Third down is a brand new book I put on my Amazon wishlist and received as a gift. I'm very excited to read it, although I've barely opened it yet. It's The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric by Sister Miriam Joseph. The trivium is one of the bases for classical education, so I'm trying to get a better picture of what the teaching the trivium entails.

Next down is a book that is always on my bedside table: The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto. I'm chipping away at this book, which is fascinating, yet frustrating (for its lack of citations). I think this is a must read for the "big picture" view of what we're doing by homeschooling.

The next three books are aspirational reads more than anything: Ovid's Metamorphoses, Virgil's Aeneid, and Plato's Republic. Ovid and Plato are for my own edification, so I rarely actually get to them. I just plain don't like the Aeneid. I only have one more section of it to read, though, so I might make it a goal to finish it before the new year.

I would love "Bedside Table Reading" to become a regular post on this blog. Please take a picture of your pile of books (whether it's on the bedside table or not), make a list of the books and, if you have time, make some comments, and then send it to me at homeschoolingrevolution [AT] gmail [DOT] com.

Video Wednesday

This video has nothing to do with homeschooling, although my daughter tells me stories like this all the time and she happens to be homeschooled. She doesn't speak French, though -- not yet at least.


Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

Video Wednesday

I thought this video was appropriate for the season.

Time for the Revolution

I’ve been thinking a lot about time.

We’re always so busy, running from park day to drama practice to art class to hockey games – and we’re one of the less busy families I know. Experts are always telling us how moms (and I’d apply this to homeschool dads, too) need to make time for themselves. You know, for exercise, a massage, “me time.” I think the experts are right that we who take care of the day to day needs of the family as a career tend to forget to our own physical and mental needs.

This is not the type of time I’ve been thinking about.

Most homeschooling parents I know try to take time to find the right grammar curriculum or the perfect science program. We spend hours considering what our kids’ strengths and challenges are and tailoring their education to fit each individual child. We often feel rushed and pushed into making some of these decisions, and I, at least, sometimes jump into “crisis mode” and choose things for my kids that will do for the interim while I look for something better. I often wish I had more time to analyze what I do each day with my children.

This, also, is not the type of time I’ve been thinking about.

I’ve been thinking about taking time to plan the revolution.

I’m talking about “big picture” thinking. What is the purpose of what my family is doing? What are its implications? What type of world am I trying to create? Face it, what we’re doing is not the norm and does not create the same reality for our kids as for the kids who are institutionally educated. They aren’t going to have the same shared experiences. This makes a difference in how our children are going to treat, and be treated by, the rest of our culture.

The founders of our country didn’t just think about what the American Revolution meant right then, in 1776. They were thinking about the future and what they were creating for the long run. They met for 15 years hashing out the details, first, of parting ways with Britain, and then they continued to meet to hash out what the new country would look like. They took time to plan the revolution.

I don’t think there’s a right way to do the planning, though. For me, it means spending a lot of time reading about a whole slew of subjects, including philosophy, history, politics. I read a lot of blogs and books on homeschooling. I talk to my homeschooling friends and belong to homeschooling online lists. I also just spend time thinking (or “daydreaming” as my kids call it). But I don’t spend nearly enough time doing these things because there is laundry to be done and food to be cooked. I firmly believe that revolutionaries shouldn’t have to do house work. But somebody has to do it.

And somebody has to plan the revolution.

Video Wednesday

My posts have been rather sparse lately, and this Video Wednesday will show you why. My kids and some of their friends were in a production of "A Midsummer's Night Dream" and I've been busy taking them to rehearsals, running lines with them and, of course, making costumes. The cast is all homeschooled kids between the ages of 5 and 14. They met once a week for a couple of hours for 3 months to put this together. The production was directed by Andrea Parker who runs Arizona Homeschool Theatre Group.

The scene presented here is "The most lamentable comedy, and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby," the play within the play put on by a group of silly mechanicals for the wedding of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, and Hyppolyta, the Queen of the Amazons. Enjoy!

Video Wednesday -- Thursday Edition

I hope everyone is not all hung up about having Video Wednesday on a Thursday.

Thanksgiving

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, the day we set aside to show gratitude, I’ve put together a list of things we secular homeschoolers have to be thankful for. Feel free to let me know of any others you can think of.

1. The Internet.

Whether or not Al Gore invented it, the internet is a boon for secular homeschoolers in so many ways. It’s how we research curricula and homeschooling methods. It’s where we find information on box turtles, Napoleonic era warships, and anything else that happens to catch our children’s interest. It’s where we can get free math worksheets and out-of-print books. Most importantly, it’s where we can find and connect with other secular homeschoolers through blogs, and websites, and, if we’re lucky, find a local support group to build a community.

2. Curriculum Choices.

When I first started homeschooling 10 or so years ago, there were very few curricula to choose from. There was Calvert, there was Saxon, but not much more. The number of homeschool specific curricula available now is astounding. I’ve looked at 10 and tried 5 Latin programs alone!

3. Libraries.

Well, this one is not quite fair. Everybody should be thankful for public libraries. But homeschoolers in particular benefit from libraries because we read so many books. Think of all the extra money going out the door if we had to actually pay for everything we read! Libraries also have programs for children and teens, which can help them build community with others, not just other homeschoolers.

4. Homeschooling Support Groups.

As I’ve written before, I believe one of the keys to successful homeschooling is a support group. I’m lucky to have such a group where we can meet in person once a week or more, but I think that online groups might fill the bill for some people who are the lonely secular island in a sea of religious homeschoolers.

5. Religious Homeschoolers.

They are the reason we have the right to homeschool at all. In my experience getting secular homeschoolers organized together for a specific, finite purpose is kind of like herding cats (as my Dad would say). You can do it, eventually, but neither the herder or the cats are happy about it. This is where religious homeschoolers have been, so far, better than the rest of us. They’ve been organized and systematic in their advocacy for homeschooling. They’ve put together grassroots lobbying groups and legal defense organizations to focus solely on keeping homeschooling legal and as few laws regulating us as possible. We owe a great debt of gratitude to these groups.

Video Wednesday

I absolutely promise this blog won't become just a place to post videos. But it IS Video Wednesday, after all. I really like this one. Enjoy, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled post to bring you this very special video

Well, in all honesty, we've all just got a nasty cold here and I don't have the energy to do a post. This video also has nothing to do with homeschooling, unless you could adapt what this dancer does into an unschooling curriculum.



For more on this video click on this link.