How Can A Bunch Of Wire Cost $52?

When it was time for Reese to pick out his frames, I was sure I could find a suitable pair from the $9 rack. I tried and tried...he tried on every pair but they just weren't right.

So we moved down to the next rack...the $18 frames. He tried on some big black rectangle frames that matched his big brother's exactly, but they were too heavy for his face and didn't work.

Hmmm...Reese moved down a bit and saw the Spongebob Squarepants frames. First, I really hate licensed cartoon products. No offense if you dress your kid in the latest Dora the Explorer jumpsuit, but it's just not my preference. I let him try different Spongebob frames on while I searched for something in the cheaper frames.

And then he turned around, and had the perfect pair of frames on his cute little face.

I loved them, he loved them. I looked at the price.

$52?

For some silly pieces of wire? Why did this wire cost $40 more than the other wire? Ugh.

I made my poor boy try on every.single.frame they had, and none of them were THE pair. Except the Spongebob frames.

OK...edit that. There were frames (for kids, mind you) that were over $200, but I didn't even touch those!

So we went with the $52 Spongebob frames (which frankly I don't get because there isn't one single of SB anywhere on the entire thing...there's just a tiny word that says "Spongebob" on the inside of the earpiece!).

Reese is so proud of his new glasses, and I think they fit his face perfectly. AND WalMart gives a 12 month warranty on the frames for any breakage so I felt a little better about buying a 6 year old a $100 pair of glasses (you mean lenses cost extra?).

And they're just for reading, so he won't be wearing them full time. Less wearing=less breakage!

"Does he ever get to see other children?"

I took Reese to the pediatrician this week & he asked me this question...
"Does Reese ever get to socialize?
Does he see other children?"

I wish he understood the greatness of our friends.

And the fact that we come together to learn & explore.

Wednesday, we gathered to play outside & then

Learn about fractions...

They took turns, shared, played together, discussed, participated.

They were not confined to a classroom to accomplish this.

We gathered in a garage

(which was insanely clean & organized by the way!)

and sat around the group table...

learning with our friends.

Does Reese ever get to see other children?

Why, yes he does.

And what a group of wonderful children it is!!!

8 Reasons Not To Homeschool...Debunked!

Last year, at this time, I posted a blog entry about a report made by the National Association of Elementary School Principals. Take the time to read their 8 Concerns, and have yourself a good laugh.

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Recently, the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) has published a report containing concerns about homeschooling. Obviously, the rocket scientists at the NAESP have spent very little time with homeschool families. But I'll share with you their 8 Concerns, as well as my opinion on each. Grab some tea and a relaxing chair, because some of these are quite hilarious!

Homeschooling your child will:

1.Deprive the child of important social experiences
Some of the ways Reese is deprived:
*We spend time with children of various ages multiple times each week
*He learns by example from Mom, Dad, & siblings about manners in public & stranger safety
*He participates in CoOp & gym class, which are led by other adults where he learns new ways to listen, follow directions, be part of a group, & work independent of parents
*Reese travels to other cultures to experience them first hand instead of just studying them

2. Isolate the student from other social/ethnic groups
Some of the ways Reese is isolated:
*We participate in group activities at least 3 days a week, often more. These groups are made up of all ages & races
*We seek out cultural events in our community, such as celebrations at the Japanese Gardens or traveling to see a Mariachi band play or celebrating Chinese New Year at our local Children's Museum
*We check out various genres of music from all cultures to experience the sounds & methods of music making



3. Deny students the full range of curriculum experiences and materials
Some of the ways Reese is denied:
*Mommy excitedly pours over curriculum catalogs that come in the mail, so that I can tailor a plan to meet his needs
*If a "full range" of curriculum experiences includes testing, red pens, TAKS, & sitting in your desk all day, then yes, he misses out on that
*To make up for not having the State & District dictate what books or materials I must use, Reese gets to use what works for him

4. Provide education by non-certified and unqualified persons
My Early Childhood Education certification bought me exactly bubkus in the actual classroom. Other than the basic philosophies of education (which parents can easily read about in books, and probably absorb much more than my 19-year-old college self did), it was my experiences teaching that made me a better teacher. By spending time with Reese all day, I know more about his needs than any other qualified person. As parents,we are keenly aware of what our children need, & using a "certification" as an excuse that parents can't teach is just silly. I knew PLENTY of college colleagues that were terrible student teachers, yet they passed all the tests & earned their certification (and got teaching jobs!).

5. Create an additional burden on school administrators whose duties include the enforcement of compulsory school attendance laws
Not in Texas, thank you. We're a burden on nobody. Plus, Reese attends school 7 days a week, all year long, so we're pretty much as "compulsory" as one can get. When LIFE is your school, it's pretty hard to limit that to "school hours."

6. Not permit effective assessment of academic standards of quality
Because all homeschool parents want their children to grow up to be unsuccessful loafs, we not only don't assess progress, we don't even PERMIT assessment. Um, OK. Tell me this then...

You've heard of Achems Razor, right? All things being equal, that the simplest answer is the correct one?

Does it seem to make more sense that one teacher can effectively assess TWENTY children regularly, or that one parent can assess ONE child more effectively? Why do you think schools need tests? Because there is no possible way one person can observe and identify progress (or lack of progress) for that many children while she's also trying to maintain crowd control. We tried to use checklists in my first grade classroom...it was nearly impossible to walk around, observe the children doing their centers, record my observations, AND make sure everyone was still on task. It seems to be pretty obvious that it's much more effective to assess my son one on one.

The more I read this statement, I try to figure out what part is more insulting and untrue. Is it the "permit" part? Like homeschoolers FORBID assessment. Huh? Or is it the "effective" part. You mean homeschoolers just go willy-nilly with their assessment, but don't quite meet the mark of an effective assessment? I challenge you to put a teacher's assessment against a homeschool parent's assessment & see which one is more thorough.

Or are they just talking about taking a test? Because some homeschoolers don't take tests. But then again, neither do most business professionals, archaeologists, computer programmers, garbage men, or even teachers for that matter!

7. Violate health and safety standards
You mean because we don't do fire drills with 500 children leaving a building at one time? Or because we don't count ketchup as a vegetable serving? Or maybe it's because Reese won't learn Sex Ed in 2nd grade?

I don't even think this comment needs further attention, because it's just ludicrous!

8. Not provide accurate diagnosis and planning for meeting the needs of children of special talents, learning difficulties and other conditions
requiring atypical educational programs
Again, Achems Razor. Can a music teacher with 30 students at one time recognize a young piano prodigy, or would the parent that spends every day with that child identify that special talent? How about a learning difficulty? Would a teacher with limited one-on-one time with a student recognize a problem easier or more effectively than a parent who spends one-on-one time with a child all day long every day?

Homeschool parents are some of the most resourceful people I know. Sure, I couldn't completely diagnose a learning delay if my son had one, but I would find out who to see in order to figure it out!

And what type of education is better suited for an "atypical educational program" than homeschool? You can put emphasis on music development, or therapy, or tennis, or whatever talent & need a child possesses. Sitting in a classroom all day long with a 30 minute pull-out therapy session a few times a week is nowhere near as helpful as homeschool could be.

On a last note, I don't think that ALL schools and classrooms are bad places. I did my best as a teacher to do a good job...I was even runner-up for Teacher of the Year where I taught. But try as I might, the job I did there was no where as effective as what I'm doing at home daily with my own child.

As my husband says, nobody on Earth will have more interest in teaching & loving a child as his parents.

All In All, He's Just Another Brick In The Wall

I love reading Mommy blogs, because there's such a variety of parenting styles out there and I get tickled by the fact that we all deal with the same types of concerns, no matter how we choose to "skin the cat."

One blog I read this morning was about a lady's preschool son who declared "I don't want to go back to preschool this year!" His reasons were cute, and it sounded like the core of the issue was boredom in the school setting.

What bothered me most, though, was a comment that was left. I'm not citing the person's name or the original blog post because I don't want to cause any flames. But here's the comment:

"From this end of it, I’d recommend that you do get him into a more intensive PS if you can. It may be hard this late to enroll anywhere though. But I think it’s good for kids to get used to going regularly, sitting still, having routines, writing their names - all that school stuff - before kindergarten. K is pretty overwhelming in of itself w/out having to figure out all the other stuff as well! Although S only went to PS 3 days/week and all the other PS’s we toured felt it was important for kids to go 5 days that last day of PS, I feel like he was really ready to attack school this year. (I say, after he asked if he could have tomorrow off so he could play…)"

*Perhaps the environment of a preschool is not what this dear boy needs. A more intensive preschool? Come on! This child is four years old. Let him play in the mud, build with blocks, cook with Mom & Dad, read books together on the couch.

*My big beef is the sentence I put in red. Sit still? Have a routine? Write their name? Is THAT what "school stuff" is? Let's see...Reese eats at restaurants and can sit still. He attends library story time & sits still when it's appropriate. We have CoOp weekly where he has to sit & listen at times.

A routine? Our entire day is a routine! I bet if you asked Reese, he could tell you what our day is like...breakfast, TV time, leave on whatever adventure we have planned for the day, eat lunch, come home & take a nap, etc. I don't think shipping him off to a Big Box would foster any more of a sense of routine than our daily life does.

Write his name? Um...I know plenty of CoOp friends who write their name quite well, and they haven't learned that at school! Reese is working on writing his, and that's something we'll work on at home together. I don't need him gone 8 hours a day at Kindergarten to learn that.

*And the last comment...because her son went 5 days/week to preschool, he was "ready to attack school this year." Blah. Why must an education be something to attack? The adventure of learning should be fun, empowering, motivating, joyous. You don't have to attack something that is fun, empowering, motivating, or joyous.

Keep in mind, the child this commenter is talking about is four years old.

I want Reese's learning to be something he loves. I will not allow him to be a round peg squished into a square hole. We're making our own path!

Civilized Is Not The Same As Socialized

Thanks to Holly at June Cleaver Nirvana for sharing this article on homeschool & socialization.

First, I hate that question..."What about socialization?" There's more ways than one to skin a cat, folks, & plunking your kiddlet in a room with 20 kids of the same age all day is not the only way to raise a smart, "socialized" child. In fact, I feel it's detrimental to do so.

Almost every single day of the week, we are out in our community interacting with friends, other adults, the produce man at WalMart (we had to hunt down tomatillas!), the librarian, the airplane pilot, you name it.

Learning to function in the real world, instead of a synthetic world of a classroom, is where Reese is watching Mommy and Daddy and other adults and children model how we interact & treat each other.

Some of my favorite excerpts from the article:

*The idea of learning acceptable social skills in a school is as absurd to me as learning nutrition from a grocery store. As Homeschoolers, the world is our classroom. We interact with people of all ages, sexes and backgrounds. We talk to and learn from everyone who strikes our interest.

*Another social skill we strive to teach our children is that all people are created equal. I can't imagine doing that in an environment where physically disadvantaged children are segregated into a "special" classroom.

I'll let you read the article yourself, but the last paragraph is my favorite example of homeschool children not missing out on anything...instead, a world of opportunities are open to us because we have the ability to stop, look, & listen to things that interest us instead of following a preset agenda that may or may not be of any interest to my child.

Oh, my poor homeschooled child...how will he EVER learn?

I think I've been pretty fortunate so far. Well, OK...my son is only 4 years old, so we probably don't get the looks & comments about "Why aren't you in school today?" Our family knows our homeschool plans & seems to embrace them (or they keep their doubts to themselves, which I also appreciate!). For whatever reason, I have not been directly confronted with any "What about socialization?" questions from the peanut gallery.


I suppose this story isn't DIRECTLY about homeschooling vs classroom schooling. But one little sentence just ruffled my feathers so much this morning!


Reese has expressed an interest in all sorts of performing arts lately, & I contacted a film school just to see what they offered for young children. I explained that Reese would technically be in Kindergarten next year & that we homeschool. Word for word, here was the response:


"We don't take anyone until they have been in a Kindergarten class where they have learned discipline and kindergarten things (sociolizing, how to sit when they need to, etc). "




First, use spell-checker lady. It's socializing. Apparently, we don't know how to do it, but we sure can spell it!


Second, apparently one needs a Kindergarten classroom to learn to sit where you need to. I guess that means that all preschoolers & homeschoolers aren't quite sure where to sit. The chair, or in the fireplace? On the couch or under the bed? Duh. Here's some examples of Reese not quite knowing where to sit:

Like this....

Oh yea, and this...

And here's some other examples of lack of socialization:
Here's one...

Oh don't forget about this...

Poor child just isn't socialized

How 'bout this one?



Now, just for the record, I do understand why they would say "our youngest age limit is 5 years old." or something like that. Of course children mature as they get older & the attention span a 4 year old has is generally less than that of a 5 year old. But to require "kindergarten skills" and label such skills as socialization & sitting where you're supposed to? Come on people!