The Misfit homeschooler: Living in a secular world

Yep, all my friends will acknowledge I usually have way to much going on. I collect projects like most people collect spoons. I don't expect that to change anytime soon, it's just a part of my personality. I have to stay busy. (So yes, when it comes to my younger daughters ADHD I can totally see where she gets it. My husband also has some ADHD as well so I guess she gets it honestly from both of us.) When I see posts like This: I think of us. We don't always have the most logical idea's (sort of like the "lets collect chickens" idea) but we usually like the outcome. Sometimes we look at the situation and just have to laugh at ourselves..It's a good thing to do. Many of us take life so seriously. Then we add in the stress of doing something really weird, like homeschooling, and we tend to take that way to seriously. We worry about schedules, classes, socialization, doing the right curriculum, missing that elusive "something" that we wil...

One thing I've noticed is that well, My kids like to talk. Yes, talk..ALL THE TIME. So while it shouldn't surprised me, it usually does. This weekend was no exception. From my facebook page: So, once again we have entertained the customers and workers at Lowes (This is becoming a regular thing). So while we sit there and try and figure out the carpet situation. Arianna starts going on about how she wants to be come a geneticist and a paleontologist so she can find specific dinosaurs, decode their DNA, bring back the dinosaurs (especially the Utah Raptors and T-rex's) and start her own dinosaur army...oh and she needs a couple of pterodactyl so she can fly above her army and supervise..and take over the world...I reminded her what happened in Jurassic Park..and she's working out specifics but thinks it's doable...BWAHAHAHAHAH....evil scientist at work..do not disturb...wait she's already disturbed...never mind. This is my 8 yo. The same 8 year old w...

So yesterday Arianna came to me and wanted to watch a "zombie movie, but not a kids zombie movie. An actual zombie movie". I told her to bring me her tablet. I looked for a relatively decent zombie movie...and got her started on it..yes she's 8 years old. I didn't do the whole "here's why I won't let you watch it" thing. Later I asked her if she'd watched the whole movie. She said no, I fast forwarded thru the boring parts" I as ked her what she'd thought of the movie. She said "well, it was interesting. I did jump a few times and all most peed my pants. I think I'll wait a bit longer before I try adult movies again." So she's learned a) adult movies are for adults for a reason b) she's not ready for them yet c) she's learned that when mom says you might not want to watch something there is a reason behind it and d) she's learning her boundaries on what she feels comfortable watching and e) she...

Is homeschooling easier than public school? or is Public school easier than Homeschooling? in truth, neither is easy. Your just picking your poison. In public school, often your dealing with bully's, hours of homework each night (might as well be homeschooling and not having any homework, lol), early mornings before anyone is ready for them, hurried breakfast, meeting the bus or dropping off/picking up the kids, taking them to after school programs (sports, etc), then rushing home to make dinner (or pick it up on the way home)...Okay, maybe homeschooling IS easier in this respect! Homeschoolers don't have to be up at any specific time (unless you choose to, or you have a fieldtrip that requires your up and out early), no bully's to deal with, no hours of homework your not sure how to help with, Your not rushing to get people out the door to the bus, your not having to time everything so you can pick them up at school, run them to programs all over the place, etc. BUT (and ...

On the right you'll see under pages a new page free online resources. It's up and running with current information. I will update once a month with new sites we find that we think might be interesting and we enjoy. If you find something out of whack contact me and let me know :) Have fun looking thru them!

One of the things I often run into with those considering homeschooling for the first time is "I'm on a tight budget and can't afford a lot of curriculum. Can I still homeschool?" Yes. Yes, you can! There really is a lot of great free and low cost resources. From free websites like Mobymax.com, discoveryk12.com, ck12.org, coursera.org, openculture.com, youtube videos, to free DVDs from HHMI.org! Library's can be a great place (assuming your in an area with at least a decent library and interlibrary loan system). Also make sure to look at your area (I do a two hour drive circle from our location and anything in that I consider semi-local, you might adjust depending on your circumstances i.e. live in the country vs. live in a city where things are a bit easier to come by). Don't I'll start a new page this next week with all kinds of free resources online (I'm going thru our rather large list and update links etc. so I can double check that everything...

That's right now that the 4th of July is over the stores are slowly starting to get their back to school sections filled and ready to go. While I generally have been doing the older kid back to shopping the last few years, this will be the first year having to do the younger crowd as well as the older crowd thing. Once I had the girls list of interests for this year we got a list started (I put them in categories so I have an idea of where things are going) Then it's time to look at what they need for each area (and then I double it at the very least!). This year I get to do some of the fun stuff again for my youngest. Some places to check for fun stuff: Target (in the dollar bins), IKEA, dollar tree, Michaels Arts and Crafts, and Joanns Fabric (for Michaels and Joanns make sure you ask for your educator discount). I stopped by and they had some great stuff in the dollar bins for the kindergarten and under ages. These were in the $1 bins! and in the $3 bins I fou...

There are lots of ways to make summer more educational without having a formal sit down schooling session. Some fun and easy idea's Visit your states tourism office..take one of everything! Play tourist in your own State. Most tourism offices have a nice selection of tourist places (historical points of interests) and natural wonders about their states. learn about geology, history, politics, etc. in a fun hands on way! Visit your nearest National wildlife refuge or wetlands. Hint: many of them have FREE family activities year round. So make sure you check their calendar for upcoming events and activities. For those with kindergarten and younger kids, some do a monthly children's activity during the week that lets the kids do an activity, story time,  learn about the local wildlife and then go for a walk and get the wiggles out. Take advantage of all your local free resources! Many towns have free concerts at the local colleges/universities. How about a local art walk? Ma...

One of our new purchases is our new Tingkam A3 light box! So much fun!! We picked up some new things to use on it as well. I had to wait until the kids were in bed to pull it out or they would have wanted to play with it for the next hour! SO much fun! It came very well protected (which I'm keeping it in as well!) Once we took it out of the sleeve we got it plugged in. It's slim, very large surface for use and 3 different light settings. On the first setting (the dimmest of the three) you can look at x-rays (one of our new purchases as well. We got the broken bones one to go with our anatomy lessons.  Very cool, but I will say there were a couple I looked at and cringed. Can we say "OUCH"?!?! There are a few different sets  available on Amazon.) There are some cool shapes to play with as well. My 3 Year old is having a ball playing with the geometric solids learning about shapes and colors while all three of the kids are enjoying playing with the differ...