Home is where the school is.

We had a great few days thanks to unschooling. Now, ours isn't really an unschooling family. We use some more traditional things (work books, print outs, spelling tests, etc), but we have an unschooling flair. I like to take a natural learning approach to school.

On Sunday, I went shopping. Many items were half off. We've dealt some with fractions and multiplication, but we haven't done division at all. Still, both girls were able to accurately and easily tell me what the items would be at half price. They did it over and over again as they brought me item after item of (what they deemed) cute clothing and asked me to buy them because, "It's half price, so it's only...."

We have a map of the U.S hanging on the wall. They like to look at it to see how to spell the states and then they put them into a song and end with the Postal Service's abbreviation (don't ask. I have no idea why they do it, but they like the song). Today, Girl2 noticed the scale on the map and asked what it was. So we busted out rulers and measured how wide certain states are. Then we measured the distance between different states and translated that into miles. We looked at the map and talked about the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Girl2 studied Mississippi which she adores even though she's never been there. When I asked her why she likes it, she said, "Because it's pink on the map and because it has lots of s's and i's. I like those letters."

Very neat and took almost no effort on my part. That's a good thing with a new baby in the house.

Oh and Girl1 was moved into a different class in Hebrew school a few weeks ago. She's in the group doing lessons 2 years above where they currently are. This is the child who doesn't read English as well as her sister, so I'm floored to hear her read Hebrew. Some of her homework simply involves reading the word to an audience and she has read every single word correctly ever since she was put in that class. I've mentioned before how I feel about them learning to read Hebrew, so my daughter has made me very proud.

Let My People Go (out to eat).

On Monday, the kids and I reviewed some things on Martin Luther King Jr. They did print outs, a word search and some coloring sheets plus we talked quite a bit about the marches and the significance of our newest president.

Later that day, I caught all three of the kids marching around the house chanting, "Let my people go.". When I asked them what they were doing, Girl2 said, "I'm marching like people did with Martin Luther King Jr." TheBoy then chimed in, "I'm marching for grapes." Girl1 added, "We're Obama's kids." (they are absolutely fascinated by the fact that Sasha Obama is their age). To which her brother added, "I'm Obama's kid with a banana."

During the inauguration, chants of, "Yes we did," could be heard (yes, I admit, they were coming from my mouth). To which, my son added, "Yes we did--get ice cream."

Some of us are struck by the historical significance of the day and the eloquent words and actions of MLK. Apparently, some of us just want a snack.

Finding ballance

This parenting thing doesn't get any easier. Just when you adapt to one stage, a whole new set of subtleties and considerations go into effect.

How do you balance it all? Last year, we took a break and didn't have any sport-related classes. In the past, they danced for two years and took a break from that to explore karate. We tried Softball a while ago, but I was really put off by the whole thing. I was there for my kids to learn the game and have fun. Everyone else was there to prep their kids for the Olympics. We learned very quickly that it wasn't for us and we ran far far away.

Starting very soon, the big kids will have Hebrew school on Mondays. They'll have Sunday school too. We don't do sports on Shabbat.

I'm not the type who wants my kids to play 5 different sports. I'd like them to do one or two things to stay active and to learn what they're capable of. At the same time, religion is very important to us. I didn't have the opportunity to learn Hebrew. Dh just learned enough to read from the Torah for his bar mitzvah portion and he immediately forgot it all. Our children will have better.

I danced every week day and had gymnastics on the weekend. Dh's parents are VERY involved in local sports (my MIL is in her town's sports hall of fame). So that drives us, but so too does the love of Judaism.

We had to pass up the dance school where I really wanted to send the girls because the class for their age group is the same day/time as Hebrew school. They want to take gymnastics too, but we can't do it. I'm not comfortable with them shoving so much into the evenings. If I can find a homeschool class that meets during the day, we can do that, but once you're out of that pre-k age, it's difficult to find much during daytime hours.

Gah! How do you find the right balance? How do you resist becoming a stereotype one way or another? I will not be the parent who confronts the Hebrew school teacher demanding to know, "How is he supposed to improve at baseball when you want him here during practices?" How do we teach our children to value their beliefs and heritage if we so obviously value the physical over all else? Although, I also refuse to raise a mensch with absolutely no appreciation for his physical ability. Can you truly appreciate G-d if you can't recognize the power in yourself?

One of the many reasons we homeschool.

Principal Apologizes for “Excellent” Rating

More cute conversations with the wee ones.

I realize I'm probably the only one who finds this interesting. I'm terribly sorry for inflicting this upon you. Obviously, though, not sorry enough to stop.

Last night, TheBoy had a nightmare. Dh and I had already gone to bed, so I figured I'd bring the baby to bed with us. Problem was neither TheBoy nor I could sleep (dh was out like a light). So I put him back in his bed. He tried to stall. As soon as I did, he plead, "Go potty." So I sat him down and he went. Then he said, "Tee-ma." To which I replied, "We already said the Sh'ma when you went to bed the first time." Then he just asked, "Mama," in a sad and oh so tired tone. I said good night, kissed him and left. He called me softly one last time after I closed the door. When I didn't reply, he said, "Oh man." He fell right to sleep after that. I, however, kept giggling.

I'm in the Purim play at shul (I'm Zeresh. I wanted Vashti, but I got sucked in at the last minute, so I had to take what was left). I brought the big kids with me to rehearsal today. Girl1 got to fill in and be one of the king's options for a new queen. The women walk up individually and then "prance" before the king. Girl1 got up there, skipped across the stage, jumped to her spot in front of the king and flashed him and the audience a big smile. It was so cute. I was so proud. She had such a good time. She looked so comfortable up there.

So this evening, dh and I were discussing it while Girl1 sat on my lap. I said, "Maybe we should get her more involved with drama." Then Girl1 added, "dary." It took me a second, but I caught on and then we both laughed. That kid is GOOD.

Dear World Maths Day folks,

It may have seemed like a good idea, but I'm about ready to injure someone over at World Maths Day.

Both my big kids are signed up and ready to go. Problem is, I suspect the server is not prepared for the demand. We can't do anything. The games won't load. When we're finally able to get one to start, there's nothing there. A map pops up every once in a while, but then nothing happens. Occasionally, it kicks us out for a period of inactivity, but the only reason we're inactive is because THERE'S NOTHING THERE.

My kids were really excited to do this. The idea of joining people from all over the world playing math games was pretty cool. Now, though, that excitement is fading and I'm being met with questions like, "That's never going to work. May I watch Little House on the Prairie instead?"

So much for getting my kids excited about math.

Oh and I'm hanging my head in shame because after looking through the 100 top scores, I don't see a single American. Oy vey!

Science and the joys of homeschooling

The fine folks at PBN and Zula have asked parents to post about Science. They asked what we as parents are doing to bring Science back for younger elementary school children.

Bring it back? Where did it go?

Last time I checked, it was right there in plants the big kids planted for Tu B'Shevat. It's there in the lapbook we made to celebrate Tu B'Shevat (I love it. I get to combine religious holidays with Science). It's in the news stories about the space shuttle lifting off and then returning. It's in the Astronaut lapbook my kids are dying to do (the printer, however, has other ideas). It's all over the children's museum we visited a few weeks ago with one of our homeschool groups. You can't avoid it at the zoo (where we would live if we could). It's at the local natural history museum (which has a great free kids' program this weekend). It's dripping from the walls at the local science museum. It's as far away as a wayward satellite and as close as our backyard.

What am I doing to bring it back? It never left.

Civilized is better than socialized.

I'm in the market for a new bumper sticker. While scanning Cafe Press, I came across this:

Civilized...

Oh how I love that. Although, I bristle at the s-word. I've found that some people just don't get it.

Oh and I like this bumper sticker as well.

Ah. Ah. They have a Jewish Homeschooler bag. Oh my word! I want one. I'm always the token Jew in any homeschool group. I actually don't mind it, but oh how I love the fact that that's out there. Yay for the Yids. :-)

Inspired by that last find, I Googled "Jewish homeschool" and found this: Jewish Homeschooling: A-Z Home's Cool Homeschooling . Oh and now I found this: Liz's Jewish Unschooling Homepage. G-d bless Google! I live in an area where my fellow Yids are few and far between, so it's WONDERFUL to have the internet as a resource.

Now I'm in a very good mood. I found great bumper stickers and I found other Jewish homeschool resources. Now if I could find a way to make a Peppermint Mocha Frappaccino materialize at my fingertips, I would be absolutely giddy.

My very unscientific poll

In an attempt to explain the primaries to first-graders, we had our own primaries. We split the 4 of us into Democrats (Girl2 and TheBoy) and Republicans (Girl1 and me). Then we all voted (it had to be an open primary or else we would have been screwed).

Here's the cast of characters:

Dem
Girl2: Hilary Clinton
TheBoy: Barack Obama

Rep
Me: John McCain
Girl1: Ron Paul

Yes, I realize our Republican candidates sort of alter the results, but blame it on my kids. Girl 1 was adamant that she did not want to be John McCain. When asked who she should portray, Girl1 insisted, "Ron Paul." That's what you get when some of your closest friends are Ron Paul supporters.

Our results were as follows:
Hillary Clinton (D)
John McCain (R)

From there, we went on to a presidential election. Clinton beat McCain by a vote of 2:1 (literally), although there was one write-in vote for a 3rd party candidate (when asked for whom he wanted to vote, TheBoy raised his hand and yelled his own name).

Of course, all 3 of them later went off and had another secret election wherein they voted for a candidate who is apparently able to bridge the gap between the two parties. He won with a unanimous vote from all voters regardless of political affiliation.

And so, I would like to introduce the new President of the United States of America, our cat.

Original photo by Paul Morse found at the Republican National Convention Blog

Please note, that at the insistance of my children, I added a horribly drawn green kipah to the bald man bottom right. Every time I try to alter an image, they're forever asking me to add a kipah. And so, I did.

Stooopid resolutions.

Damn it! I swore I wasn't going to make a resolution in honor of the new year. I think they're stupid and pointless. It's rare that someone sticks with theirs.

Still, without me even trying, I have stepped right into the pit of a resolution.

I am going to be more organized.

My mother is the type of person who has everything organized. She has covers on the couches. If there's even a speck of dirt on the floor, it gives her heart palpitations. My father is a pack rat. He keeps anything and everything. I know you're supposed to inherit 1/2 your chromosomes from each parent. It would appear I am a biological anomaly. It seems that I got all of mine from my father.

When I stayed with my brother, I found his pantry to be startling. Everything is in order, stacked nice and neatly with all the labels facing out. You would think it was a sign of a disturbed mind, but it's not. Whereas my mother's absolute need for cleanliness sometimes makes it difficult to function (no, I'm not being sarcastic), my brother is a brilliant well adjusted person with lots of friends. How is it that he got such a wonderful balance? I want that.

Since I was not born with the neatness gene, I need to over-compensate. I have got to find some way to make up for my failings. I started following Kamrin's lead by simplifying, but that has come to a halt. We did get rid of some clutter, but there's much more to do. It has gotten worse since Chanukah.

Today, we took the first step. We reorganized our bedroom and we're going to move a piece of furniture out of the office and into our room. Once we do that, it should be an avalanche of organization. That will give us room to add book cases wherein we can store lots of the school clutter plus I can take my craft supplies and photographs out of the giant plastic boxes which take up far too much room, sort them into smaller boxes and put them on the shelves.

We've been stuck in a holding pattern. We can't clear out one room because first we need to do something with another room, but we can't start that room because it has things that need to go somewhere else.

Here's hoping that we don't lose momentum and that we wind up with a straightened relatively clutter-free home in the not-too distant future.

ETA: I'm going to try to commit to this monthly checklist. I can do one thing a day.

Homeschooling: Conversations From The Future

I know I'm late, but I just came across this link.

Conversations From The Future

I like it. So I'm sharing with you fine folks.

I realize some may sense a judgmental tone towards those who don't homeschool. Let me assure you that I don't feel that way.

So many stupid people. So few comets.

Why do we place more value on Barbie* than on books?

In the past, we had an Amazon wish list for the kids for the holidays. That way, when the family asked for gift ideas, it was right there to make it easier on them. One year, my MIL ordered some things and told us, "There weren't many options. I wanted to get them something they really wanted, not any of that school stuff." :-o

I went back and looked at the list and there were actually very few school books on there (2 or 3 on homeschooling/the Jewish classroom for me). There were some that weren't fiction and a few language CDs, but that was it.

How does this make any sense? Educational things are bad? Then why are so many people jumping at the chance to buy Leap Pads and those V-tech educational video game systems? Is educational only considered a happy adjective if the item in question blinks and beeps and make ridiculously obnoxious noises? Why are school-related books bad? Our girls love school. They're out there right now doing some workbooks because they begged to do them. It's not uncommon for them to announce, "Let's do school." Their current favorite books are one about dead fairies, a few about dinosaurs and one about mummies.

I just can't understand why someone would rather buy lots of plastic crap that will be destroyed (or will be used to destroy other things) in a few weeks. Dh and I both adore books. We're forever reading. My MIL has always been proud that dh learned to read early. So why not do everything you can to give that gift to your grandchildren? Education is HUGELY important to both of us. Why would you give them a Polly Pocket who will be naked and headless in a month when you could give them a book that could stay with them for the rest of their lives?

Looking at the kids' wishlist this year, there are lots of educational toys on there. My mother called to tell me she bought bunches of things from their wishlist. While one is educational, all the others are frivolous things. The toys that my kids really want, but many consider "school things" remain largely untouched.

*FTR, I can't stand Barbie dolls and we don't have any. I just used her as an example.

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wishlist

A friend sent me a link that I simply must share.

From Secular Homeschooling Magazine, Issue #1

Here are a few of my favorites:

2 Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts.

3 Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.

4 Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.

5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.

6 Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You're probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you've ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.

8 Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.

10 We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.

12 If my kid's only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.

13 Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky.

14 Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.

16 Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.

18 If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.

20 Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.

24 Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.

Yet another reason to homeschool

AP: Sexual misconduct plagues US schools

There are 3 million public school teachers nationwide, most devoted to their work. Yet the number of abusive educators — nearly three for every school day — speaks to a much larger problem in a system that is stacked against victims.

Most of the abuse never gets reported. Those cases reported often end with no action. Cases investigated sometimes can't be proven, and many abusers have several victims.

And no one — not the schools, not the courts, not the state or federal governments — has found a surefire way to keep molesting teachers out of classrooms.

Those are the findings of an AP investigation in which reporters sought disciplinary records in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The result is an unprecedented national look at the scope of sex offenses by educators — the very definition of breach of trust.....

One report mandated by Congress estimated that as many as 4.5 million students, out of roughly 50 million in American schools, are subject to sexual misconduct by an employee of a school sometime between kindergarten and 12th grade. That figure includes verbal harassment that's sexual in nature.

I Yid it myself.

Fabulous fabulous FABULOUS post over at Jewschool.

I absolutely LOVE the point made. I never really thought of it that way. I lament having to wait for packages of Kosher for Passover matzah shipped from my parents each year. I complain because the military has left us in a place where not only are our fellow Jews few and far between, but some of the goyim is particularly goyish. Dh has always taken issue with the fact that he never had off from school for Rosh Hashanah (I always did when I was in public school). I thought I wanted to send our children to a day school. I didn't. We homeschool. And yes, Judaism is a big part of our school day, but I get the chance to really explain it to them--to their hearts and souls and to answer their questions as per my understanding.

I do tend to march to the beat of my own drum, but I never really thought about how being outside the larger Jewish community really allows that to shine.

So, many thanks are extended for helping me to open my eyes and see things in a new way.

FTR: Yid means Jew and a goy (plural: goyim) is a non-Jew.

Another reason to homeschool

This article is absolutely insane. It's awful what that poor boy is going through. He gets up at 4 or 5 am and stays up doing work until 10? That's crazy. He's a kid. He's in the 5th grade. How the hell is it supposed to help him to be so stressed out? The answer is, obviously, it's not helping him at all nor is it helping his family.

The whole world has gone insane!

The Big Little Book of Jewish Wit and Wisdom weighs in on education

“No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness, and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.” –Emma Goldman

Compliments will get you everywhere.

The other day, dh put the big kids to bed then came out and announced, "Since they're homeschooled, they know the most random things that you wouldn't expect kids their age to know." He then paused and added, "I like that."

Rethinking learning and a great school day

I just finished reading In Their Own Way by Thomas Armstrong, PhD (although the copy I got from my local library is the 1987 edition. This is the 2000 edition. I can't testify to the differences). I LOVE this book. It really focuses on students labeled with learning disabilities (which the author argues don't really exist. His theory is that there are just different types of intelligences and the school systems only teach to two of the seven which leaves all others behind), but there's a wealth of information for all parents--both those who school at home and in the school system. Homeschooling is briefly mentioned, but the focus is on working with a school system. Still, there are many great ideas for teaching to the different types of intelligence.

One thing that's pretty interesting is that the author specifically tells you to avoid filing your child away into one focus. He points out that children may fit the description of one more so than any of the others, but you can most likely find other focuses that fit your child as well.


When reading through the 7 learning styles, I found myself in a number of them. It's an odd sensation to read the descriptions and about one thing, think, "That's me exactly," but in the same topic, there will be something that I never did. For so long, we've been taught, "You're this or that." To hear that we can fall into a number of different categories is very interesting and pretty eye-opening.

The differences in the way my kids learn prompted me to delve more deeply into learning styles. When schooling the older kids, I noticed Girl2 could not figure out most of the answers on a clock worksheet. Yet when we play with the toy clock, she can give accurate answers. I found another sheet that gave the digital time with a blank clock. Rather than writing down the time based on the position of the hands, it gives the time and the student draws the hands. She got nearly all of them right on her own without a meltdown (she's VERY hard on herself and flips out easily).

Oh, oh, oh, that's another great part of the book. I never realized how much the brain shuts down when children are stressed. It tends to be a vicious cycle with Girl2. She works herself up even before she tries. So even if it's something she knows, she'll already be too freaked out to give an answer. So I get annoyed and she then gets more stressed. The book, though, features several simple breathing and visualization exercises to help kids teach themselves to calm down. I've tried breathing exercises with Girl2 in the past, but usually without much luck. I actually tried the visualization with her last night and found that works really well. With her sister, though, not so much.

Inspired by the book, I decided to mix things up a bit today. Instead of just thinking up lists of nouns, verbs or adjectives, we acted some out. First we played a verb charade game where one acted out an activity and we had to guess. We kind of made it up as we went along. When they wanted to add sounds, we did. When they wanted to use their toys as part of the act, we did. Then we acted out nouns. If they acted out or guessed the wrong type, we used that as a chance to review the difference. We even tried to think up the appropriate word that would go with that opposite guess (i.e. if they acted out "Rocking" a baby while we were doing nouns, we talked about how "Mother" would be a noun that would do that action). Then we made up a song about verbs (to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: "I like these action words; singing swinging those are verbs." We changed out the actual verbs every few verses. The kids got to pick which ones we put in the song).

From there, they asked to play the addition card game. I made that one up from Arthur's Tower of Cows game and I've been surprised by how well it works and how much they like it. I only printed the number cards, not the rest of the game. All 3 of us draw cards and flip them over. They range from 1-4 and they have pictures of the number of cows on there, so they work as manipulatives. There are lots of ways to use the cards. The kids tell me which numbers are the greatest and which are the least. They put them in numerical order. They add them up. They add different ones and tell me which sums are the greatest and the least. Today, on their own, they started adding 3 digits. Granted, the numbers are simple, but still, I'm impressed that they can do it and that they WANTED to. A few days after we first played the game, we were all in the car and we randomly asked them to add different numbers. When we asked for 3+3, Girl2 gave us her answer immediately without having to count on her fingers. When we asked about it, she said, "I remember that from the cow game."

During that math game, I noticed the kids were getting hyper, so after playing for a while, I suggested one of the Leap Pad reading DVDs. They're watching that now. I could tell they needed to calm down and I figured that would help.

Some days, homeschooling wears me down. I was so tempted to put them in the school system this year. Some days are just awful. Then we have a day like today and I feel wonderful about homeschooling. It's so neat that I can tailor the day to suit them. We can make up our own games. I can find a different way to approach something if I see them struggling. When they're too revved up to focus, we can either run around to burn off the energy or do something calming to bring them back down. Plus the school day never ends. There's no bell at 3 o'clock, so they never think learning is over. They've asked to "do school" at all hours. I think that's pretty neat.

I'm so glad I found that book. It has given me a whole bunch of ideas for how to teach to the different intelligences. And let me tell ya, it's SO much easier to find what works for their particular focus rather than trying to use what works for me or what's readily available (which actually tends to be one in the same). I think the book is a great resource for any parent and/or teacher. I highly recommend it. I'm having a much better day as a result of reading it. :-)

Pinwheels for peace

We're planning on making these next month: Pinwheels for Peace

Here's how they explain it:

Today’s students are bombarded with television images, video games, and magazine articles/newspapers that give importance to conflict and war. Violence has become commonplace and accepted as part of our society and, for some students, it is a way of life. It is our hope that through the Pinwheels for Peace project, we can help the students make a public visual statement about their feelings about war/ peace/ tolerance/ cooperation/ harmony/ unity and, in some way, maybe, awaken the public and let them know what the next generation is thinking.

This is not political. Peace doesn’t necessarily have to be associated with the conflict of war, it can be related to violence/intolerance in our daily lives, to peace of mind. To each of us, peace can take on a different meaning, but, in the end, it all comes down to a simple definition: a state of calm and serenity, with no anxiety, the absence of violence, freedom from conflict or disagreement among people or groups of people.
--the Project

There are patterns on the website and everything. I think we'll try to recycle some pretty paper of some sort and cover our front yard in pinwheels.