Almost Done With the Year!
Saturday, April 30, 2008

I'm really excited. Working with CAVA was a new experience. Initially, I felt very pressured to complete everything. I interpreted my own limitations as being the limitations of the K12 program. I'm really glad I was wrong. I no longer do all of the K12 busy work. Instead, I give Reina an assessment. If she passes with 80% or better, we move on. If not, we go back to the busy work. This assures she knows all the material without having to bore her with unnecessary "paperwork."

It seems we've finally found our groove. Following a sort of schooling and unschooling balance works well for us. Flexibility is heaven! All of my views of what education should be come back to flexibility. The learning styles, interests and inclinations of the student comes first. These views have served my kids beautifully.



Really A Blog...
Saturday, April 28, 2008

I suppose for this to really be a blog, it has to be written in. ;)  ok ok I'm trying. There is so much to do. In my opinion, homeschooling parents are heroes. It would be so much easier to stick the kids in school, but not half as much fun.

I understand that not everyone can manage a single income family or working from home. So to the parents who physically can't homeschool, there are no judgements here. Hopefully we all just do the best we can. I consider myself lucky and quite blessed to have the luxury of the option to homeschool.

I never wanted to be an educator, just a good parent. Some how as a kid, I separated the two. Since I was 10 years old, I planned for the day I'd become a mother and all the things I'd want to do "right" unlike my parents. The pages of my journals are filled with notes on the matter, as well as all of my wildest out-of-context emotions. So all things considered, I HAVE been plotting and strategizing being some sort of educator for about 20 years.

At this point, I understand that being a parent is being a teacher with a longer job description and a 168 hour work week. I love it. And I love teaching and schooling (or unschooling as the case may sometimes be). These days my journals are filled with grand plans of opening a large school someday, bringing with it the versatility and freedom of homeschooling. Pipe dreams? Who knows!



Are My Kids Crazy?
Saturday, April 12, 2008

Sometimes it really feels that way. Like tonight for example. Its a warm California evening. Today's late Spring air felt more like Summer than anything else. All of our windows are open in our high-in-the-sky Silicon Valley apartment. I'm sure the pre-bedtime giggles are ringing out across the apartment village through the courtyards and walk ways. But lets get to the crazy part.

Tonight my daughter went to sleep without her teddy bear or plush kangaroo... no, she chose to snuggle in for her Saturnight slumber with a disembodied arm. Yup. An arm. We were making dolls this week. Jayce's doll was finished today, but Reina's is larger and she was stuffing it herself, so it took a bit longer. Since the doll wasn't done, when we were cleaning up, she ran off with a stuffed, sewn up arm. She's been playing with it and hugging it all afternoon. And now I've just tucked her in to bed with it laying next to her, hand resting beside her on her pillow, blankets tucked snuggly around it's wrist. Is she crazy?  Ok, I'm kidding. She isn't crazy, she's a kid. But random things like this make me wonder if I'm crazy sometimes. Just like I feel when they've been put to bed and I've been called back in there 4 times in the last 2 paragraphs. But that's kids right? :)

I love 'em. They definitely keep things interesting. And this disembodied arm doll has been such an entertaining toy, maybe I should consider having them mass produced. Kids are like cats. You can get them the most expensive things only to find them playing with a ball of aluminum foil or a disembodied arm.

Good night!