Another part of home schooling I sort of knew about was conventions. I haven't been to any yet. I think they must be sort of like craft fairs. Lots of booths with curriculum face painting and school things to sell. The home school group posted this yesterday. Texas Book Festival. So many interesting topics. I would love to go. Alas, I cannot.
Mr. Father and I were settling in for the night and I was skimming through messages on my phone and thought I would look at the schedule. On Saturday in the Paramount Theatre at 10:00 is...TONY DANZA! Cue the little girl squeals. "Oh why, do I have to work that day? It's so unfair," I tell Mr. Father. He doesn't seem the least bit bothered that I'm talking about Tony Danza in bed. In fact, he is acting like he doesn't even know who Tony Danza is. I go on to explain that he was only the cutest guy on that show Taxi and Who's The Boss when I was growing up. He is one of several reasons I would have moved to a city. Because I might have taken a cab one day and he would have been the driver. Or someone like him. Mr. Father still doesn't care. I say, "But it's Tony Daaaaaaanza." Hmmph.
I had seen an article in a Sunday paper done some in-depth research a few months ago and read how Tony Danza taught in high school for a year and wrote a book about it. I’d Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High. I think it's wonderful that he went and worked as a teacher. The reviews are decent. I hope I get a chance to read this one.
(Amazon photo)
O.k. So where did we leave off? I was reading a book. I'm on page 97 of The How And Why of Home Schooling. It's pretty good. There have been a few spots that are a little leading and probably done to inspire fear. Looking at some data from other web sites, the stats in the book are in line with other sources. I'll move on to the next book soon.
My husband, Mr. Father, got an app today for home schooling. It's called My Home School Monitor. He says, "it's a 5 star app for $.99." He also says it has "everything." That will be his way of tracking and organizing the things he will be teaching. I will keep a record on ancient papyrus while he has the latest techno-gadgetry.
Today I received an email from Homeschool.com. Did I or didn't I want to receive a free manual and links to free videos from superchargedscience? Sure, why not. Having no idea what we're doing for science we might as well look at everything. This could work for us in the beginning. I'll let you know if we come back to it.
I talked with a few more people I know and they seem understanding. I said a lot of things like, "This is what's right for our family for right now." That seems to go over better than saying, "The public school system is going down the toilet." I still have to be very cautious what I say at work, or what Mr. Father says at his work.
I was told to look up a "reading calculator" on Google. I picked one and typed in word for word the book Beauty is reading in school. It analyzed it and revealed it has easy readability. For the grade level it said....7th grade. That's fantastic! I'm not sure if this info is trustworthy. Beauty's school says she's reading on a C level which is the bottom for 1st grade. Which of these should I believe?
Mr. Father was asked by Mrs. Mother (me) to do a sort of review of tablets, ipads, Kindles, and the new ipad mini(?). The public school has started using Ipads. The time is limited and I'm not sure what they are using to clean them between uses. Cootie-germ fest! At home, Beauty has been using an Itouch for several years, a netbook and PC. I'd like her to either get the Ipad or the Ipad mini. Update sometime in November.
My big progress for today was asking to join a local home schooling Yahoo group. We got accepted and now we can begin to meet other local kids and families. This group so far likes to meet at the local library and the park, except the other day where they met at the glass spinning factory. That sounds very neat! Exactly the kind of adventure I think Beauty should try.
I believe tomorrow I'll be ready to dive in and navigate around one of the important web sites I'll need. The Texas Home School Coalition.
I've completed the first book and have moved on to this one. I'm not particularly happy with the picture but that's what Amazon is showing. Do not click to look inside!
It's not that I feel savvy and have picked the right books, that I am telling you about them. I'm posting books I seem to have bought somewhere and thought they would be helpful. Happily they have been helpful.
Along the path of trying to justify homeschooling to myself, I will have to justify it to others. This is where reasoning is important. If I can't convince myself, I can't convince others. This is what I'm looking for in these books. So when people ask, "Why in tarnation would you want to homeschool?" I can spout off a hundredy-thousand statistics about how homeschoolers do better on tests, are higher developed in all areas of life, and the public school system has essentially been around for less than 2 hundred years.
I will need this arsenal of information to go into battle, as it were, and pivot through a debate successfully. I'm finding friends on my side are supportive, hesitant, and in some cases obstinate. So faithfully has the public school model worked on them.
At this point Beauty is still enrolled in public school. She's receiving the statistical average of 7 minutes of individual attention per day in her class. We haven't even gotten to the hard parts. Withdrawing her from school and then actually telling everyone we did. I believe we shall reap a whirlwind. Forget talking about curriculum! No, really, the choice is about 95% made and I don't want to risk being talked out of it. I'll reveal my choice when I receive it in it's glorious brown box from UPS. (Please don't hold your breath, it's not being ordered till December.)
I distinctly remember going to Half Price Books and buying a book about home schooling. When I got home I put it up on a shelf and it sat. And sat. And sat. I pulled the book down last week and also found I had 2 other home school books stashed on the book shelf. I blew the dust off and coughed and sneezed.
(amazon.com)
I am now on page 93. There's lots of good information and some where I may have dozed off because being immersed in the legislative process does not appeal to me, though I know it's a necessary part of the "machine" of home schooling. Don't jump on me just yet for calling it a machine. I'm new, remember?
What bothers me most is the picture. I'm sure that was a great family photo in 1996, but there's nothing that could scare me away from home schooling more than seeing photos of people who qualify to be the Stepford Wives of home schooling.
If I home school is that what I'll become? I don't think I'm alone in fearing that mental image. Thankfully, every home school mom I know doesn't come close to that image. With home school's increasing popularity there's quite a few moms and dads from which to gather an opinion of what I'll be like.
(Google Images)
Here's another picture that some imaginations will associate with home schooling. A cult-like organization where you get to wear homemade clothes. So far I only know one home school family that looks similar to this, but only similar not exactly like this. I have yet to meet the home school co-op, though. I'm sure this is where any weirdness will be found.
(google images)
Here's a last picture for today. I think it pretty much sums it all up. Yes we will sleep later. In public school Beauty has to get up at 6 a.m. We will be pushing that back to 7:30 a.m. Beauty will dress in costume if she wants. She already knows that 1+1=2. Beauty loves to cook! Beauty will ride a roller coaster, as her reward for finishing and passing the first grade. My book shelves don't resemble the picture above, yet.
I'm still fighting this cold but feeling better. I'll finish reading the book I listed above and let you know anything pertinent. I'll introduce 2 websites that will be crucial for this family.
I'm laying here feeling all plague-y with a cold. In the interim I haven't forgotten about this blog, just didn't know quite what to do with it. Today it has occurred.
For the past, oh eight years or so, we have toyed with the notion of homeschooling. This was even before Beauty was born. It was a lovely notion. A dream that for all its good intentions refused to take flight.
Beauty was born and we knew we still had 5 years before worrying too much about school. Then it was four and then three, then two. At this point we were given preschool on a silver platter. We said, "Well, it's just preschool for a couple of years." Beauty is now in first grade.
After having 3 years of public school we know that something is not fitting right. It may be that Beauty's teacher has a resume of teaching 42 years. Did you ever think it might be a good idea if your first grader knew CPR? I mean honestly, retire lady!
Beauty isn't the best reader, but neither is she the worst. We have a real problem with hearing how she can't read, yet has read us Dr. Seuss the night before. That seems kind of conflicting. Is this what they tell Beauty? She's even going to start going to a reading tutorial. The name of it sounds an awful lot like dyslexia. Do they think she's dyslexic? I can tell you she isn't.
Then there's the other problems. I know we are all partial to not seeing the faults of our kids, but come on. Have you seen the way these kids act? I feel like we're sending her off to the insane asylum. Or training ground for future prison inmates.
After much thought and prayer, my husband and I have decided that it is time. We are now able to juggle schedules, etc. to make this work. We are letting her finish the semester in order for us to have time to research legality issues, home school groups, and curriculum choices.
What a feeling of freedom! Once we made the choice, suddenly there seem to be no boundaries to the size of Beauty's classroom. No longer will we be hemmed in by the school calendar. We can take a vacation, or not, any time we want. If we want to go on a field trip, we will go on a field trip. We won't even sign a permission slip. Best of all, no more fundraisers. Ever. We are getting rid of all the worst aspects and retaining the best.
So now I've decided that this blog will be this journey. I'll post books I've read and steps I'm taking. I will put the joys, sorrows, and frustrations. Sure it's another homeschooling/who knows what else blog, but from a newbie's perspective. Everyone buckled in? I'm sure this is going to be quite a ride.
