School in July!? Now, I am not what you would call a hard core home scholar. I do not have chore charts hanging on the wall, my kids don’t wear uniforms, and I don’t blow a whistle while my children sit in clean little school desks during a tightly scheduled day. So, when I hear other home scholars say, “we are doing school right through the summer!” I barf a little in my mouth. I’m usually the last mom sitting out on a rock in the park waiting for the leaves to actually turn color and frost to coat my hair before I will succumb to taking my kids inside and cracking a school book. But last winter, my kids petitioned me to consider letting them do some school during the unbearably hot days of summer so they could enjoy more vacation time in the cooler months. This, I am thinking is not such a bad idea after all

in light of the fact that this July has been the hottest July in the history of the universe. This took a little planning on my part, as I had to make sure I didn’t put off ordering our curriculum and got the school room organized for another year two whole months ahead of time. Heck, while I’m ahead, I decided to make my Christmas card list while I was at it. Those might actually make it to the mail box this year! While the grass roasts to a crispy yellow in the back yard all by itself, we have been in the nice air conditioned school room, happily doing arithmetic and spelling, waiting for things to cool off, and when they do, we’ll cancel school so that we can run outside and enjoy the nice weather. Funny, I have always been resistant to a year round school year, but my kids showed me a better way, just like they usually do.

Happy Fourth of July

" "Well, so here we are today," the man went on. "Every man Jack of us a free and independent citizen of God's country, the only country on earth where a man is free and independent. Today's the Fourth of July, when this whole thing was started, and it ought to have a bigger, better clelbration than this. We can't do much this year. Most of us are out here trying to pull ourselves up by our own boot straps. By next year, likely some of us will be better off, and able to chip in for a real big rousing celebration of Independence Day. Meantime, here we are. It's Fourth of July, and on this day somebody's got to read the Declaration of Independence. It looks like I'm elected, so hold your hats, boys; I'm going to read it." Laura and Carrie knew the Declaration by heart, of course, but it gave them a solemn, glorious feeling to hear the words. They took hold of hands and stood listening in the solemnly listening crowd. The Stars and Stripes were fluttering bright against the thin, clear blue overhead, and their minds were saying the words before their ears heard them. "When in the course of human events it becomes neccessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impell them to the seperation. "We hold these truths to be self'evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that amond these are Life, Liberty and the persuit of Happiness... "We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, "That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full right to levy War... "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." No one cheered. It was more like a moment to say, "Amen." But no one quite knew what to do. Then Pa began to sing. All at once everyone was singing, My country, 'tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing..." Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little Town on the Prarie from the chapter Fourth of July.

Natural Playgrounds

I was happy to discover an article today confirming, yet again, that I have been right all along. Ever since I had my children, I have been integrating my garden to include child friendly spaces where my children can enjoy being in nature. I have always felt it was important for them to spend unstructured time enjoying plants and letting them make up games and toys the natural way. Just today I read an article in Energy Times (June 2012) stating that since “the average child in the US spends four to seven minutes in unstructured outdoor play a day-compared with more than seven hours in front of TV, computer and other screens”… “Parents and community leaders are building natural playgrounds with free form designs that incorporate plant material and other natural elements.”It also stated that researchers are finding that children grow bored less easily in a natural environment than they do on artificial play equipment. I find this to be true as well. Thanks to my parents, who allowed me total access to our beautiful gardens as a child, I have always known this. I am happy to hear the rest of America is finally catching on. I’m sure the “experts” will turn this into an expensive endeavor where the help and advice of other “experts” must be brought into the conversation, and parents must have their gardens mapped out for them by professional designers. I think our grandparents called it “wandering in the woods” and it used to be FREE! You can use your own God given instincts and have fun discovering what suits you and your family. Here are a few guidelines I have followed in the past. *Think ahead. Plan what areas you want for your adult space and decide what areas are OK for the kids to have control over. We don’t use fertilizers or pesticides in our back yard since we hate them anyway, but especially since our kids will be coming into contact with the plants and soil. You may want to refrain from using poisonous plants if you have very young children especially. *Remember that kids are messy and creative. Allow them an area they can dig or build in without making you feel stressed out. Make that area pleasant for them to be in by planting large colorful flowers nearby or providing a shade tree with boughs that scoop close to the ground providing a natural play house, climbing area or cave, and giving protection from summer’s heat. *Forego the sand box for a mud pit. Have you ever noticed that the only person who consistently uses the sand box is the neighbor’s cat? Kids would rather play in the mud. It holds its shape better. And if you happen to have clay soil, you are especially lucky. Just leave an area unplanted. If you don’t like how it looks, plant tall flowers in front of it as a screen. *Inter mingle flowers with vegetables. Flowers provide hours of enjoyment as your child studies them and uses them in their play while at the same time, who knows? Your kid might just pull up a carrot and start eating it! *Don’t worry about things looking perfect. I go ahead and let weeds grow sometimes. Heck, I’m busy washing all that mud out of their clothes! I’ll tidy things up more when they grow up and leave me all alone in this big old house. The important thing is to get enjoyment out of your garden. *If you live in a limited space, I encourage you to make the best of what you have. It might be worth your effort to get together with some others in your community to develop a shared natural space for all of your children to enjoy together. If you don’t know where to start, look up your local community garden and get involved with your kids in tow. You will notice right away that they will trail off in happy ecstasy as they discover interesting bugs or tasty berries. *Allow your garden to evolve. One of the fun things about having a garden is that you can sort of let your new ideas take shape every year. Each year can be different and fresh. That makes it hard to really make a mistake. Your variety of plants can start out very small. Maybe a few sun flowers and a strawberry plant. As your enthusiasm grows, so will your plant collection. It won’t take long for your children to catch on and find their own favorite plants to grow. I hope this article encourages you and your children to get outdoors and enjoy a garden, the very surrounding God gave man to begin with.

Simple Summer Fun With so much on my to do list this summer, I realized I need to help the boys find stimulating activities they can do on their own. Here are a few of the ideas I have used so far, Back yard camping! They really loved this one and it kept them occupied for several days. Just remember to put the tent up on the patio if you have sprinklers that come on at night! We used our tiny two man tent that is a snap to set up and small enough for the boys to handle on their own. Art, art and more art. I don’t know about your kids, but mine never get enough art in during the school year when math and English are priorities. I find the best way to do this while retaining sanity is to set up work stations outdoors and make sure it is cleaned up before a different art project is started. A kid can have hours of fun with an inexpensive water color set and a sketch book. Nature offers unlimited inspiration. I also give them those knitting looms and left over yarn. They go to town. Check my craft page for more ideas here. Good books. Mechanism was sent a set of Madeleine L’engle books from his grandma and Texas has finally gotten into the Magic Tree House series. I try to instigate a quiet reading hour sometime in the afternoon each day. Re-organizing. In the summer I let my boys re-organize their rooms. This year they decided to have their own rooms again so they have a lot of work to do. Don’t forget the obvious fun with a hose! Although I try to watch the water bill so we only use this option from time to time.

School ended last Wednesday, but I feel like I am finally landing on my feet today, a week and a day later. We have had a major project every day leading up until now. First it was ripping out some old fencing on Thursday, loading the truck with all of it on Friday, baking pies for Mechanism’s birthday party on Saturday, Sunday was the party; a lot of fun but left me exhausted, and Monday was a marathon with the vending machine business. Tuesday was Mechanism’s actual birthday and we got in some relaxing family time and Wednesday it was back to the vending machines again and shopping. This morning I sit here reflecting on the day ahead. The garden is washed and new smelling from last night’s rain. The robins are twittering and I can smell the chicken broth stewing in the crock pot. There will be no school today, or tomorrow, or the next day. I can hear wrestling in the room next door. As the sun streams in my school room window, it falls on the collection of books and miscellaneous items piled high on my desk. School ended just in time. Another week and this room would have exploded. I would like to paint, but probably a good, deep cleaning is all I’ll get around to before I order more curriculum and we start another school year all over again. There are too many treasure hunts to go on, gardens to weed and books to read. Summer time for me, a home school mom, is a time I look forward to every year with as much anticipation as when I was a school girl. I don’t mind my kids being around because they are always around me anyway. I am relieved however to let them run and jump and do as they please most of the time. It takes a lot of self control to keep them focused on school during the fall and winter and to be able to focus on my own projects is a big release. This summer I have so many piled up in my mind, I don’t know where to start. And then there are the fun adventures we’d like to go on, and mostly, the days we’d like to spend doing nothing at all. Today feels like one of those days.

Our last Robotics Meeting

Wednesday was our last club meeting. All the students ended up with some form of a working robotic arm, powered by syringes and tubing filled with air or water. Most of them picked up an object and some of them even would move the object to a new location. It was really fun to watch them work successfully. Some of the kids built a kind of hand or squeezing mechanism at the end of their arm. One boy used an electromagnet to pick up a staple and drop it off. All gave a presentation of their project, and learned from eachother. Everyone got a big, blue ribbon and a decadent chocolate cup cake.

School day # 166

Today is day 166 out of 172 (the “legal” number of) days we have set aside for school. We are itching, twitching, poking, and giggling. We are cramming to finish all our books and take the last of the last tests. To measure how far we’ve come and where and when we should pick up in the fall. It is probably good that there are laws and standards for home scholars. Citizens must be accountable. I am also glad I live in one of the states with fairly minimal governmental controls. I can’t help wishing we had fewer, or somehow I could just not care so much about them. I meticulously record each hour spent doing school just in case the state should ask for my records. Those standardized tests hang over my head like judgment day looming. I can’t help but think how our school would be different if I didn’t think so much about those tests. I like to see high tests scores. We get a little wrapped up in it. But what if there weren’t numbers to look at. What if we just looked at the people? What if I wasn’t so afraid of the government’s judgment of my children’s academic accomplishments? I think my school would be different in a few ways. We probably would never need to take summer vacation. We would learn and live at a more relaxed pace. We’d have less school books and read more. We would do more hands on projects. We would cook and exercise more. Life would be pleasanter. Would my children receive the education they needed to succeed? What would happen if everyone had the freedom to be themselves all the time? Would there be more or less educated people? Making grades helps our children prepare for college I suppose. But then what? Last week the news reported that about 50% of new college graduates cannot find work right now. What if they had learned more life skills and less book knowledge? Would they be starting businesses instead of moving in with Mom and Dad and flipping burgers? Would some of them be too busy inventing new technology to go to college? Self discipline is good. Learning is good. Having high expectations of your self is good. Making sure all children all know the same certain facts at the same time is...organized. Is it really good? It is manageable if you have large volumes of children surging through your school every single year. Should home scholars be held to the same constraints? Is there a way to do things differently inside of an actual school? If the government didn’t force us to educate our children a certain way would our society fall apart or get better? What percentage of people would go on a crime spree and what percentage would live happily and successfully on their own inspiration? Are there so many lazy, dull, illiterate people because they have always been forced into learning, or are they predestined to be that way? For now these questions will have to wait. I’m too busy making my children finish their worksheets. Maybe I will be re-thinking my school this summer. I don’t have the answers, but I think we should all be asking these questions, and working to find better ways to educate our children and to help them find a future.