Thursday, September 23, 2010

I'm Risking Miss Pirate's Life

...at least, I'm risking it according to HER.  Miss Pirate informed her Gramu (Miss Pirate is nothing if not "funetik") that her Mama was risking her life and she shouldn't be doing that.  Apparently, every time Miss Pirate is sent to her room for an attitude adjustment, she gets so mad she wants to jump out the window, but she cannot because the ground is too hard where she would land, and so Mama should buy Miss Pirate a trampoline to land in and stop risking her little girl's life.   I am only surprised she didn't hit up Gramu for the trampoline...

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

A Few of the Reasons Why We Homeschool

We homeschool for a  number of reasons.  The problem when telling anyone who asks exactly what those reasons are is that they are inevitably offended by one or more of them. 

But here goes...

I want more of GOD in my children's lives than they will get in public school.  Public schools are not friendly to the very idea of God, no matter whose, but they are particularly unfriendly to Christianity.  This is my opinion, based on personal experience as a product of the public schools, and as a professional teaching in them.  You don't have to agree.   I am not attacking anyone else's decision to send their children to school.  I don't think that makes you a bad parent.  God gave you YOUR children to raise as you see fit.  He gave me MINE to raise as I see fit.  I'm not insulted by your decisions.  If you ARE insulted by mine, perhaps you need to examine why you feel that way.

I want a better education for my children than they can get in public schools - by that, I mean one that is tailored to their particular learning styles, that does not waste years of time in pointless repetition and mindless regurgitation.  It is not my experience that public schools teach children how to think.  They are taught to accept what they are told as fact without testing or researching for themselves.  Independent thought is only rarely encouraged.  More often, it is actively discouraged.  This is a function of the teacher:student ratio, not a slam on teachers' abilities or intent.  No teacher will ever tell you that s/he can teach more to a larger group than to a smaller one.  Certain behaviors and questions and rabbit trails simply cannot be tolerated in larger classes, or the learning objectives will not be met.  My class has a 1:2 ratio.  We have time for more than anyone in a 1:30 class ratio ever will. 

About those learning objectives... every lesson needs them, but it is not the duty of the state to define them.  My children are individuals, growing and learning at their own pace, not to be frustrated by goals either too easy or too difficult for their particular stage of development.  My children are not to be defined by their age in years, but rather by their maturity of mind and body and spirit.

I want my children to have the opportunity to BE children - to go outside and play EVERY day, to develop their imaginations, to tell stories and act them out, to investigate whatever interests them at that moment (yes, even if it means scouring the neighborhood for worms and toads and snakes, Miss L). 

I DON'T want my children's interests in ANYTHING to be discouraged.  That means if my youngest daughter wants to be a herpetologist, she doesn't have 15 other little girls telling her "Only boys do that!" and "That's icky!)

There are other reasons, but those are the ones that come to mind right now...

Xa Lynn

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

What Bothers Me

It has bothered me for some time that the same people who insist that everything in the Bible should be interpreted literally have this penchant for insisting that Jesus turned the water into non-alcoholic grape juice at the wedding in Cana.  Excuse me?  The Book says WINE.  If you are going to tell me that God created the universe in six 24-hour days, then at least avoid the hypocrisy of changing the definition of "wine" to suit your personal preferences.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Archer takes out homcidal tree

Yes, that time of year has rolled around again.  I haven't drawn my bow in two years, but El Jefe thought it would be fun to take the girls to the range where we could ALL practice.  Miss Pirate was mad when her arrow bounced off the target (at least she HIT the target!), the Princess had a meltdown when she lost an arrow OVER the target (we recovered it - but the foreshadowing of the emotional hissy fits of puberty was frightening).   And I, well... I managed to murder a tree.  El Jefe said I should tell everyone the tree had ripped itself from the forest floor and was chasing us down to kill us all, when I spun around and put an arrow in its heart.  In reality, it's been two years, and I've had Lasik and no longer wear glasses, and I just plain forgot to use the peep sight with my right eye, instead lining up the target, the pin, and my left eye - resulting in a hit accurate on the vertical plane, but four feet to the left on the horizontal, impaling a tree with a diameter barely twice that of my arrow shaft.  We took pics on El Jefe's phone to prove it.  I'll have to figure out how to download and post them here...

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Changeling Child

Miss Pirate has been stolen by fairies and replaced with a changeling that does not whine, even about homeschool.  I have no idea what to do about this (besides rejoicing!).  The Princess is mildly annoyed and wants her lullaby ten minutes ago, so I will be going now...

OPSEC

Xa Lynn isn't my real name, but those of you who know me will understand.  Rule #3 is "Nothing is secure" and that includes info on the internet.  Therefore, all the names in this blog are amusing (to me) ripoffs or nicknames.  This paragraph is a test.  Let's see how well this blog works... what do you know, it actually did!