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The Crafty Crow: A Children's Craft Collective

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Random Blurbs

I wish I could make this blogging thing more of a priority, but alas, it is just not so. So, I'm here with some random blurbiness. :)

- I picked up my progressive lens glasses this evening. LOVE them. But, you know, when James overheard me say that I was getting bifocals, my sweet boy said, with a mischievous grin, "Mom? Bifocals? Are you getting old?" Love you, too, kiddo. *lol*

- I've read a couple of interesting articles on homeschooling today: a very positive Op-Ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, and a curious piece by Sonny Scott, entitled "Home-schoolers Threaten Our Cultural Comfort". I'm sure there are some truths in the latter article, but I assure you that it doesn't describe most of the homeschooling families I know. And frankly, I am dismayed to be defended in this manner. I mean, aside from the obvious fact that I don't wear homemade dresses (or anything else that's homemade), I think I must disagree that a "concern for a theistic world view largely permeates the movement." Or maybe I'm just fortunate enough that I have met many homeschooling families here who are not at all like the family that Mr. Scott describes in his article; most here seem to homeschool for secular reasons, even if they do actually believe in God/attend church/etc. This article, thought? It's quite a lot too 'in your face' to help "the movement", and even I find the whole thing rather put-offish. I wear pants, I drive a minivan (with an integrated DVD player - which we use, and not only for education shows), we have a Wii (and a Playstation) which we play on our large, wide-screen TV, my kids have toys,... Though I wouldn't mind if my kids were well-behaved. That'd be pretty handy.

- I'm still struggling with how it is that I want our 'school' days to look. I think part of the problem is that we are still viewing it as school - as separate from everything else - and that's not really what I want. I want it to be this sort of natural thing where learning is good and fun, and where it happens without some sort of arbitrary time line and list of topics to study. Except that I have these text books, and it seems rather contrary to use them, and still try to accomplish what it is that I seek.

- We finally signed up for a pest control service - too many ants and earwigs and centipedes, I thought. Imagine my surprise when the gentlemen who came here explained that he found evidence of LOTS of black widows - in and near our grill, our retaining wall, our enclosed side courtyard, and all around the play area. Awesome. After hearing that, ants don't seem so bad, really.

- Aside from my glasses (love 'em - did I say that?), we also bought the following at Costco: Presidents (James and Molly argued over who got to read this first), Universe (which you should buy at Costco; it's half the amazon price), 501 Science Experiments, and a "Bridgie book", a Fisher-Price preschool jumbo floor pad (like a really big workbook), which will probably become an expensive scribble pad, I bet. Oh, and the DVD, Earth - The Biography. Thankfully, I also remembered to get bananas, which were actually the only item on my 'list'.

- Raccoons: We have them visit every night - a mom and her two nearly grown babies - when I put out a bit of food for the local stray (and feral) cat I feed. Lately, they've been a bit more brazen - they don't run off unless I physically step outside and shoo 'em away (if I see them, I remove the food). And also lately, one of them - the mom, I think - has been GROWLING at me. Dude, that is so not cool. I'd like to relocate them somewhere very far from my house, because they are only cute until they growl. Ya know?

It's Tuesday, FWIW.

I want to say a hearty and sincere 'thank you' to those of you who posted comments or sent notes of condolence about DJ. It's hard to believe she's gone - I guess I thought my sister might change her mind at the last minute, but she didn't. Not that I think she should have, only that it was so very hard for her to make the decision, and even she wasn't sure she could go through with it. My mom is handling it fairly well, but I pretty much lost it when she said, "She's at peace now." Because how did my puppy turn into an old lady? As I get older, though, it seems these reminders of our mortality keep coming ever more frequently, and I suppose that's normal, but it still stinks.

* * *

I've been having a sort of blog-identity crisis. Is this a homeschool blog? Is it just a catch-up blog with a few of my pals? Is it a place for me to talk about pictures I've taken? Is it a place for me to write - for the sake of writing, even? Something else altogether?

Well, don't look here for an answer, 'cause I don't know either! Maybe it'll stay a mixture of all of the above, or maybe the focus will naturally whittle down to something more specific. For now, I'll just give fair warning that it's a little o' this and that, and hope the rest works out okay. Maybe I'll add headings, because of course, I can be that organized, if I try. Like that little train, right? Heh.

* * *

HOMESCHOOL

Although I missed the specific session at the Expo, I have been intrigued by the notion of doing a version of "Hogwarts Homeschooling". I was sure that James wouldn't be at all interested (since he "hated" the first HP, refusing even to read any of the other HP books), and that it would only be appealing to Molly (who lurves HP). No matter, right? He can do his own thing, and Molly and I will have fun with this. Except, when I started reading the first HP to Molly recently, James was as captivated as Molly. He's even been taking the book and reading it again - I guess a year will change things, sometimes. Anyway, so I've been looking at all of the various HP/Hogwarts items available (there are plenty), and I hope we'll be ready to get started next week, when school officially starts for us.

"I am not a Muggle."

Speaking of school, though, I am feeling more and more compelled to withdraw from our charter and file an R-4 affidavit with the CA DOE. Basically, it is a declaration that we are our own private school, without any affiliation with any other school, such as the charter where the kids are currently enrolled. The drawback is that we lose the ability to join the school on organized field trips and enrichment classes, plus other options, like the LEGO Robotics team here. Steve isn't ready to take that step, but... I am. Since we can do it later in the year, I'll just keep it as an open option for us, if/when we choose to go down that path.

ETC.

It's too late to add more, but I am planning to share a few pictures of our not-really-new-anymore kitten, who is still freakin' adorable, especially when he runs through the house with his little kitten growl. Like he's fierce. :)

Saying good-bye.

DJ

October 28, 1991 - August 9, 2008

I first met DJ on December 21, 1991 - she was, technically, a Christmas gift to me, but I picked her out of a litter of 11 pups. And my gosh, but she was cute - a bundle of 8-week old, lab/golden retriever love. She was with me, and then Steve and I, until James was about 6 months old, but because she wasn't always aware when baby James was on the floor, she went to live with my sister. By then, she was almost 9 years old, and she and I had spent so much time together, playing frisbee, going for walks, playing frisbee, snuggling in my bed, and often, playing frisbee. Her frisbee of choice was an aerobie - that thing could go far and fast, and she - she could catch it.

DJ stayed with my sister from the summer of 2000, until Christmas, 2006, when she moved in with my mom into her new home across the street from my sis. So, she was never far away, and she still lived in the family. By then, she'd been diagnosed with a collapsing trachea, so her frisbee days had been over for a few years already.

All along, DJ's beautiful golden color slowly turned white, and she developed lots and lots of cysts. They didn't seem to bother her, so sis left them alone.


About eight months ago, DJ fell down the stairs in my mom's home, and ever since then, my mom slept with her downstairs - mom on the couch, and DJ on her doggie bed on the floor. These last few months have seen DJ go from a rickety but lively dog, to one who stares at nothing - at the walls, at memories long gone - who knows? Two months ago, mom had to stop feeding her dry food - DJ could no longer chew anything but the softest things. Her vision and hearing have been going, going, gone for months, and yet she hated to be left alone - somehow, she knew, and she'd moan a most pitiful sound until someone returned to her side. Last week, on her morning walk (about the length of ten cars), her rear legs buckled, and it took all of mom's strength to help get her up and walking again. Most recently, she's become completely incontinent, and she sleeps nearly all day, so keeping her clean is difficult at best.

A few days ago, my mom finally told my sister that it's time. Until then, mom insisted that she (DJ) wasn't ready, but last weekend, something changed. My sister said tonight, that mom is her moral guide - she's got the tenderest heart - and mom told my sis that she felt that DJ was in pain nearly all the time, but with no other way to tell us except for these low, pitiful moans.

And so, in a few hours - seven, as I type this - a mobile vet will come and ease DJ's transition from pain to...to...I don't know. The rainbow bridge? I don't know, but it's a nice thought. I wish desperately that I could be there, but it just hasn't been possible. But in any event, DJ was my first "baby", and nearly seventeen years ago, I had no idea that a golden little pup would leave such a lasting mark on our family.

My gosh, I'm sad. She's been alive for nearly half of my life, and we have so many memories with her - I used to take her with me to our family reunions, and my dad called her the first grandbaby. :) DJ and Polo were best buddies, once upon a time. And in seven short hours, yet another connection to that part of my past, will be gone.

She'll be buried in the middle of a 350-acre farm, under a small stone that will simply announce, "Here lies a friend."



Indeed.

A milestone for me - in two words:

Progressive lenses.

I [heart] the UPS guy...

I should add that I love my hubby, too. He's the one who said to get it. :)

What's happening to me?

A year and a half ago, I wasn't even close to where I am now. Sure, that's true in a geographical sense, but I don't even think my old self would recognize the new one. Not even a little bit.

A year and a half ago, we'd just received an offer on our house, so we knew our time in Florida was officially short. In that time, I worried and fretted over many things, among which were the quality of the schools in the district to which we were moving. On paper, they looked ...okay, but not great - not at all great like the public school my children were attending then. In fact, the poor(er) quality of schools was one of the reasons who opted to move an hour away from where my husband works, just so we could escape the overcrowded classrooms there. By comparison, the schools in our soon-to-be new-to-us district became the best of options that were, in my opinion, not good enough, especially compared to our beloved FL elementary school.

Indeed, I was right - I was profoundly disappointed with so many things: overcrowding, poor resources, the loss of dedicated music, art and computer teachers each of whom had state-of-the-art classrooms and supplies, less-than-impressive security measures, a playground that was too large for adequate supervision, a kindergarten that seemed more like Molly's preschool... and test performance that was, compared to other CA districts, not very impressive. I didn't even like their books, and the classrooms (which are about 20 years older, mind you) were dingy and dreary in comparison to the brightly lit and decorated classes at "our old school".

Eventually, I began to dread taking them there - that's how much I began to dislike the place. And then other things started happening, each of which forced me to feel ever more strongly about THAT school. But the culminating moment for me, when all these doubts swirling around began to gel into a most horrible thought, was when a friend - and former teacher in the same school system (who left the schools and went to teach at a prison) - said to me one day, "If you care about your kids and their education, you'll pull them out of _____ School and homeschool them."

Yes, that is the horrible thought that I'd been compelled to consider. It seemed to be a rather draconian reaction, even, and one I considered with some sense of resignation and even despair, as well as a bit of grieving for the many things we had (already) had to give up before we got to this point.

The first day of "school" last year was a bit of a non-event, but I took the advice of some of the 'experts' at our charter, and set out ground rules, and did other things that, essentially, were intended to create a "school at home" atmosphere. By then, I'd read enough that I had considerable disdain for the more radical types of homeschooling, most specifically unschooling, which I equated with unparenting. I know I wasn't alone - this is often how it's portrayed in the mainstream media, too.

In retrospect, I can say that for most of that (school) year, I was still mourning our move and what it had done to the landscape of my days - instead of having several hours each day to re-energize my very introverted self, I was forced to give up my 'me' time and spend it all with monsters my children, who, by the way, were also still grieving for their former home, school, teachers, friends, and way of life.

I suppose I had a typical first year of homeschooling - I changed directions, curricula, tactics, schedules, and whatever else applies, so many times that we were just treading water, and only barely. It wasn't until around March of this year, that things really began to change. I gave up trying to "save" that school year, and realized that I needed to focus my energy on changing and preparing for what was to come next.

Along the way, I'd found a couple of really valuable homeschooling groups, and eventually blogs, that began to make me really think about homeschooling, and I began to realize that, somehow, I'd not only accepted our "fate" (ha!) but I'd started to embrace it and even become protective of it - so much that, when my husband recently mentioned finding a better school district, my first thought wasn't "Hooray!", but, "Why?".

That's when I knew something was up. I began to 'hear' my local homeschooling friends talk about their own approaches, and more importantly, I began to read between the lines. When I mentioned to one mom that I'd been advised to double-check the state standards to make sure we were in compliance, she just sort of casually shrugged and said, "Yeah, and how's that going for ya?" She didn't mean to be rude to me, she was just acknowledging that the standards are pretty arbitrary and, um, useless.

So anyway, this weekend, I spent two and a half lovely and inspiring days at a homeschooling conference. I learned a lot from the speakers and workshops (well, most of them - a couple were duds), but what I came away with - what has been most valuable to me - is what I learned about myself.

I've become one of them.

There, I said it.

What I mean is, I've become one of those who sees the problems with canned curricula, with across-the-board expectations, with "one size fits all" education systems that often don't inspire, but instead quash a child's enthusiasm for learning. That's not to say that I don't see value in public school systems, but rather, that I see how hard it must be to educate adequately all the children in our classrooms and schools. I know there are teachers who do it - who are able to differentiate and accommodate the various learning styles and needs of their students, but the 'system' is rife with problems. More importantly to me - for my children, anyway - I have seen first-hand how a curriculum may serve one child well, but not another. If that can be the case for my two older children, then surely it could prove problematic for many children in one class taught by one dedicated but exhausted teacher.

The sessions that were most meaningful to me were those led by Tammy Takahashi, an unradical unschooler whose excellent and insightful commentary made me turn to my friend (also an unschooler) and admit that, you know, she has a point, and that I'm sort of digging this new (to me) explanation of what unschooling really is. My friend, whose journey started long ago, and whose children have never been enrolled in public school, just smiled; she probably was thinking, "It's about time."

And that's the thing. Another person with whom I spoke this weekend - a math professor whose book on math games was especially intriguing - casually commented that I "must be an unschooler." Seriously, I think I could have died right there, except that I had to admit she had a point, too.

So that's where I am. I told my friend, "This isn't at all where I thought I'd be a year and a half ago." It's a heckuva journey, and I have a feeling, it's just going to get more exhilerating, maybe a little bit further along the 'unexpected' path, but mostly, a whole lot more fun, and satisfying, and better than I ever could have hoped for.

How awesome is that? Yeah, pretty awesome.