Powder Horn Craft

Hubby is somewhat of a history freak. Primus is definitely going to get more instruction on history than the average Kindergartner.

Starting with Constitution Day earlier this month, we have been teaching Primus about George Washington and the Revolutionary War. In a book I got from the library, I found a fun idea for a craft: a paper mache powder horn. So as I was on my way out the door to pick up Secundus from preschool, I said, "Hey, honey? I want to do this craft. Can you give her a lesson on weapons of the Revolutionary War?"

I was expecting him to plan something for the next day or even the next week.

He was so excited about the idea! So before I even closed the door behind me, he had already grabbed his toy gun and several DVD's that had good clips of period weaponry, and was teaching her.

Several days later, I finally sat down with her to do the craft. We took a 12 inch square of poster board, rolled it up into the proper shape, and taped it. Then we covered it with newspaper strips dipped in a flour and water paste. We added extra strips to the pointed end and twisted them around and curved them up. After it dried over night, we painted it all white with a little black on the tip. The finishing touches were a string to carry it and a poster board cover for the big open part.

She is so proud of her powder horn. When she showed it off to daddy, he gave us a demonstration on how to load his toy gun. This powder horn is a great new toy and the girls have been fighting over it all night!

Oh, a fun note on that replica gun: Several years ago I got it on a whim from the dollar store for Hubby for Christmas. Hubby thought it was so awesome! Seriously, it was his favorite gift that year. One time he took it to cub scouts. Big mistake! It's broken and permanently in the cocked position so it no longer fires those rubber darts. He is totally bummed. So I've gotta keep my eyes open for another one.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog!  Take a look around, show it to your friends, and then come back again.  It's still at this point a work-in-progress.  Within the next couple days my goal is to put some pictures and links on the side bar and generally make it more interesting.

To my friends and family who are faithful readers of my private family blog, you will notice that a lot of the content is going to be shared in both places.  But I promise that this will not be a strictly copy-and-paste project. 

Thanks for taking some time to check this out.  I hope you enjoy!

Public School Drop-Off

I've been reminded of another reason I am so glad I homeschool:  Pick-up and Drop-off!

My neighbor needs me to drop off her son at the public school once or twice a week.  It is such a nightmare.  Every time I fear for my life and for the lives of the children I see running around traffic.  This school seems to be particularly bad. 
I've included a (maybe) helpful drawing of the drive way in front of the school.  As you can see, the first 2 car widths directly in front of the building are blocked off to be used for buses only.  Then the rest of the driveway (to the left of the buses) is about 3 car widths.  But it has no lanes painted.
So what most people do is drive up one of those "lanes" and then just stop the car whenever they feel like it and let their kid out of the car to walk across (albeit slow-moving) traffic to get to the safety of the sidewalk.  Or, even weirder, though possibly safer, is people will just stop and then turn off their engine and walk their kids up.  People will be gone for several minutes while their car just sits parked in the middle of the driveway. 
So you have lots of cars maneuvering around each other, trying to avoid parked cars and pedestrians.  It gives me an anxiety attack just thinking about it! 
What I always do is pull all the way to the right, against the sidewalk and go right in front of the bus area.  I probably shouldn't be there, considering then I would be in the way of any buses coming through.  But it feels the safest for my neighbor's kid.  But then after he gets out, I have to drive over 3 or more lanes to get out!

Insecure?

I am VERY confident in our decision to homeschool. That said, I'm still at heart an insecure person. Primus has started attending a gymnastics class and I am very pleased that it is a large class of 8 kids her age. I think it will be really good for her.

And the first week, I was also excited about getting to know the other moms. But today I realized that all but 1 of the moms are older than me and all their kids go to the same kindergarten.

So in my head I'm imagining all the things they probably think of me. I've always been a little self conscious about being such a young mother. I have always kind of felt like I needed to make sure everyone knows that I was not an unwed teen mom.

On top of that, I'm imagining what they'll say when they find out that I homeschool. I am very aware of the fact that homeschoolers are seen as "weird" at best.

So I'm playing the potential conversations in my head, trying to come up with great, confident, responses to the things I'm "sure" they'll say.

But here's the most likely reality: they don't notice that I'm young. They won't care that I homeschool. They won't ever engage me in conversation.

Man, sometimes I am such a nut-case. Why am I so worried? I need to hook up with a group of homeschooling moms that I can commiserate with.

What I want for my kids...

Have you ever noticed how excited kid are when they learn something new? I had a bit of an epiphany the other day when I realized that this kind of excitement is multiplied if they discovered how to do said-new-thing all on their own. Children like to be independent. They are proud of themselves if they can figure something out without help.

And I realized, above all else, this is what I want for my children, especially as we continue on this homeschool journey! If I can encourage in them an excitement, desire, and ability to learn independently, then they will be able to take themselves wherever they want to go in this life.

I like to think I'm a pretty smart person; I took honors classes in high school, graduated with a 4.0 GPA or better, took Calculus and English 1A during senior year, haven't really struggled with any of my college classes, etc. But, I am not much of an independant learner. I hardly ever read assigned textbook pages. And when I did, I didn't retain much. But I had no problem listening to a lecture. And there was no way you would see me doing extra credit projects. Extra credit projects usually meant too much freedom;freedom of topic choice, freedom of medium, and lax beginning date and due date. I needed teachers to tell me what, how, and when to do things.

If I could encourage my children to develop a talent for self-teaching, instead of being like me, then nothing would be able to hold them back.

But not only do they need to be able to self-teach, they need to have a love of learning. Now this is something I can definitely teach by example. Especially in more recent years, I've developed a love of acquiring new knowledge. This usually is manifest in the fact that I read lots of various news articles online. And whether I am at home or in the car, the radio is always tuned to a talk station. I listen to Armstrong and Getty for politics and randomness, Clark Howard for financial advice, Rush Limbaugh for politics, Tom Sullivan for politics, and a couple different shows on Saturdays about real estate, mutual funds, and technology.

I have a goal! I have direction! I have a focus! I'm feeling pretty good right now. Yay!
Ugh, until reality hits. How exactly am I going to accomplish that first part? I'll let you know when I find the magic key. I hope I figure it out at least by the time Tertius turns 18. So that gives me...17 years. Alright! Cheers for more specific goals!

Socialization

Here's an article I enjoyed.  Though, as a disclaimer, I realized after I shared this on facebook that the author sounds very narrow minded and arrogant.  I don't think homeschooling can or should be done by every family.  But if I were ever in a situation where I felt I needed to defend my choice, these are some of the arguments I would use.

http://stephendpalmer.com/2011/09/public-school-homeschool-socialization/

Effie Yeaw Field Trip

Friday morning I took the kids on a field trip to Effie Yeaw Nature Center. I love that place.
The girls went armed with their maps and we followed the trail that Primus and I had decided on before and highlighted. We picked a more rustic trail that we have never taken before. I'm thankful that Hubby's parents had kept the backpack carrier that they used when he was a baby. So I had Tertius in that for the first half of our hike. Man, he is heavy!

The hike was pretty uneventful. We did see one deer. Occasionally the girls indicated that they were scared. I pretended that I wasn't. The trail was really narrow in some places, we were surrounded by tall grass/bushes, we kept hearing rustling, and there were a ton of gopher/snake holes all along the path. But we survived.

Our destination was a Nature Study Pond that I guess is being restored. We stopped there, ate a snack, and then headed back by way of another trail. On the way back, I let Tertius walk. He was in heaven. He thinks he is such a big kid! For much of the time, he was walking faster than the rest of us. At one point he had gotten quite far ahead. Then he turned around and started gesturing and yelling at his sisters. He was obviously telling them, "Come on, girls!"

Here's a picture taken outside the Nature Center when we arrived at the end of our hike.

I LIKE my kids and I WANT to be with them all day!

I've been reading a lot of homeschooling blogs. Tonight I stumbled upon one lady's posts of her Top 10 reasons that she homeschools.  Her #2 reason made me smile:

"I LIKE my kids and I WANT to be with them all day!"

I love this! I totally agree! For me, this goes along with my desire to be an at-home mom. I didn't go through 9 months of AGONY and hours of natural labor (per child) just to pay someone else to raise them, or for the government to teach them, and for someone else to be there for their special moments. I want to be the one to witness all the ups and downs of their lives.

And I love how this woman put it. She said, "I LIKE my kids," not, "I LOVE my kids." Of course every mom loves her kids. But it is a different thing to say that you LIKE them.