No, It's NOT Because They're Homeschooled

Read this article!

"It's Because They're Homeschooled." No. Actually, It's Not.
By The Hmmm...Schooling Mom
http://thehmmmschoolingmom.com/because-theyre-homeschooled/

This is so good! And the author points out that you can replace "homeschooled" with "public schooled" in that title and it would still be accurate.

It's fun to speculate how my kids would be different if they went to public school, had more or less siblings, lived in a different state, could afford family vacations, or if they were born into a different family.

 Certainly, their upbringing and environment DO effect them. But their base personalities are central to who they are and can't be changed. One of mine is very independent and confident; it's not easy to parent, or teach, a toddler or preschooler with these traits! Honestly, in one of my lowest parenting moments, i did try to change her personality. And it backfired! Sending her to public school wouldn't have changed her, either!

My kids are the way they are mostly because that's the way we are, NOT because they are homeschooled.

Like I said, environment and upbringing do effect children, but as this author emphasizes, the double standard is unacceptable. If a homeschooled kid and a public schooled kid both do the exact same behavior (talk nonstop and insist on doing things her own way instead of following instructions, for example), we can't say that one did it because of their schooling while one did it because of their personality.

Let's not judge and just allow ALL parents the support and encouragement they need to make the choices they feel will be best for their kids! ❤

(All that said, I don't begrudge my family and friends who tease us about being homeschooled. With them, I choose to believe it's all in good fun and not sincere criticism. Teasing is genetic in my family. We roll with it and dish it right back.)

Why I Love Homeschooling with a Charter School, and How That Relates to My Failure As a Piano Teacher

Here in California, homeschoolers get to choose between two ways to do so. We can either enroll in a Charter School set up for supporting homeschoolers, or we can file a Private School Affidavit.

We've been with our charter school from the beginning (when Primus was a kindergartner.)  I love it!  It is such a blessing to our family to have this option!

Philosophically, I disagree with the state required standardized testing (which we wouldn't have to do if we went the private school route.)  So that's an annoying hoop I have to jump through.  But everything else makes it worth it.

The thing I love the most is the funds we receive for curriculum, supplies, and classes.

Another big reason I love the charter is that we have a supervising teacher to support us.  I need this.

Every month a credentialed teacher visits us, delivers any orders we placed, records what we learned, and collects work samples for a yearly portfolio.  These meetings are great.  I love our "ES."  I always feel supported instead of criticized or judged.  I feel like our ES trusts my abilities and judgement in teaching my children.  I also feel like if she felt there were any issues or gaps that she would tell me and help me come up with a plan for remedying it.

So this support I receive is invaluable.  But it's also important to me that I am accountable to an outside person.  I need this.  This is abundantly clear by the fact that I for years have had great intentions to teach piano to my girls but found it extremely hard to do it consistently.  Instead of weekly lessons and regular practice, Primus got a lesson about once a month.  She liked it and plays the piano a lot, but she usually wouldn't practice the things that she was supposed to.  And Secundus got maybe 4 lessons in a year.  Uggh.

The problem is, piano just isn't required by the school.  It's not something that I have to report on to my ES every month.  It's not included in our yearly portfolio.  Therefore it is so easy for me to put it low on the priority list.

However, regular piano lessons are finally happening this year! I'll talk more about my source of motivation in another post.

As far as my need for accountability goes, I think I've finally found something that worked! We see our ES about once a month so the goal is for the girls to have 4 lessons and do 480 minutes of practice before she comes. If they do, then they earn a full pack of gum from me, a much coveted treat.  All of that is recorded on a single piece of paper. When she comes, that paper is put in the folder they use to hold all their other work samples. She pulls out the work samples to take with her for their portfolio, but leaves the piano record there since she doesn't need it. But it still feels like we have a little bit of accountability to her. It would be embarrassing to the girls and I to let her see that page if it wasn't completed.

I'm optimistic that in a year I'll be able to report that both of the girls are making steady progress with piano!

Review: "Teaching Drawing Without Knowing How to Draw"

I’m not artistic. I’m creative in some ways, but can’t draw or paint worth beans! So this curriculum really appealed to me! “Teaching Drawing Without Knowing How to Draw by Jeffry Byrd” (a very talented illustrator, graphic designer, and artist- check out his work here.)

I’m always looking for a good class or program that I can fit into our homeschool schedule to give the kids exposure to the world of art. I believe that it’s my job to give my kids opportunities to find their hidden talents and passions. So when I was given this chance to review Lesson 1, I couldn't pass it up!

(The author, Jeffry Byrd, is an acquaintance of mine from a small business class I'm taking. He asked me to review Lesson 1. The following is my 100% honest and personal opinion.)

Lesson 1, Creativity and You, starts with a one page introduction and explanation of the flow of the lesson. I really appreciate that it’s concise! It’s not long winded at all and is easy to follow and understand.

One of the first things I noticed was that this curriculum was written with language that makes it seem the author had both homeschool and traditional classrooms in mind. It does speak of “groups” of students, so you would have to adjust if you were using it to teach only one child. But I think it would work well whether you had a class of 2 or 50!

Included in this introduction is a small paragraph about the setting you choose to teach in. It had some great tips on how your setting might affect the way student receive the information.

Following that was a useful materials list (all things that are inexpensive and easy to obtain, like sketchbook and pencil.) Also included in the materials list are links to the images and art that are referenced in the lesson. I love that if I’m supposed to show my kids a “car rendering,” for example, I don’t have to go Googling for a good picture that fits the purpose. It’s already included! I printed out the PDF because I like to have physical curriculum to hold and make notes on, but while I was teaching I kept my tablet nearby so I could pull up the links at the appropriate time.

Next is a quick list of the lesson structure, followed by an explanation of each part. They are: assignment report, attention activity and questions, images/examples, instruction activity, and assignment. I like that there’s a predictable and consistent order to each lesson! Again, these explanations are short and sweet and show the purpose or goal of each part of the lesson.

One of things I love the most about this curriculum was the emphasis on critiques. It’s an important part of every lesson. The section on critiquing explains why it’s valuable, what students will learn, and how to critique effectively. The structure that it teaches is what I’ve heard referred to elsewhere as a “love sandwich” where you sandwich your comment about what needs to be improved between two positive observations or compliments. My children responded really well to this! I think this is a valuable skill to practice (giving and receiving critique) as it will serve them well through all areas of their lives!

After the introduction page, the lesson itself takes up only two pages (really only just over one page plus ideas for optional expansion.)  I’ll say it once again, I like it when curriculum gets right to the point!

It was helpful that an estimation was given for how long you should spend on each section. All told, the lesson should take between 55 and 80 minutes, plus easy daily homework. With my 4 children, we stuck very close to those suggestions. The exception was the “instruction activity” part where we were supposed to listen to a piece of instrumental music and draw what we imagined. We spent 40 minutes on that instead of 20-30 because the girls were in the mood to get very detailed! (Also, as you can see, my kids insisted on using crayons instead of just pencil like it said to use in the material list. Using a different medium probably contributed to the longer drawing time.)

Given that the lesson was only supposed to take about an hour, it could usually be accomplished on one sitting. However, since we spent so much extra time on one part, we had too many other things to do that day, and my little boys don’t have a large attention span for art, we broke it up into two days. It worked. I like flexibility!

In summary, I’ll give a critique in the format the author taught.

Positive: I love so many things about this curriculum! The format, the skills taught, the clear writing style of the author, etc are all excellent.

Negative: I wish it worked better for younger grades. The suggested grade levels are 3rd through 6th and I think that's accurate.  For example, the discussion on “what is creativity” was over the heads of my kinder and 2nd grade boys. My 4th and 6th grade girls, though, we’re engaged by it. I really do prefer teaching all four of my kids at once if I can. And if I can't teach all at the same time, then I prefer curriculum that my kids can use to self-teach during their independent time, and this wouldn't work that way. But that's ok! I can adjust a little to involve the boys at their level.

Positive: It’s clear the author put a lot of love and work into this project and I think it would be beneficial to a lot of teachers and homeschool parents!

I think we’ll be purchasing the full curriculum so my kids can continue with it. I’m excited to see their improvement in their drawings after going through all the lessons! Primus especially has been sketching a lot of people and fashions lately so perhaps this can help her!

All lessons are available for purchase on Teachers Pay Teachers. The following are links to take you directly to each one. There are six total and with a price of only about $6 each, it's a great value! (As of right now, they're also all on sale!)

Lesson 1, Creativity and You (currently free!)
Lesson 2, Shapes Are Everywhere
Lesson 3, All About Lines
Lesson 4, Getting Perspective
Lesson 5, Shadows and Shading
Lesson 6, How to Practice

Hubby's Passionate About History

I had a really weird dream...

I took the kids to a place for a history class, since I'm not adept at that subject. The teacher was a middle aged portly man who simply read from the Story of the World curriculum in a monotone. During our time with him, he kept getting interrupted by people coming into the room and talking with him. He was being very disrespectful of our time. Then once class was done and we were packing up to go, he got into a conversation with another man in which he was loudly criticizing my family and our church. 

I exploded! 

I absolutely ripped into him for being so disrespectful of me and my children and criticize our religion! How dare he! He tried to yell over me and argue with me. 

I also screamed at him for being such a waste of time and money and a horrible history teacher. I declared that I would rather have my husband teach the kids in the evenings than bring them back to him. I emphasized, "My husband has real PASSION for history, unlike you! I have never seen someone with more PASSION than him!"

While that scenario is likely to never play out in real life, I can imagine my reaction would be just like that if it were. 😂

Look for the Blessings in Trials

I own a small business out of my home kitchen. At the moment, it's not really big; basically it pays for Christmas for the kids. It's exciting to see the growth I've had from year to year, though.

Yesterday morning however, I had a crisis that had me feeling for a moment like maybe this venture has run it's course and it was time to throw in the towel.

I had an issue with one of my suppliers. I always feared this day would come, but didn't have a solid back up plan. Now I was absolutely panicking! I couldn't even think straight.

As Hubby is constantly reminding me, though, when there's a trial I have to focus on the blessings. There is always hope and Heavenly Father was right there. So instead of wallowing, I need to "look on the bright side." This is so hard for me to do! But here it goes...

1. I realized the issue early in the week, with plenty of time to find a solution before my event this weekend.
2. The kids are pretty independent and were able to do their schoolwork on their own while I focused on this crisis.
3. Hubby was home to talk me through solutions and plans. It was a bummer that he didn't have a job assignment to go to today, but Heavenly Father knew that I was going to need him at home!
4. I found a new local supplier that was able to take care of me today, with only a slight price increase over what I was getting.
5. My laptop is crappy and gives me "blue screen of death" often and at the most inopportune times. But today I was able to do plenty of Googling and such on it and it didn't shut down until right *after* I was done with it.

Proverbs 28:20 A faithful man shall abound with blessings.

When Grandma Met Grandpa

Recently when my grandmother (Shirley Thueson) was in the hospital, I tried to visit as much as I could. During one of my visits the hospital chaplain stopped by the room and struck up a lovely conversation with her about Grandpa Orel.

Grandma has been widowed for about 17 years and it was special to hear her talk about working with him in the drugstore they owned in Placerville (he was a pharmacist) and about how they met.

(I don't know or understand all the details and timeline. Perhaps I'll come back and edit this when I know more. But for now I really just wanted to get this in print before I forgot.)

Apparently my grandma's mom wanted to throw a party but there weren't very many people around. (This was wartime.) She tried inviting the men from the Air Corp in Santa Rosa but that was a no-go. And so she ended up inviting the military men who were POW camp guards in Windsor. My grandpa was one of those men. Apparently they were guarding German submariners. (Grandma commented that they were beautiful blonde haired, blue eyed men. Lol.)

The rest is history, as they say. Grandma met grandpa at the party and were later married. So it was my great grandmother who is responsible for them meeting. By the way grandma chuckled, and from what I seem to recall my mom telling me when I was little, I don't think great grandma was too happy about that. You see, my grandpa was a Mormon boy, so that didn't sit too well with her.  😂😍

I'm sure glad Great Grandma threw that party that night!

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes (The Lazy Way)

Did you know that mini muffins from the bakery fit perfectly inside ice cream cones?

Last Sunday someone gave me 2 big unopened boxes of ice cream cones before church. Rather than run them out to my car, I just threw them with my bags under the table in my primary class. Of course when my students came in and noticed, they got excited and thought I brought treats. I promised I would bring them filled with something the next week because one of the boys was having a birthday.

But then a week went by and I didn't have time to bake ice cream cone cupcakes. When I was nursery leader (age 18 months to 3 years) I would always do ice cream cones filled with fruit loops for birthday treats. (Or gluten free cones with fruity pebbles when I had a gluten sensitive student.) It was colorful, different, and relatively cheap and easy. It was hilarious to watch the kids discover that their cup was edible. And it entertained me to no end when they would accidently spill their cereal, give a shocked face, then carefully put them all back in (bonus fine motor practice) and then accidentally dump it again. Then of course there were the kids who discovered there was a marshmallow under the cereal (to fill space) and so would immediately pour out their cereal so they could eat the marshmallow first.

I could have done that with this class (they're 5-turning 6) but it was easier to just pick up a dozen mini chocolate muffins. If I were to do it again for a party or some such, I would put a marshmallow or some candy under the muffin to fill space and be a yummy surprise.

Post #500

This is a fun milestone! I have published 500 posts. 500 times my thoughts were put out on the interwebs for public consumption.

I started this blog in 2011, when I began homeschooling Primus. Now here we are, 6 years, 499 posts, and 3 additional students later. In another 6 years my oldest will be finishing her high school experience and my baby will be in sixth grade! Eek!


I still love homeschooling and feel that it's the best plan for my family. And I'm so thankful for all my friends and family who have supported us over the years!

If you have questions about homeschooling, browse the blog and hopefully you can find what you need. Also feel free to ask me anything!

In Memory of Mary Martineau Cooper

A while ago my former piano teacher, Mary Cooper passed away. She touched many lives and is missed.

I took piano lessons, along with a couple of my brothers, for a short while when I was maybe around 8. I didn't like it. Hated to practice. Eventually our teacher moved away so that was the end of that. When I was in 5th grade I was interested in learning piano again. Our school was also starting a band and I desperately wanted to join that, too. I remember my parents debating about whether I should do band OR piano. My mom won and I was allowed to do both.

I wanted to play the trombone but was told my arms were too short (of course they were! I think the band teacher just didn't want to teach any instruments other than flute, clarinet, sax, and trumpet.) So the clarinet was chosen (I think partially because my dad was a fan of Kenny G.) And about the same time, I began taking piano lessons from Sister Mary Cooper, who we went to church with.

I didn't keep up with the clarinet past 8th grade, but use my musical (and specifically piano) talents often. I am eternally grateful to my parents for encouraging and facilitating my musical education!


Sister Cooper was a joy to learn from! I will always remember her pink rose decor covering every inch of her sitting room. I loved arriving early or being picked up late because then I could sit on her couch and eat candy from her crystal candy dish while listening to her work with the next student.

In that room, near the couch, she had a comfortable chair. Sometimes she would put down her red pen, step away from her seat beside the piano bench, sit in that chair, close her eyes, and just listen. She wanted to hear her own private concert on a piece or two, through the ears of an audience member instead of a teacher.

When we began learning a song, she would write the date on the top of the page. When we passed it off, we would get to put a sticker on the corner of the page. It was so exciting to see what new, cute little stickers she had bought.

She had a drawer full of prizes. If we practiced at least 120 minutes per week, for 2 weeks, we could pick something out. They were always fun things from the Dollar store. Candy, cups with twisty straws, seasonal figurines, stationary sets, etc.

I remember when I first started lessons, she told my parents that her goal wasn't to teach her students to be piano robots who were programmed to play all the classics with perfection. We learned fun pieces, folksongs, and yes classics too. It was also important to her that we learn the hymns. This was perfect for me because I learned that I would much rather accompany singers (solo, small group, choir, or congregation) than be a soloist.

Even though we went over many of the hymns, for some reason I remember learning High on the Mountain Top with her. She also was passionate about teaching me Master, the Tempest is Raging. She loved that song! The movement and drama in it spoke to her soul! And now it is one of my favorite hymns to play on piano (if the singer/s are willing to sing with plenty of dynamics!)  She was our Ward organist and she would sometimes talk about loving to have the congregation sing the really upbeat, rousing songs. She wanted people to feel like marching in the aisles!

She was so patient with me! There were a couple times when she had given me a piece to learn and I was able to do them with adequate technical accuracy. But I just didn't "feel" the piece and so could not play with the emotion that she wanted. Week after week I disappointed her with my lack of progress. Finally she admitted that I just didn't like the song and therefore it just wasn't going to get any better. Then she crossed it off the list and we never revisited it again.

As I neared my Junior year of high school, Mary began saying that I had outgrown her. I never became the next Mozart or anything, but she expressed that she didn't have much more new things she could teach me.  I can't remember now the name of the piece or the composer, but she had given me one classical piece to learn that had a couple long and very fast runs. It was an extremely  difficult section! She was so pleased when her daughter was in town so that she could teach me the best way to learn and practice it.

In my Junior year, I decided to stop lessons. I was working a part time job, was Laurel President, and had several honors classes. I was so busy but it was still very hard to decide to give up my weekly chat with Sister Cooper. After I graduated high school, she convinced me to take some organ lessons from her. We would meet at the church early in the morning and she even arranged for me to have my own code to the building and key to the organ so I could get in and practice whenever I wanted. I'm so glad she insisted on that! I'm not a very good organ player, but I at least have basic knowledge and am able to accompany the singing in Sacrament Meeting twice a month. I'm grateful to her for that!


Sister Cooper was a wonderful woman outside of lessons, too. Actually, sometimes it seemed like half of my lesson time was taken up in her recounting her life story. 😉

She had a beautiful flower garden and I felt privileged to be trusted to water for her when she went out of town.

She spent many hours making beautiful handmade cards. She sent some of these as birthday cards to everyone at church.

She was so proud of her family and talked of them often. She loved her Sunday dinners with her grandchildren, served on beautiful dishes. She also had an exchange student son (from Scandinavia??) that she also talked about constantly and with such love.

Education was very important to her. At a time when it was uncommon for women to pursue higher education, she persevered and earned her Masters Degree. She was so proud of that accomplishment! She also taught music at her children's elementary school when they were young. She was always telling me how important it was to prioritize my college education, even after marriage and children came along.

As evidenced by her college education, she was a sharp woman! And as she got older, she often expressed fear that she would be passed over for callings and service opportunities in the church because people would assume she was old and incapable. She would say that her body may be slowing down but, "My mind still works!!"


Mary Cooper, you are missed! I cherish my memories of my time spent at the piano bench with you. As I teach my own children and nieces and nephews piano, I find myself thinking more and more about you and the way you taught. I'm sure right now you are playing the organ in Heaven getting all the angels in the Heavenly choir to sing Master the Tempest is Raging with gusto! Or perhaps they're singing How Firm a Foundation and you're trying not to giggle at the memory of the line in the pre-1985 hymnal that made it sound like you were singing, "Yoo-hoo unto Jesus."

The world is a brighter place because you were in it. ❤❤❤