Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Homeschooling is only limited by your imagination


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The best toy box your homeschooler will ever have


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Think maybe we're being brainwashed just a little?



If this wasn't so sick and sad, it would be funny.

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Homeschooling isn't about what we do...


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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

So, you're thinking about wimping out of homeschooling

So, you're thinking about wimping out of homeschooling and sending your child back to the hell hole we call public school. That's okay. It's okay because it takes a special kind of parent to homeschool their child. It takes a parent with guts and fortitude to stand up to the pressures of their peers, their financial situation, or even our modern day culture. A culture that creates dependence, ineptitude and self-centered mall rats.

Homeschooling is best left to the parent who is willing to fight for their constitutional and God-given right to educate their own child as they see fit, without the interference of government or societal pressures. A parent willing to lay down their life for their child in order to shield them from the fits and frenzy of modern day public schooling; an archaic, union controlled system with its decadent agenda and thuggish, whack-job administrators.

Back on our old farm, when a horse went lame it became useless. Well, lame politicians, lame public schools and lame parenting are pretty much the same thing. Useless! Combine all three and you get a mixture so toxic to children, it amazes me how some youngsters ever make it out of their public school experience alive! Why do we keep feeding the public school monster our children and our money? It's not like it's going to get better, and I certainly don't understand the emotional attachment some people have with it.

Take a look around you and see how many young people are barely intact when they leave the public school system. If they appear to have their wits at all, they quickly become indentured servants to the credit card companies, the banks, their college loans, or to the major corporations they work for. Does any of this make sense to you? It sounds insane to me.

So, you're thinking about wimping out of homeschooling, are you? Why? Can't hack the hours and responsibility of raising your own child? Need a break? Being pressured by your child to send them to public school? A child has no clue what public schooling is really all about and cannot comprehend the ramifications if they up and decide they don't want to be there after all. If you think deciding to homeschool opens a whole new can of worms, just imagine the kerfuffled slime fest if you enroll in public schooling and then change your mind. That action will place you squarely at the top of the school's 'difficult parent' list and all authoritative eyes will be on you.

Get it through your vacuous noggin right now, you won't and can't 'fix' the public school to suit the needs of your child. It doesn't work that way. The public schools have an agenda and it doesn't include your desires, your values, or what's best for your child. The public schools do what is best for the public schools and its union-backed employees.

So, you're thinking about wimping out of homeschooling because you're tired, you feel inadequate, you're broke, or you miss your own independence. Well, too bad. You have a child now who is depending on you for everything, including their physical, emotional and spiritual needs. Suck it up!

We're all tired, feeling inadequate, broke, and missing our independence, but this is why God designed families around a two parent, one-man-one-woman system. Sure, systems fail. It's hard work putting that system in place before having children, and it's even harder work making sure that system doesn't break down once children arrive on the scene. Far too many people are listening and taking their cues from our culture that's run by reprobates and tyrants. Go and build (or rebuild) your own system that will strengthen your family and your ability to parent, even if that includes getting grandparents involved.

Did you spend the first 22 years of your life being indoctrinated into dependency by your own schooling experience? Great! It probably means you are a knockout at sports, prom and can put a condom on a cucumber blindfolded, but can you raise a child? Well, guess what? Mother nature is on your side. You'll soon learn the meaning of life once the responsibility of raising a child literally and figuratively lands in your lap.

Luckily, for you, children are born learners and nature provided you with instincts. Don't sit there and tell me you can't homeschool your child. How difficult is it to read to a young child, or sing to a young child, or to talk to a young child and tell them about the world? What sort of degree does it take to show a young child how to dress themselves or sit at the dinner table and use utensils? Children are self-learners. Homeschooling is a continuation of all this right on up into the teen years. By then, children can be self-taught if you provide the resources, general direction and cheering section. Homeschooling is a lifestyle that will run a natural course over time, if you don't allow horrible outside influences to interfere. Step up, but don't give up. You can do this!

Homeschooling is a journey, not a destination. You need to stick with it and let it unfold. You need to develop a backbone to fortify you against doubt, feelings of inadequacy and the cretin down the street who keeps getting all lathered up about socialization. You need to listen to your heart and follow your instincts, as only a parent can.

Imagination is the key to successful homeschooling. Imagine the possibilities of living at a slower, more meaningful pace that revolves around a family-centered life, not a school-centered life. A life that provides more time for in depth learning, family bonding and unbridled creativity.  Use your imagination to create learning opportunities or a family business that will support you and your children. Your only limit is the boundary of your imagination.

Homeschoolers sometimes plod along. Sometimes we bounce along or plow through life. The beauty is, we control the speed at which we go. It's the built-in freedom homeschooling provides that keeps us on this path to a better life. If, for no other reason to keep homeschooling, FREEDOM should be at the top of your list. With freedom you have the world working with you, not against you. Hang in there!

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Saturday, November 2, 2013

Puke soaked sheets at 3:00 a.m.

After stumbling upon this blog post, 'Couples therapy for homeschoolers', my first thought was it is probably the most messed up thing I've ever read about homeschooling. Initially, I thought what does this have to do with homeschooling?

However, after reading elsewhere on the blog how and why the author cut public schooling out of her life, it appears she is taking a huge step in the right direction to remedy her own education and past. Deciding to homeschool her children was probably THE best thing she ever did to heal from a traumatic childhood and to empower herself. This mom is making the journey and transitioning to a stronger advocate for her own children. Much of what she writes about may make you uncomfortable but she is quite open and honest about sharing her experiences (even the ugly personal ones) and her discoveries.

Penelope Trunk seems to have landed in the same trap many women, since the 1960's, have tumbled into. Many of us were indoctrinated into thinking we needed to be overachievers or career oriented in this world to be successful and happy. Some women overcompensate to hide a past or to prove their worth. Some of us put off childbearing until we feel we can incorporate both a career and children into our lives. Unlike your fancy car or stunning wardrobe though, children are not a status symbol.

Once motherhood becomes a reality, we find ourselves needing to make some tough choices concerning our livelihoods. Being a mom is a full time job in and of itself. The harsh reality, in spite of years of being told 'we can have it all', is that having children means puke soaked sheets at 3:00 a.m. when you've got a team meeting at the office the next morning at 8:00! Unless you're willing to pass off that responsibility to a daycare worker, public school teacher or high school counselor, your life's mission, as a parent, is to provide for every aspect of your child's life. That includes the physical, spiritual, educational and moral well-being of that child you were blessed with.

Having a career or job isn't the same as having an income. One of the greatest challenges will be finding a way to feed, clothe and house your family as a homeschooling or stay-at-home mom. If you've established a career working outside the home and away from your family, you may need to rethink your situation if it interferes with your responsibility of raising healthy, happy and well educated children.

I'm looking forward to reading more of Penelope's blog in the future. We old timers can relate to her struggles and appreciate her growth as a homeschooling parent. Sometimes it takes motherhood to bring life into focus for a clearer vision of what nature intended us to be, not what present day culture tries to mold us into. Sometimes success and happiness can be measured by how quickly we can provide fresh clean sheets and much needed hugs to a sick child at 3 o'clock in the morning.

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