OK As promised....

I said a while ago that I'd started a new business. Well, now I feel that I am ready to reveal it.

***DRUM ROLL PLEASE***

I'm not sure if any of you remember the 20 20 Earth Day special but it really impacted my daughter and I. Ever since then we've wanted to live green. Besides using natural soap and lotion, buying organic food and changing our light bulbs to energy saving ones, recycling cans/plastic bottles/paper, I also found a great company for which I'm working as an independent distributor. They have cleaning products, laundry and dish soap, vitamins, makeup and even a great weight loss plan. I invite you to check them out and even try one of their products. I'm sure you'll feel the difference just like we have. This is really an easy business as all you have to do is learn to operate a mini-office outlet from home. So, you do not have to pressure your loved ones into purchasing anything. All you have to do is go through the free online training. From there it's up to set your own hours and make a great income. So, if you're interested, let me know.

OK I'll calm down now LOL I'm just really excited about this business as I'm already seeing results.

Back to homeschooling now...

How's your week been? Mine has been pretty busy with other things besides homeschooling, which is why I'm glad that we also unschool.

Studying the states of the United States

As I've mentioned before, I've stated to use index cards as an educational aid for my child. They are very helpful whenever we have some time to wait at a restaurant or at a doctor's appointment. I've also taken some relaxed days of school to just review them with her as a "drill." Well, we've also started to study the 50 states. Now since she's only 5 I'm taking things really slow and making it a lot of fun for her. This is what I'm doing and how you can do it too. So far, it seems to be working quite well. I just hope she does not grow tired of it before we have learned all 50 states, their abbreviations and flags. Hopefully this is something that you can use in your homeschool and that your children will also get a lot of enjoyment from. Let me know what you think!

Unschooling

A lot of people are starting to wonder if it's really all that it's cracked up to be. I know that as a somewhat unschooling parent, I really enjoy the freedom that my daughter has throughout the day to learn about things simply by exploring her environment. Many of you allow your child to be completely unschooled and even that seems to be working fine. You may have noticed by now that this is a topic that I'm constantly wrestling with. As such, I wrote an article that looks at both sides of this issue. I'd love to know what side you are on!

Mondays

It doesn't matter who you are or what you do, I bet you hate Mondays just as much as I do. This is because after 2 great days of R&R it's time to get back to the grind stone. I'm especially having a difficult time with it this week though, so I wrote this article.

The reason why I'm having such a rough time is because we had a lot of fun this weekend. On Saturday we went to a carnival that was full of games and great food. We sampled foods from a variety of ethnic groups and my daughter even won 2 toys: a stuffed unicorn and a magical want. It was a lot of fun!

Then Sunday we went to see how sheep are sheered and how wool was made back in the 1800's. We then got to tour a house, barn, etc. to see how they lived. It was really neat and my daughter was full of questions.

So, today there's nothing good to look forward to. As such, we're struggling to get going again. Nevertheless, back to the grindstone we go.

Special needs children

I'm taking some time to write about homeschooling children with special needs. Here is one I wrote about why deaf children should be homeschooled.

What are the challenges of homeschooling?

I can think of a lot of challenges but there's probably some that I've forgotten. Here's the list of challenges that I've come up with. Are there any that I've missed? I challenge you to come up with more ;)

Homeschool groups

Have you ever wondered how a homeschool group should operate? Well, this is something that I was thinking about this morning because I'm getting really tired of not having a homeschool group around here and so I'm considering starting one next school year. Anyhow, I did some research and writing to come up with this little piece about how homeschool groups work. Please feel free to let me know if I've missed anything.

Have you heard about using index cards for homeschooling?

I know I hadn't heard about it until today. I just happened to "accidentally" run across it while I was looking through some message forums today. It sent me searching to find out more information about this topic and here is what I found. I must say that I do really like this idea and may start using it with my daughter. Since it works for any manner in which you would like to homeschool your child, I can definitely see it fitting in nicely with our unschooling lifestyle. Let me know what you think.

Does your child have ADD/ADHD?

Personally, I HATE these terms. I do not believe in them at all. I won't allow them to be placed upon my daughter either, even though she'd more than fit them if she went to a traditional school. Well, I've found a new way of looking at ADD/ADHD and it supports those of us who loathe these labels and have chosen to unschool our children who would have fit these labels in traditional schools. Take a moment to check out what I'm talking about and then let me know what you think. Personally, I think that it makes 1 heck of a lot of sense. Have a great day everyone!

Special needs children

A lot of people seem to think that if your child is required to have an IEP that they cannot homeschool this child. This simply is not true. In fact, an IEP can be wrote up specifically to be used within a homeschool environment. Here is what you need to do to make this happen. The only thing that you will be possibly losing out by doing this is the special therapies that the public school can provide. However, there are some school districts that will make special concessions for your child to be able to get these services. Otherwise having a good insurance can really help out with the cost. So, if you have a special needs child, do not give up on the thought of homeschooling him/her.

So much to tell

Sorry I didn't get to tell you this before, but the art festival was very enjoyable. The lady was making glass beads and it was so neat to watch how she used her torch to make them. While she was unable to make bigger glass objects because of the set up and such, she did tell us, in detail, how she made glasses that you drink out of. My dd was soooo amazed by it all and would have stayed there for the entire night if I'd let her LOL. We did take advantage of some sales too and she got a beautiful glass bead fish necklace and I got a bookmark and picked up a necklace that I'd ordered previously. Dinner was wonderful too. I just wish she could control her energy sometimes LOL I know in a public school they'd definitely mark her ADHD and so I'm glad I'm homeschooling her so she isn't forced into a label and all that it brings with it.

I've been so busy lately myself. My writing has really taken off. I'm not even going out looking for it. It's just coming to me which is something I thank God for. With this in mind, I've started a new business venture that I'll introduce to you within the next week or so. I'm sure you'll like it too so think green ;)

Otherwise, I've done some research on who John Holt is. If you're like me, you've probably heard his name before. You may even know that he's the founder of unschooling. However, it's really neat to read all about him and what has led him to create what we now call "unschooling" as well as to influence several other organizations as well.

Anyhow, I best get some work done before dd wakes up :)

Some thoughts on my way out the door LOL

We're getting ready to head out to an art show this afternoon where we'll see how glass blowing is done. I am anxious to see this myself and yet couldn't help thinking about how this could fit into a homeschooler's curriculum. Of course, I can't be the only 1 who occassionally stops to think about curriculum and how challenging it can be to find the right 1. Here's a little something that I wrote that I hope will be helpful for new homeschoolers when choosing curriculum. I'm off to shower now but I'll let you know how the event went later on today. I hope everyone has an enjoyable Saturday!

Strong proponents of homeschooling listen up

OK So I should be listening to myself here and take heed before ever making the statement that "every parent really should consider homeschooling their children." Why? Because it simply is not true. There really are some parents who should not consider homeschooling their children. These people just are not cut out for it. Who am I talking about? Read on and find out :D

Believe it or not: Homeschool children ARE socialized (WOW!)

Sorry for the hint of sarcasm there LOL...

Last week I wrote an article about why so many traditional school parents tend to defend the socialization process that takes place in the public schools. Tonight, while my daughter is with my parents, I decided to write an article "explaining" how homeschool children get socialization. I'm not sure why I felt the need to defend us but it may have something to do with the number of parents I've been running into that defend this area's public schools. I also had a member of my church's staff last night decide to tell me why I shouldn't homeschool. While you may not know it, I really hate controversy and will do anything to avoid it. As such, I think that this article is my way of silently fighting back LOL

Thinking green

We had a really cool night at church tonight. Lately my daughter and I have been talking a lot about taking care of Mother Earth. I guess it's just part of me getting back to who I really am: a hippy tree hugger :D Anyhow my daughter has really gotten into it lately. Then tonight at church we went out to clean up the church by collecting garbage. While a lot of you may not think this is "cool" we really had fun doing it together.

An anti-homeschooling area

As I've mentioned in earlier postings, I'm living in an area where there are not any homeschoolers. In fact, this area is somewhat hostile towards homeschoolers. It seems that just because the school has won an award of excellence the people around here are just blindly following it and placing their kids into the school. A lot of the time I hear people telling me my daughter is losing out on so much socialization because she's homeschooled. Well, I decided to take a look at why these people feel this way and I wrote an editorial about it.

"Homeschooly" stuff

I know I just posted something else that was on my mind, but I really wanted to share our day with you because it just goes to prove that learning and socializing really is all around you, wherever you go, whatever you do. So, here's an outline of the highlights of our day:

1. We went for a nature walk and picked up recycling. It was really interesting some of the things that we found when we looked close enough to find it.
2. We had a plumber in our home to fix a copper pipe. Guess who was his willing assistant?
3. We went to the bank and talked about money and banking.
4. We went to the ice cream store for some sherbert and it was time that the kids were walking home from school. So, my daughter got to socialize with some of them.
5. While walking home from the ice cream store she talked to a child who showed her how to play the viola.
6. We did laundry, which is always an education in itself LOL

So, what did you do today?

Keeping an eye toward the future

Am I the only homeschool mom that keeps an eye on the future? What I mean is that my daughter is only 5 and a half years old and I'm already concerned about doing things right so that she can get into college. I even went so far as to do some research and write an article about this.

I know that I'm basically an unschooler but I can't give up on doing some workbook stuff each day. We only spend about a half hour on it but it makes me feel better. My daughter doesn't mind doing it since she can play and do art stuff the rest of the day. Now if she said she really didn't want to do it at all, I'm not sure that I'd be able to just let it go. I'm so nervous about making sure that she is educated even though she's doing second/third grade work. She also watches a lot of educational stuff on TV and all her toys are educational in 1 way or another so I really should relax but I just can't do it LOL

Am I the only 1 that is this way?