Opinionated

Sometimes I can be way too opinionated...

Arbus

"What I'm trying to describe is that it's impossible to get out of your skin into somebody else's... That somebody else's tragedy is not the same as your own."
-Diane Arbus

More Calvin

"Momma, Max knows how to drive. He told me so at Peter's birthday party!"
(Max is 7)

This morning the Chiropractor said "Top of the morning to ya." and Calvin said "Good"
This is Calvin's response to anything from "How are you?" to "Got any plans for the weekend?"

I'm having a rough day

Things my five year olds say:

"I'm having a rough day."

Shane was teasing me saying I'm going to be old (I'm 27). And Calvin piped in "You're gonna be fat!" I guess he associates old with fat.

What's New

Other than homeschooling...

• We got a new puppy. Jessie is a Standard Poodle and she is one year old.
• We went to the Renaissance Festival with Colton and Calvin and my good friend Maggie. It rained.
• I've been thinking a lot about what motivates me to be who I am. I tend to hide parts of myself from certain people. Example: none of my family knows that I don't consider myself a Christian.
• I am trying to slow down. I was listening to MPR and heard an interview with a food critic. He talked about the concept of "slow food" (as opposed to fast food). Which is really taking time to cook, and present food. Then taking time to enjoy it. This also refers to the food taking time to grow as well. Meaning eating organic and local. And eating "happy meat." Meat from animals that were allowed to roam and take care of their own young. At least this was my interpretation of what "slow food" means. After thinking about the concept for awhile I decided that it would be beneficial to slow down in all areas. If we took time with our children there would be less problems with our youth. If we took time while driving there would be less accidents. And slowing down our breathing lessens our stress and in turn we will live longer. Really slowing down benefits society, community, the environment and individuals' quality of life.

Homeschooling

We officially decided to home school Colton and Calvin. This is of course tentative and really a trial. We can always change our minds (I am not going to change my mind, but I don't know if Shane might). I am having a hard time finding information about homeschooling that is not religious and especially having a hard time finding other free thinkers that home school.
NOTE: I'm not an atheist, but Shane is. I don't label myself anything. Sometimes I say "agnostic" or "spiritual" to avoid having to explain my belief system.
Back to homeschooling. I am really excited to start. I have done a little bit over the last few weeks, but I am trying to get a good schedule and make my own trial curriculum for this year. I don't plan on purchasing curriculums at first. Except for possibly math. I have a Hooked On Phonics kit for reading, a library card, and writing is something that I can teach. There are tons of free print offs online for learning to write letters and words. I want to do topical studies for science and social studies. This way we can pick things to study and go to the library to find books and videos, search online, etc. The kids have so many of their own interests for me to pick from!! Shane is going to do music classes so they gain a proper appreciation for classical music. Eventually we can choose unit studies or curriculums. This is really the very beginning for us, so we haven't yet written down any goals or plans on what the kids are going to study. I'll keep you updated on some of the process we go through. I hope to get some time to write up some goals in the next week. I picked up two books at Barnes & Noble on homeschooling. They both say that the first step is to write down WHY you are homeschooling and WHAT you want your child to learn. Then you can decide HOW you are going to teach them. I plan to teach eclectically. Which basically means I am not going to use all curriculums. I want to do some unschooling where the kids pick what they are currently interested in and pursue it, and some unit studies where you pick a topic and apply that topic to all subjects. I may not be organized enough, but I hope that I am.