One is Silver and the Other's Gold...

A couple who is very dear to our family made it official last night--after 14?, 15?, 16? years of commitment. I met them as a couple in 1994. I've known them for longer than I've known my husband.

After such a long period of sharing lives, I can see how a ceremony might be anticlimactic. This was not at all the case. It was a glorious, tear jerking celebration of life and love. The ceremony was beautiful--the setting, the sentiments shared, the family and friends...I feel deeply honored to be a part of this circle of people who live so consciously and love so deeply.

The party...the party was fantastic. We caught up with old friends, some who have made new lives half a continent away, and some who live here in town but whose lives have taken paths that haven't paralleled our own. We shared old stories and found new things in common. And the homebrew...wow, one of those friends has developed an old love into a real talent!

Another of those friends lives in Indianapolis. D and I have always considered him one of our near and dear lifetime friends. His single guy, professional life and our family-centric lives have led us down divergent paths, obviously, but we keep in somewhat regular touch. Except this time, it had been quite a while. My heart swelled when I saw him yesterday. Nothing (and everything,) has changed since he shared that hovel of an apartment with D and me way back in 1995. It's funny how you actually can go home again, sometimes.

I read an essay recently on the value of friendship. It seems kind of funny and weird to type that out...value...like you could assign anything specific to it. But these old friends of mine, we've stuck it out through thick and thin (not just weddings and funerals, but all manner of things in between,) for about 15 years now. It's more that friendship itself is a value, like integrity is a value.

I feel so lucky and blessed.

My Two Favorite Things About Homeschooling

 

My favorite thing about homeschooling is that our course of study is largely driven by current interests.

We did the epic unit on evolution this winter, which led to classification and taxonomy. From there we have used our field guides to identify many of our garden plants and common insects. We moved into annelids, and I did a quick internet search for "earthworm curriculum" and came up with reams of materials for our study of the worms in our vermicomposting bin. Now we're on to the habits and lifestyles of gastropods. I think it's neat how the snails' shells tie into our recent study of the Fibonacci sequence.

My other favorite thing about homeschooling is the freedom we have to use living books--that is, books that are written by experts in the field who have a real love for and understanding of the topic. This is in sharp contrast to a textbook, which is written by a committee and subject to approval by a few key schoolboards before becoming available to the nation at large. Here is a good article summing up the problems with the textbook adoption process.

Anyway, back to living books. I have been gathering materials to revisit the period of the American Revolution, something we have been doing on and around Independence Day for the past 5-6 years. When I went up to tuck in the girls tonight, C was curled up with King George: What Was His Problem?: The Whole Hilarious Story of the Revolution. Her bedtime refrain "Just one more chapter!" was especially convincing, and being as it wasn't another Terry Pratchett novel (his concept of appropriate chapter length is flawed,) I agreed.

My New Camera!!

This post by C

I just got a new camera for my birthday! This is what it looks like
Here are some of the pictures I took:



I also like the special effects on this picture:
I also took the picture in the post before this one.

Shawnee Lookout

Our longtime family friend F is staying with us this week while his mom works. There is a gap between his school year and his summer sitter's availability. I'm glad to fill it. The kids and I really enjoy his company.

Today we visited Shawnee Lookout, a county park and historical site that overlooks the confluence of the Miami and Ohio Rivers. We hiked up to and through the earthen fort (built by the Adena Indians,) and out to the end of the ridge, where we feasted on pbj sandwiches, apple slices and brownies (courtesy of F's mom.)


(click for full size)

The view is phenomenal. I love getting that kind of perspective. I think the kids were more interested in the snails along the trail (there were about a bajillion.)

C took her new camera. She has taken nearly 400 pictures with it in just over a week. She says she's saving for a laptop so that she can work with her graphic art projects whenever she wants. I do agree that she will need her own computer soon, but I'm thinking an external hard drive might be a more pressing need!

So, we had a good day. Tomorrow the kids have plans for a major backyard water fight. I will enjoy staying home. We haven't planned yet for Thur or Fri. We'll probably go swimming at least once.

Backyard Foraging

A list of our current backyard edibles:

catnip
lemonbalm
mint
chives
onions
shallots
shell peas
snowpeas
mustard greens
oregano
thyme
rosemary
lavender
mulberries
black raspberries
clover
fennel (though our little start is not yet hardy enough to eat)
jack-in-the-pulpit (we have been very clear with T--our jack is not for eating!)

T always has been a big forager. She's been on a catnip kick lately. I can tell when she's been into it because it lingers on her breath.

R ate a lot of peas at first, but a couple of things have happened. I think the novelty has worn off, but also, the peas have moved from the eat-as-you-pick stage into the lightly-steam-then-eat stage, so my guess is he just doesn't find them as satisfying.

T is not so much into the mulberries. She is keeping close watch on the raspberries, though.

R does not yet know to discriminate between mulberries and raspberries. He loves the mulberries--and they're within easy reach.

We have several varieties of tomato this year, but it will be a while before we're enjoying most of them. The exception is the cherry tomato--it has about 12-15 little green fruits. T has a close eye on it, too.

It's funny how at first I found myself saying "get out of my garden!"...then I realized the folly of scolding my children for eating vegetables.

Happy Birthday

R celebrated his second birthday this Thursday.

His new favorite word is "cake."

He blew out the candles himself.

His favorite gift is his toy weed whacker, also known as "whack!"



He also loves his sandbox...in fact, we all think the sandbox is pretty neat!


He's changed so much since last year:


And I can hardly believe this was only two years ago:


Sniff. My tiny baby is a strapping toddler...and I can see the boy just around the corner.

My Requisite Post on a Hot Homeschooling Topic

This post "The Case Against Homeschooling" has been getting a lot of attention with the homeschooling bloggers. There are some thoughtful, well reasoned rebuttals. My friend S wrote one. I have been around this particular block a time or two, and S did a fine job, so I don't feel compelled to add more words to the argument.

I'll sum up the offending blog post. This teacher, Jesse Scaccia, wrote a flip, ten point list on why homeschooling doesn't serve students' best interests. His/her points are redundant. S/he uses straw man arguments and logical fallacies. It's readable--it's even kinda funny, but I'm jaded and I like dark humor. If the intent is(as I suspect) to be incendiary, s/he succeeds. The homeschoolers I know are fairly sick of battling the stereotypes and misconceptions.

For your reading pleasure, here's an oldie but a goodie: The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List graced our refrigerator for the better part of a year. I gave the copy to a friend who needed it--and I'm over that wave of bitterness, anyway.

This is not the first (or even the tenth) time I have seen teachers tearing down homeschoolers. What I don't understand is why highly qualified, highly educated professionals don't put their critical thinking skills to better use! Jesse Scaccia, like the others before him/her writes from the point of view that home education uses the same materials and methods as institutional education. It's a fundamental flaw. In our family, we have tried out several styles of homeschooling, but I have never tried to replicate a brick and mortar school (well, maybe Sudbury Valley) The homeschoolers I know do not and would not try to replicate institutional education. It's the methodology we take umbrage with--not the materials, the teachers, or heaven forbid, the other students!

Why is it so hard to conceptualize a different approach? Why is it so hard to see the student as intrinsically motivated, and the parent as a mere facilitator? Believe it or not, that's how it works at our house, and it works well.

Or is it just easier to take pot-shots at stereotypes?

Jesse's follow up post is titled "Homeschool teacher, meet public school teacher. Now hug." S/he persists with referring to the parent as "teacher."

Just so we are clear: I am not a teacher. I don't think of myself as such, I would never refer to myself as such. I find the notion offensive. I have a great deal of respect for teachers. I acknowledge that it requires education, training, dedication, and an innate proclivity to teach in a classroom. I have none of those things. While I am a person with aspirations, teacher is not one of them!

I can, however, facilitate the education of my own children. I don't use institutional materials, I don't use institutional methods. I outsource when it makes sense. It's just not the same thing, and if Jesse really doesn't get that, I have to question his/her critical thinking skills.

The author of this inflammatory piece, Jesse Scaccia, lists his/her credentials. They include two masters' degrees, a couple of bachelors' degrees, a metric ton of classroom experience...if Jesse truly represents the cream of the crop of highly qualified educators (as it appears s/he does,) but still writes a scathing, ill-researched article on a hot topic in contemporary education while failing to demonstrate decent critical thinking skills, and falls back on cheap persuasive tricks, and gets no where near the real meat of the argument (any homeschooler worth their salt can list far more compelling reasons not to homeschool,) why on earth would I want Mr./Ms. Scaccia to educate my child??