Summer Events

Noelle will have the bulk of her summer involved in summer theater. Kyle? We looked into summer camp today and boy is it expensive! Anyway, we'll see if we can come up with the $400 before all the open slots are filled (you have to pay in full when registering). Possibilities are: mountain biking, climbing/repelling, and adventure sampler. Kyle's birthday is in July so maybe the relatives will pitch in on the expense instead of other presents?

Scrapbooking

Okay, its all Sonya's fault. Now I want to make sure my children's childhoods are documented like she did for Kevin. Kirk is completely encouraging this. What's the problem you ask? I don't need another hobby.

*sigh*

I checked out a bunch of books from the library and will begin this onerous process in the next couple of weeks. First I need to collect/buy a bunch of "stuff" to do it properly. Maybe I'll enjoy it, maybe I won't. I'll let you know...............

Fairies?

Fairy Island (An Enchanting Tour of the Homes of the Little Folk) is a most charming book that dd and I are enjoying right now. We may even decide to go looking for fairy things on the creek bank beside our house. If we don't find anything we may have to create some to encourage the fairies presence.

Theater

My natural born actor got a part in the upcoming children's summer theater production. She has 30 lines and is so excited. I'm so proud of her!

Quote

A friend shared this quote with me and I don't want to lose it. So, I'm putting it here:

"In a nutshell, people whose lives are hard, boring, painful, meaningless—people who suffer—tend to resent those who seem to suffer less than they do, and will make them suffer if they can. People who feel themselves in chains, with no hope of ever getting them off, want to put chains on everyone else."

—John Holt

How Children Fail

As I read this book I can't help but see myself during my school years in these pages. I also see my own children. For some reason, I feel that you really can't appreciate John Holt's other books until you read this one and see how your own life has been impacted (strange since I haven't read any of the others). I need to see where I've been in order to move forward. How can we see the harm when we don't even realize it? Its so natural to do as was done to you because you don't know any different. This is how generational curses perpetuate. Its a book that I can't seem to put down but I have to or I get overwhelmed, my heart aches for all children subjected to school and school-at-home.

So ready for this......

Its time to learn our new dance and I am so excited! Its been a rough couple of months, emotionally and spiritually, so I'm ready for some serious "Praise in Action"! ;)



Noelle and I took off this afternoon for a mini-spa and afternoon tea (it was her birthday present from Nana but I was invited to come a long as well). A chance to relax......

We had a blooming tea. Very interesting.

I think Noelle enjoyed herself.

Evaluations

DONE!

Now to get back to the business of living life...........

John Holt

Okay, I haven't read any of his books. I'm checking them (How Children Fail, How Children Learn, and Learning All the Time) out of our library to read, today. Kirk says he will read them as well. Keep praying.......

Nope,

there won't be much coherent thought coming from me until the kids' evaluations are over on the 20th. I am not good at keeping track of things and spend too much time piecing everything together right before evaluations. Oh, and of course, the rest of life keeps going........

Testing, Final Day

The one math section didn't go as well as the rest, her math is really good if you don't confuse her with math terms. Oh well, she's all done. Yeah!

Testing, day 1

Well Noelle seemed really confident about it. She finished the first three sections with time to spare. Our next door neighbor came over to the house to administer the test and was treated to a "show and tell" between sections, lol. We'll finish up the California Achievement Test (survey) tomorrow.

I Need to Do This

AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but i have to figure out how to let it go.................

God, HELP!

Discovery

Know what else is great about our library being online? I can now see what books we have checked out and when they are due. Books seem to stream all over our house and we forget what we've got, lol. We are supposed to eventually be able to renew books online (not too difficult right now as we can do it over the phone). I was told that in switching to the new system the books I checked out would only be in history from the time the system started in April. Well, today I got a nice surprise, our book history goes clear back to June 2007. I have found that I did not write a lot of titles down that were read, so you can see why it was a nice surprise for me. Have I mentioned I hate paperwork?..............

Today....

Beautiful sunny day, just warm enough.......

Sorted through my clothes which made me decide to have a yard sale. I'll now have to get the kids to go through their clothes as well....

Started my overdue laundry today......

Road bikes to Noelle's piano lesson, then ran errands, back to piano lessons, off to the library...

On the way home stopped to visit some good friends, felt like I hadn't been to see them in ages, wonderful friends.......

Noelle made appointment for her mini-spa gift certificate that she got for her birthday, mom is included, what fun.........

Now off to make dinner.....

Oh, and some more laundry :).......

Another Rant

They're our kids! God gave them to us, the parents, to raise! We know the kids are smart and learning all the time. They're wonderful people! We don't send them to public school because how we raise them is our business, not the business of the school district or the government.

Our kids' learning is none of your business either, so stop asking how "school" is going. We don't "do" school, we live our lives and learn as we go, completely natural. When God's word says to "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it", it DOES NOT say to do it like the schools do it!

And while I'm on the subject (I'm sure there are exceptions), why does the church resemble school so much in the way it does things? Sunday School segregates the kids, youth groups segregate the teens, 20s groups segregate the young adults, and home groups segregate the adults; just like school segregates everything!

We were watching Hoosiers and got to talking about how so many things in high school are a popularity contest. Our conversation made me realize that I've seen a lot of people living their lives like they're still in high school. Why? They were in an artificial environment for 12 years of their lives and don't know how to live and think for themselves. Many of us didn't buy into the crap though, that's why those of us who can unschool.

In the movie Mickey, the kid repeats sixth grade. The teacher comments on how the kid acts as though he's seen the material before and is getting straight A's. Oh, please, as if a school in NV would have the exact same curriculum as a school in DC. I know kids who transferred to a school in the next county, who were doing great at their old school, and ended up in remedial classes at the new school.

You know, I probably could keep going but now that I've vented, I feel better =D


Note: I am not ripping on families who send their kids to public school. Its every family's choice. My point is that it is not "our" choice and I'm giving you a little insight as to why (there are many more reasons and I'm sure I'll post about them eventually).

Blah

For some reason I am in a funk right now and I don't even know why. There are so many things that I need to do and have no energy to do them.

The sun is trying to shine and maybe it'll help, its been rainy and overcast the last couple of days.