Proud Products on the Government Institutions!

Found this posted recently and chuckled!
(Sorry no idea who the original author is!)

You Know You're A Homeschool Mom When...

When a child busts a lip, and after seeing she's okay, you round up
some scotch tape to capture some blood and look at it under the
microscope!

You find dead animals and actually consider saving them to dissect
later.

Your children never ever leave the "why?" stage.


You ask for, and get, a copier instead of a diamond tennis bracelet
for your wedding anniversary.

Your kids think reading history is best accomplished while lying on
the floor with their head resting on the side of their patient dog.

Your husband can walk in at the end of a long day and tell how the
science experiment went just by looking at the house.


The only debate about the school lunch program is whose turn it is to
cook.


Your kids learn new vocabulary from their extensive collection
of "Calvin & Hobbes" books.

Your formal dining room now has a computer, copy machine, and many
book shelves and there are educational posters and maps all over the
walls.

You have meal worms growing in a container... .on purpose.

If you get caught talking to yourself, you can claim you're having a
PTA meeting.


You step on math manipulatives on your pre-dawn stumble to the
bathroom.


If your child claims that the dog ate his homework, you can ask the
dog.


Your kids refer to the neighbor kids as "government school inmates."


You live in a one-house schoolroom.

This is a MUST for kids!
Actually it is a must for adults too!
http://themoneycamp.com/index.php
:)
K

Never believe you are not fit...

remember:


amateurs built the ark ..


professionals


built the Titanic.

Here is what we do about candy and junk food:

There is a cookie jar filled with all sorts of individually wrapped candy on the kitchen counter. Everyone can help themselves to a single piece anytime once they have had a piece of fruit/vegetable (fruit and veg in the fridge) or a glass of water. (Note - not at bedtime)
This works well for all of us, although I will admit it took a while to convince the 3 year old. :)
Here is my thinking - you can only eat so much this way before you are full! Damage control and best of all - I am not the cookie/candy police anymore!


We have a cupboard filled with breakfast foods and snacks that I can live with and they feed themselves from there all morning. Lunch and dinner are more organised and they help to cook them. Then they only have to have 1 bite of anything new (and try it again every few months) and completely eat whatever else they help themselves to. If I serve it - they don't have to finish it.

Here is my thinking on this - breakfast is because I am not a morning person and you don't want to wake me up to make food - trust me!
Lunch and supper - the shopping, prep and cooking are great learning opportunities and we love food so it is fun.
The serving thing - I figure since I cannot know how hungry you are, if I serve it you do not have to eat it all. I want them to learn to eat until they are satisfied, listening to their own bodies.

However, if they take it, then they must eat it all. They can always have seconds. I don't care for waste and they learn to take appropriate amounts this way and to listen to their bodies more carefully.


For the rest, I would agree with the post about the kids needing to fit into the world they are in and not infringe on other peoples pleasure in a wanton fashion. Respect for all creatures (including your environment, yourself, your child and your audience) at all times. Here they learn the fine art of compromise and negotiation.

Basically, it boils down to something like - if it annoys me - you cannot do it around me! :) Likewise I will respect your preferences and keep my singing in the shower!

I feel that the tantrum and running around the restaurant thing is inappropriate. We are supposed to be preparing them for the world - imagine if you tried that on at your office tomorrow!

We are facilitating and guiding our children and can help them avoid some hideous consequences by teaching them what you believe to be the important social and spiritual rules by which we live.

You wouldn't allow your child to discover the laws of physics by running into the road, likewise you would guide them about social behaviour and stuff like honesty and integrity. They really don't need to reinvent every wheel! I do my best to stick to logical and reasonable consequences for every behaviour - good and bad.

That is what works for us.

Whoever said it takes trust to unschool was spot on! It certainly does. Trust comes with practice too - so keep on going! You can do it!

Besides there is no rule that says you have to only do one kind of "schooling" - mix and match until you find what works for you and your cherubs! Ignore anyone who tells you differently!

Have a choice-filled day!
:)
Karen

Extract from a recent discussion:
Even though I unschool, I do control what is offered to my children - both food wise and environmentally. We all do.

We like to think we are giving everyone free choice, buit in fact there are many restraints in place naturally.

In our family, we don't have chocolate available for breakfast (sadly) and we don't watch pornography or violence. We have a wide range of choices like staying home and reading and riding and martial arts and art class and time on the pc etc.
From what is available to them, they make the choices most appropriate and interesting to themselves.

We can not realistically make everything in the world available and I would suggest that we wouldn't want to either. There is much I choose not to have my children experimenting with at this point or at all.

We also control the attitude and beliefs that surround them most closely. They will be copying what we do!

I have frequently been heard to say that by the time they leave our home they will have witnessed at least one really cool and complete education - mine!

Have a day filled with choices!
Karen

Just say YES!

The average child hears "No" a gazillion times a day - eventually they very reasonably tune it out.
Try saying stuff like -
Yes, after you have finished that job.
Yes, when you are 18.
Convince me. Right now I feel that would be unwise - convince me otherwise.

Or you can try finding out what they really want behind the thing they have asked for...
eg - sometimes we eat because we are emotionally empty - maybe we could have a cuddle instead?

Have a loving day!
K

How incredibly to the point!

Since we can’t know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned.
John Holt

When people poke your child...

At the park several boys called my daughter (8) some names.
She opted for crying and running away.
I found her theatrically seated by the lake, dripping and sniffing.


I was puzzled about what to say that would be useful.
Eventually after hugging quietly and some deep breathing, I said:
"Sweetheart, do you remember when C came to play? His family doesn't have any pets and how he was fascinated by the cats and wanted to play with them. Remember how he didn't know how to get them to pay him attention and so he poked them? And poked them. And poked them until they got up and left. Do you remember that?"
"Uhuh" was her damp response.
"Well, I think these little boys are fascinated by you and they don't know how to get your attention and so they are "poking" you by calling you a name. They just don't know how to stroke you and make you purr."
Damp giggle.
"They went poke and you exploded in tears. They are probably bewildered about what just happened."
Snort.
"By the way, what does it mean about you, if I call you broccoli nose?"
"Nothing"
"That's right, because the words people use tell us about them, not about you. How about stinky flea?"
"Nothing", but now she is smiling.
"How about pretty Peonie petal?"
"It means I'm pretty."
"Ah, no. That is a common misunderstanding. If you forget that their words tell us about them and take the ones you like to be true, then you will take the ones you don't like to be true too. Neither are. They are just words that people have used that reveal who they are."
Back to "hmmm".
"So what did they call you?"
"Catwoman."
I burst out laughing. "How appropriate! They set us up for this conversation! Do you know I love you?!"
We hugged and she dashed away to find her little flock of girlfriends.

We trust our children to learn to walk and talk. These are essential skills! When was the last time someone was seriously worried that their baby was going to be too lazy or too unmotivated to learn what it needed to learn?
If no-one (read the school system, mostly) messes with their natural curiosity and ability to learn your baby will grow into a curious child who is eager to learn about his/her world and who knows exactly what interests him/her at any point.
If you feel you absolutely have to have an agenda then build it around their interest!

Bear in mind, it is only in the school system that there is a set time at which a child must know something or have a specific skill. And that is so that the child can keep up with the pace the class has set. It has nothing to do with that specific child and its unique skill set.

It takes a lot of faith - and you can do it!

Keep questioning everything!

Learners' Manifesto:
from INSULT TO INTELLIGENCE by Frank Smith (PhD Harvard)

1 The brain is always learning. We learn exactly what is demonstrated by people around us. Schools must stop trying to teach through pointless drills, activities and tests.

2 Learning does not require coercion or irrelevant reward. We fail to learn only if we are bored, or confused, or if we have been persuaded that learning will be difficult. Schools must be places where learning can take place naturally [by desire, not force].

3 Learning must be meaningful...schools must change themselves, not try to change us, to ensure we understand what we are expected to learn.

4 Learning is incidental. We learn while doing things that we find useful and interesting. Schools must stop creating environments where we cannot engage in sensible activities.

5 Learning is collaborative. We learn by apprenticing ourselves to people who practice what they teach [who don't just teach. If the child didn't learn, the teacher didn't teach]

6 The consequences of worthwhile learning are obvious [We use what we learn]. Schools, teachers and parents should not have to rely on marks, scores or tests to discover if we have learned.

7 Learning always involves feelings. We remember how we feel when we learn or fail to learn. Schools must not treat learners like machines.

8 Learning must be free of risk. If we are threatened by learning, then the learning will always threaten. Schools must recognize that continual testing [and many other of their practices] are intellectual harassment.

The lesson in Smith's list is that schools are bad places for learning, especially the public schools. They violate all of those recommendations, with every child, all the time. Smith's book describes what goes on in the typical school and sums it up best in one chapter, called The Nonsense Industry.

article by Ned Vare

Food for thought!