Secular Thursday: How We Do It All...

or, in reality, how we don't. :)

I'm going to burst into song right now: "Time, time, time, see what's become of me!! While I looked around/For my possibilities !!!!" And you're probably thinking 'why is this crazy woman singing Simon & Garfunkle's A Hazy Shade of Winter?" And I respond with, "but it's covered by the Bangles!" Also. that bit of lyric is suitable for today's post.

Now, a lot of my friends wonder how I have time to do all that I do. I homeschool my girls, I go to school online, I try and make sure the house stays in one piece... Usually my default answer is "MAGIC!" But that's just my catch-all response for anything I don't really have an answer to. In all honesty, I DON'T do it all. Ninety-eight point twenty-three percent of the time, my house is in total chaos. My cats have gotten into something, my children are running rampant through the house, and my dog is old and hiding upstairs from all of the crazy. Most days I have a headache, I keep tripping on my animals/children/toys, I haven't washed my dishes in the past week or two, I don't know where I put something vitally important, I have misplaced my glasses, and I have forgotten to do my homework that is due that very night. By 3pm *I* want to take a nap. My husband is a blessing. If it weren't for him I would have already done murders and arson. On Fridays, he's in charge, and in the evenings he's the one who cooks dinner. He works nights, so we don't get to be with him often, but when we do, I can take a break. I love my kids, I love being with them, and I love teaching them, but sometimes I need a vacation.

So you see, I don't actually do it all. I just try and get SOMETHING done. My goal for every day is to have my daughters learn something new or acquire a new skill. Everything else can just wait. And that's guaranteed to work most of the time, every time.

I was actually going to add to this, but I can't see straight. It's been "one of those days" where you do wish you had magic.

Wordless Wednesday: Desks

built the girls' school desks.

Unit Ideas for April

• Amphibians
• frogs
• Reptiles
• snakes
• Insects
• butterflies and moths
• bees
• ladybugs
• Farm
• farm animals
• dairy farms and cows
• chickens and eggs
• Earth Day
• Arbor Day

The History of Easter

Most people today believe that the practices of Easter *begin* with the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the son of Jehovah God, but are incorrect in thinking so. The word Easter is derived from the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility and Spring, Eostre, whose symbol was the hare (fertility). Eggs were exchanged at this time to symbolize rebirth and were painted to show the coming of the sun and the growth of a new and fertile land. There are several different variations of this goddess such as Ostra (Scandinavian), Ostara (Celtic), Ostern, and Eastre (Teutonic). Her festival was celebrated on the vernal (spring) equinox, or what we now know as the first day of Spring.

Early Christian missionaries wishing to convert the pagan tribes adopted the festival as their own. Since it fell around the time of the memorial of Jesus Christ's death (Passover), the church simply replaced one celebration with another, changing the meaning of the festival and making an easier transition into Christianity for the pagan tribes.

Have a very blessed day today, whether you celebrate Easter for its religious aspects, both Pagan and Christian, or are secular and just love getting chocolate in your plastic egg ;) Today we are dressed in pretty spring-colored dresses, watching secularly-easter-themed movies, going to play outside in the dirt and eating eggs and pancakes for breakfast. How do you celebrate Easter?

Weekly Wrap Up

We did stuff with things this week. :) The weather was so lovely the entire week that we spent most of it outside.

Monday:


Tuesday:


Wednesday:





Thursday:




Friday:

Wordless Wednesday: Impromptu Playdate

today's wordless wednesday brought to you by 80 degree weather.

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Secular Thursday: Iowa Homeschooling Laws

I know this is late in the day, but with three small children and my own schooling to do, this is the only free time I get! So, tonight I will kill two birds with one stone. Bird #1 is SecThurs; Bird #2 is my first ever Blog Hop!

This Blog Hop Hosted by Kylie @ OurWorldwideClassroom.blogspot.com and the theme is to tell or show the things we are all required to do to meet our state requirements.

In the state of Iowa, compulsory age starts at the age of 6 through 16 before September 15. If the kid turns 16 on or after that date, they have to stay enrolled for that school year. Schooling is a total of 148 days, with 37 days (though not really defined) per quarter.

Every year parents must file a CPI (Competent Private Instruction) form to the school board secretary by August 26 of that school year. This form is 2 pages long and asks the questions of how long you will homeschool, what you will be teaching, the name of the books you will use, some lesson plans, etc. It also asks for vacc records, or a medical/religious exemption for vaccs.

Then, the form asks the parent to choose a schooling option, whether it will be a Supervising Teacher, or an annual assessment. If the teacher, you have to give their name and "folder number" (what they use to identify teachers). All the STs that I know of have a fee. If you choose the annual assessment option, you will have to turn in a report card from any correspondence school you may be using. It HAS TO BE ACCREDITED BY THE STATE for it to be legit. If you are not using a correspondence school you can create a portfolio. The portfolio must be evaluated by a licensed teacher (also for a fee, a I've been told. I am currently working on my degree so that I can be qualified to be a licensed teacher to use this option for FREE!). The teacher's evaluation (not the portfolio) is then sent to the school system. The teacher MUST BE LICENSED FOR THE SPECIFIC GRADE YOU ARE TEACHING. If you do not wish to use the portfolio option, there is the option to do a standardized test at the end of every year. They have a list of tests that are allowed to be used for this option. I do not know what they are.

And there you have it. I believe that is all that is required to legally homeschool in the state of Iowa here in the United States. It's an unwanted amount of paperwork and tape, but it can be done. I currently do not have to worry about it for another two years. Lily will not be cumpolsory age until then.

Wordless Wednesday

This wordless Wednesday brought to you by PBS Kids

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Weekly Wrap-Up: SPRING BREAK!!!

School was out for the week, here in this house anyway. In my small town, they really don't have a Spring Break as I know it. They [students] end up with a 4 or 5 day weekend. So while my kids took this entire week as a vacation, everyone else had to go to school through Wednesday. Homeschool WIN!

And since we did very little this week, I will just share photos from this week. :)
(those viewing this through my LJ, the original post is at http://spiral-goddess.blogspot.com/)

Monday: We did some Read It-Write It-Draw It books for kicks. Then we headed out to the store so I could make mental notes of things I would like to have to make storing homeschooling supplies easier. As well as stuff and things.


Tuesday: Absolutely not a thing.

Wednesday: Happy St. Patrick's Day! We were set to have a play-date, but our friends were sick. :( However, they did drop off some tasty treats for us that EVERYONE enjoyed.



Thursday: It totally felt like SPRING today. All of the snow was gone and the temp rose up to 60 degrees F!! So we walked to our public library, then walked to our public playground/park, then walked back home. On the way home we greeted wild-life, such as two garter snakes and some bugs. :)
`

Friday: We got 4 inches of snow and spent the entire day in the house incredibly annoyed with Mother Nature.

Secular Thursday: Minority

Being a minority within a minority WITHIN A MINORITY sometimes makes me want to punch people in the face if they make one of those kinds of comments.

First, ethnically, I'm a minority. I am Hispanic, and in this incredibly small town in Iowa, there are like 3 of us. Two living on the same street (me and my neighbor). LOL. Normally this doesn't bother me. Even though English was my second language, I've mastered it to a point where I sound like the average American. Hell, I have better enunciation, spelling and grammar skills than most Americans I have met that are my age. But if I'm in a store, talking to my mother in Spanish when I'm on the phone with her, people start to stare. The customers stare, and then the clerk(s) look at me like I'm about to shoplift or something. (Yes, because a woman arguing with her mother on the phone while trying to keep her 3 small children from hiding in the racks and making it a jungle safari is there to shoplift.) I've even been FOLLOWED.

Second, I homeschool. Fifty percent of the people here are farmers, 40% are corporate workers in one thing or another, and the other 10% work here in town. Most parents send their kids to public or private school because they cannot make the time to homeschool, or just don't have an interest in doing so, and that's cool. I was a public school kid growing up. I was a LATCH-KEY kid because both of my parents were working, and my older siblings had their own lives going on. To each their own. But not many people homeschool. It's difficult. AND you don't get paid for it. PLUS you're stuck with your kids all day. :) I don't know many parents who find that appealing in the least. People keep thinking I'm SuperMom or something because I *want* to be with my kids all the time. (Though sometimes I would like a vacation)

Third, I am Pagan. When most people accept you homeschool, they think you do it for religious reasons, which is fine. But they automatically assume it's Christian based. But if I say no, I am not a follower of Christianity, a whole new stream of negativity is thrown at me, which is also accompanied by the last minority in this "list"--I'm a SECULAR homeschooler.

Religion is not frowned upon here. On the contrary, it's discussed quite frequently. My mother is a Christian pastor. She created her church, does her own thing, and we discuss the teachings of Christ, the older scriptures, and how it can easily meld with Science frequently. (I lucked out. My mom's not a crazy, she knows Science is fact built by many theories that were proven through extensive research and experimentation. But she also finds [and I agree with her] that it is overseen by Divinity [though we don't agree on who].) I study religion as a hobby and my husband and I both collect religious texts for educational purposes. I believe that you better understand people if you can better understand their beliefs, their faith system. My husband is an atheist. His only religion revolves around his nerd, lol, but he knows that if it is a healthy way of life, something that helps you be a better person, there is no reason to bring it down or "ban" it from the house. Everyone has the right to believe the way they are most comfortable as long as that way is not harmful to them or those around them. And though we do discuss openly about beliefs and the mythology surrounding those beliefs, it is never set as truth, because we have no proof. So I try and keep my religious views out of our schooling. I want my children to decide what they believe on their own terms. If my children ask me a question that's religion-based, I have no problem answering, but I always emphasize that it is what *I* believe, and that it is ok if they believe something differently because there is nothing to prove any of us wrong, so no one can be right or wrong.

But I digress...

I've learned that sometimes it's easier to just keep my big mouth (and I mean that in a literal sense) shut. It's not that I'm not happy being this or that, or being a "minority" six different ways from Sunday, but it seems that people just keep getting dumber. So when anyone finds out that I'm a Hispanic secular homeschooling Pagan mom and they feel like adding their negative two cents, I just want to slap them. Slap them in their pretty mouths. But instead I have to do it the easy way and just ignore them. Violence only ever teaches that it hurts to get hit, even if you are wishing you could smack them smarter.

Lapbook Giveaway

Tristan over at Our Busy Homeschool is doing a lapbook giveaway. She bought a lifetime membership after already paying for one year, so now Hands of a Child is giving the rest of her membership (seven months!) FREE to one lucky person!

Truthfully, I'm hoping it's me. :D But, you should go and try a chance at winning it, too! Go click the above linked text!

Secular Thursday: Why Homeschool?

The past forever, everyone has asked us why we are choosing to homeschool our children. Like each of my pregnancies, this wasn't something I had originally planned. I had planned to work outside the home, have my children go to public school, until I actually had my children and watched them learn and grow.

My husband is a genius. While most people retain 50% of what is taught to them, he can retain 70-80%. I was a "gifted" student. Not anywhere near my husband (who graduated high school with academic honors without even trying) but still above the average. My children seem to have inherited our awesome. LOL

I have absolutely no problem with public school. Both my husband and I went to public school, and I know I have fond memories of my high school years. But academically, I was never challenged. I wasn't "smart enough" to skip a grade, but I was "smart-enough" to finish my tasks before all the other students and space out. When I was put in the Talented and Gifted program, the teachers expected us to already know everything; "You're a TAG student, you should know this". My education was stunted, I plateaued at an early age, and never felt motivated enough to challenge myself with other things.

Lily is currently going to a private preschool, and though the standards of that preschool are higher than the public school's she is STILL two years ahead of everyone in her class. Iris, who is two years younger then her older sister, is also two years ahead of most children her age. Because of their age, I cannot put them in a higher grade. Because I cannot put them in a higher grade, they are stuck with the children their age, who are at a different level, and get bored. Because they get bored, they end up being naughty. Lily has gotten into the habit of painting all over herself when she is done with an activity b/c everyone else is still busy with theirs. If she finishes early, which she usually does, she gets bored and then gets up and leaves the room. Sometimes, she just straight up refuses to participate.

What I've come to know about my children makes homeschooling the best opportunity for our children to learn. I know how Iris learns. I know how Lily learns. I know what works with what children and can adjust to better suit their learning abilities. In public school, the problems assessed would only be the majority. Unfortunately that would not work for my children, since they are not part of the majority. Also, I have more one-on-one time with each child, since I only have three children and not 16.

One thing that seems to go along with the "why homeschool" question is socialization. What irks me about those statements is do they honestly believe I'm going o keep my kids cooped up in the house all day every day? There are activities that they can be placed in with other children. Sports, of all shapes and sizes are incorporated AND we take them to areas where there will be children their age that they can interact with, such as the park, or the play area in our local malls. (By local, I mean 30 minutes away.) I am a social butterfly. I LOVE people. I cannot imagine not having my children out and about making new friends and acquaintances.

For now, with how "smart" our children are, homeschooling is the best option to better harness their awesome. And studies show that there is a direct correlation between my kids and awesome. :)

Wordless Wednesday: Rearranging the Playroom/Classroom