Summertime

Here's a recap of all the fun things we were able to do this summer.

For a homeschool activity, we got to meet Brandon Mull, author of the Fablehaven series, and Beyonders. He gave a good presentation, helped the audience create a premise and setting for a story, and then the kids got to ask him questions about being an author.

Rob and the kids worked on building nesting box for the chicken coop.

building the box

The girls wanted to help by painting the old coop door.

nesting box in coop with the chickens

chickens in coop - getting bigger!

Sammy and Jen went to the splash pad with us.

Sammy was not quite sure about the water. Tessa was trying to get him to warm up to it!

Yeah! See? It's fun!

Elise being silly, Isaak looking for Kaleb

We had these awesome shish kabobs one night. Dave, Denise, and kids came over, as well as Ethan.

We make a good team. :)

Fourth of July weekend we went shooting with Dave and Miles.

I had to take my turn trying out Rob's shotgun. That thing kills your shoulder!

Rob was great with the shotgun. He hit a lot of the targets that Miles launched for him.

Gpa Pemberton's .22 rifle was much easier to shoot.

Funny picture - Isaak looks too young to be shooting that thing!

This is such a cute pic. This is my parents' atv.

The boys were playing on the atv - pretending it was a horse and they were Indians, I guess. :)

Feeding Sammy at Gma and Gpa's house before fireworks.

girls blowing bubbles by gma's pond

Here's a pic of the chickens from July... getting bigger!

With Emily and her kids at Herriman beach

The girls were a great help with peeling apricots to make jam.

All the kids helped pick apricots from the tree in our backyard, as well as a neighbor's tree. The boys helped peel too, but not as many as the girls did.

Stirring the jam. It turned out so yummy! We made apricot pineapple jam too.

I took the kids to the Wild Horse and Burro center up by Butterfield Canyon. It was cool to see all the horses and burros. You can make a donation and "adopt" a horse or burro. It would be fun to own our own horses some day.

cute little burro

old horse shoe

We got a new kitten in July. Her name is Stardust.

She fits in well. Thinks she owns the place. :)

Rob and his kitteh.

The girls participated in Herriman's musical this summer - Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. They were part of the children's chorus, and they did a great job.

Rob and I both got to be in the musical too. Robert played "Dan", and I was a wife.

Picture of us all after the show. I also got to play the violin solo in "Canaan Days", which is why I'm all fancied up in this pic. It was really fun to be in the show together, even though it took up a lot of our summer. Most of the pics I have are from Joseph practices!

Heeeeere Chick Chick CHICK!

We have baby Chickies.

Twelve baby Chickies.

Two Rhode Island Reds

Two Golden Sex Links

Two Black Sex Links

Two Silver Wyandottes

Two Americanas

Their names are:

Jessie

Ginger

Pearl

Galinda

Sapphire

Elphaba

Silver

Dorothy

Cocoa

Princess

Rapunzel

Crystal

Our current hypothesis is that Cocoa will be the top of the pecking order and Sapphire will be the bottom.

The children "observe" the chickens several times a day. Sometimes they draw pictures of the chickens, or write down behaviors that they notice. They are also responsible for replenishing the grass clippings, refreshing the water, and making sure they have food. We are excited for the fun "Science Project". The chickens won't lay until Sept or Oct. We are cleaning out an old pigeon coop behind us and rebuilding and fortifying it for them. We are so excited to have these little friends to take care and learn about!

Some thoughts from Robert

We've been having a good discussion with a few friends on Facebook about why we homeschool. For those of you who don't have Facebook, I thought I would post some of Robert's thoughts. Especially since we haven't heard his two cents yet! :)

*DISCLAIMER*

We have MANY wonderful friends and family who are teachers and for the most part, we do NOT think that teachers are what is wrong with the public school system. I have NO desire to offend anyone. I am not trying to convert anyone to homeschool-ism. :) We are just trying to show you what we've been up to and what works for our family. Please know that we love and respect all of you and know that you are just like us - trying to do your best to teach your children and help them grow up to be wonderful people. Heaven knows we still have a long way to go in our own family.

Rob's Thoughts

Heres My schooling Experience (all public):
Preschool, Kindergarten, 1st grade - Alpine, CA

2nd grade - Victor Elem school - Torrence, CA
3rd grade - Manzanita Elementary School -Tucson, AZ

4th and 5th Grade - Sunrise Elementary School - Tucson, AZ
6th grade - Hope Elementary - Carlsbad, CA

7th, 8th - Valley Jr High - Carlsbad, CA

First half of 9th -Carlsbad High School - Carlsbad, CA

Second half of 9th - North Beach High - Ocean Shores, WA

10th grade - Weatherwax High - Aberdeen, WA

11th and 12th grade - Grays Harbor College (running start), Aberdeen WA (running start program)

My education experience crosses several states and many more school districts. Here are the pluses and minuses.

2nd grade - No friends that I remember except for family. First day of school I was given a black eye by a total stranger. Demeaned for personality quirks by teachers and schoolmates (I used to twirl my hair!).
3rd grade - Chess club and tournaments (school sponsored). All my friends were friends from church who happened to go to my school.
4th - No friends...except for the younger brother of my older brother's friend. (This is why older brother's pick on little brothers).
5th grade - Several friends... none from church.
6th grade - Only friend was a kid in the neighborhood and his cute little sister. Harassed regularly for being LDS and being a "deacon". Witnessed several fist fights and a lot of social pressure to kiss girls. (People literally pushing you together with a girl you like).
7th Grade - Kids talking about other students who have had sex. School trouble makers at this age are starting to be almost criminal. Punched in the face in PE.
8th Grade - Same as seventh. Hung out with a group of 6 girls at lunch.
9th grade - Second half - stalked by a senior who threatened me every chance he could. He would steal my property and then destroy it. Ostracized by classmates for my religion. Framed by other groups of kids for things I didn't do (I didn't get in trouble).
10th grade - Switched schools. LDS kids were very clickish (and I didn't meet their standard?) so all my school friends were non members. I was a musician so my friends were the kids that hung out in the band room and choir rooms during lunch.
11th and 12th grade - College as a highschool student. I had an LDS girlfriend but otherwise only hung out with 2 people from church.

All in all, I would rate public schools today in the following manner. Out of 10.

Structure = 11
Resources (computers, gym equipment, etc) = 10
Challenge = 4
Inspiration = 0
Socialization (over all)= -3
Positive peer influence = 0
Negative peer influence = -10
Teachers who were nice/smart/cared = 8
Curriculum = 3

I found school to be mostly boring. While some things were challenging, most things were easy. I didn't have to try to get A's. I only ever really felt inspired a couple times. The only one I specifically remember was the second half of my Freshman year. Mrs. Olsen was the school counselor and agreed to privately teach me German, as that is what I'd taken my first year of Highschool and wanted to be consistent.

In one year, we did two years of German curriculum. Read that sentence again. Double the normal amount of work. Now think about the implications. How much time is being wasted in the public school because teachers are required to do "busy work" or worse, crowd control. The only time I really felt inspired by a teacher... and did 2x the curriculum... was when I had one on one tutoring.

So, yeah. If teachers could focus on inspiring (and parents need to do this at HOME!!) then the students could achieve amazing results.

I'm not going to say that Home Schooling is guaranteed to be superior to public school...after all, not everyone can have Kayleen for their wife - a great teacher for our kids. (I promise I did not tell him to write that - and everyone knows I have my faults. I think almost every mom tries to be a great teacher to their kids, regardless of where they are "schooled".)

I should have been in 3 grades ahead for reading, vocabulary, etc.
Science should have actually taught how things really work and practical applications instead of watered down crap that left you curious but unfulfilled.

By Jr High level kids are at the point where they can be learning real hands on skills for fabrication, manufacturing, engineering, etc. The stuff we teach in passing are things that were the greatest discoveries of their times! There are so many amazing things to learn and schools don't leave kids hungering to know more. They leave them uninspired. (How many teenagers do you know that love school for the inspiration and academic side of things? Mostly they love the social, sports, or musical aspect of high school.)

A one size fits all garment can truly be put on anyone... but fits none of them well.

Utah is falling behind the curve in the US and the US is way behind the curve in the modern world. We're now importing our engineers from other countries because our kids aren't doing the math or getting the grades.

It's my philosophy that education isn't about efficiently doing busy work, but being able to figure out solutions to problems. How to do practical things. Expanding a child's interests beyond their immediate surroundings takes work on behalf of the parents. If we inspire and challenge our kids to pursue learning, they will. If we allow them to be mediocre despite their intelligence, they will.

The US is pushing for a nation-wide curriculum. The more we push for one standard, the more its not going to fit! Our brightest will be extinguished while the dimmest will still be unspired...

And some of the stuff they're pushing in schools outside UT is inappropriate for education or government institutions, in my opinion.

???

OR

???

What works for your family? :)

We're Rebels

I got this email today from a friend and mentor in our local homeschool group. She is not the original author, but I appreciate her passing it along! Apparently the woman who wrote it lives in Utah and is a pillar in the homeschool community here. It's a great story.

How My Son Rebelled and Followed His Mother's Example

My oldest son (31) was raised in the home school rebellion mode of the `80's. He married a lovely intelligent girl who happened to be an engineer. He has a master's in Computer Science and works as a scientist with secret government clearance for a research company. (Yes. It's his dream job.) They kept their oldest child home for Kindergarten and then succumbed to pressure and put her in first grade. (The bright yellow school bus picks up at their very house. Every morning their little darling saw a bunch of kids dressed in the latest fashions with cartoon merchandising on their backpacks file into the bus.) She is now in 2nd grade and has regressed to grade level in math. Fortunately her teacher does not make her suffer through the phonic lessons, but instead lets her read chapter books in the coat closet. (This makes us smile because her father had the identical experience, being separated from his peers because he all ready knew how to read in first grade. Some things haven't changed.)

Anyway, they have been considering taking her out of school because 1) she hates it 2) losing math skills 3) bullying 4) doesn't have enough time with family 5) wants to read on her level 6) boatloads of busy work to distract her from learning. However, her mother has just been through a difficult pregnancy and wanted K to finish out the year. The baby arrived early, in March, and I went out to New Hampshire to help with the 4 children ages 7, 4, 2 and baby.) My son decided that he would take the 7 year old out of school for a week for the family event of a new brother and a visit from grandma. He sent a note in advance to inform the teacher and ask for assignments. She refused to give him anything and threatened that K would be critically behind when she returned. Odd, in that she is ahead in every subject. We had a lovely week. We went to museums in Boston and the zoo. We made bread and read stories. We had a cubic yard of sand delivered for the sandbox, (a cubic yard is a lot of sand!) We painted portraits and built Lego robots. We kissed and rocked and held the baby and sang him tunes with original lyrics.

A month later my son got a letter from the superintendant saying that if K missed one more day of school for any reason she would be considered truant and legal action would be taken. The next day she had a fever of 100*. He explained to her that it was not legal for her to stay home. She was instructed to go to school and shake hands with every classmate that she could, cough on her teacher and ask to be sent to the nurse. At 10:30am he got a call from the school nurse to come pick up K as she had a fever or 102*. When he picked her up from school he also picked up the paperwork for removing her from the system. He spoke with the superintendant and explained his reasons. The superintendant told him not to worry about the truancy letter because ¼ of the students in their district are absent more than the law allows. In New Hampshire, compliance with law is routinely ignored. I must have raised him to have a low tolerance for bad laws, because this was the last straw for my boy. Many grumble about bad laws and institutions. Those who take action are rebels.

Karen R.