Driving Grandma Mary!

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Happy New Year 2011!

We had a lot of fun ringing in the new year at Grandma Mary's this year. Rachel and Grandma spent hours looking up, designing and shopping for 14 games to play - Minute to Win It style. We changed up the rules to accomodate a party of 11. Everyone played 5 games and the 2 people with the highest score at the end played the grand prize game. That was Nikki and Rachel - they had to empty out a kleenex box first to win. But Rachel let Nikki and Bryson win. She knew the prize - a whoppee cushion!

Grandma and Jay

Rachel and Bryson right after midnight!

Zeke, Nikki, Bryson, Tyler and Sharon

Alex and Bryson

Sharon - stacking apples

Pat playing nail on the string

Nikki and Tyler

The Cookie game!

Ending the night with some Michael Jackson moves on the Wii

Time for bed!

Merry Christmas!

This year Christmas was different. We actually stayed home! And it was great! Well, we didn't stay home the whole time. We were home for Christmas Eve though. Alex played piano at Christmas Eve Mass, which was really nice. And when we got home from Mass, we were surpirsed to see that Santa had come early! The kids had fun opening way too many gifts. The highlights? An electric guitar and an ITouch.

On Christmas morning we woke up and headed to the airport to fly to Chicago. Flying on Christmas is fun - everyone is in a good mood! We got in too late to join the Swenton Family Christmas party, so that was a little disappointing. But we still were able to spend a week with Grandma and see the Skafish relatives.

AND, the highlight for Rachel? Wicked!

For most kids it's a dream come true. A free box of candy bars sent directly from a major candy company. Not so for our very own activist.


Since April, Rachel has been learning about fair trade products, especially chocolate. When discovering that she would need to do a public presentation in order to be able to show her rabbits at the county fair, she deliberated for quite awhile on what to choose for a topic. After watching another presentation on palm oil, she decided to focus on fair trade chocolate. She had helped me host a fair trade sale for the past two years at church and found the topic fascinating. So, she decided to combine her love of chocolate and her love for human justice, and educate 4Hers about fair trade chocolate. Her club presentation was amazing. She won an award at the County fair and earned a Special Merit Badge - the highest possible honor - at the State Fair. Upon learning that friends of ours were going to be hosting a fair trade sale at their church this year, she mentioned that she had done a fair trade report for 4H, and even showed our friend while she was at our house. One thing led to another, and Rachel ended up doing her presentation as part of a "Living Simply" seminar at the local Lutheran church. Events really rolled from there. Rachel and her friend were subsequently interviewed for an article in Yes! Magazine as well as the Snoqualmie Valley Record.

And then today, the UPS guy walked up our driveway and handed a box to Alex. Rachel looked at the label and wondered if the box was safe. No, really. This thing has gotten bigger then anyone ever imagined. And when you're playing with the big guys, you're playing with fire.



We opened it up to find a case of milk chocolate bars. And well, safe is really relative isn't it? I mean if you consider high fructose corn syrup, soy lecitin and PGPR safe, then we're good - at least on that end. Rachel's friend received a box too. They think it's a bribe to shut-up. I consider it a reminder to learn both sides. Sounds like a year long homeschool project to me.

Time to Purge???

I'm coming to the realization that some of the books in this house just have to go. It's so hard, because I LOVE books. But, I'm running out of shelves. I think I need to institute the policy I used to have with buying other stuff - for every new thing purchased, two old things need to go. I have no problem getting rid of old clothes, knick-knacky things, unused kitchen appliances... So why not books? It fascinates me that books each hold some sort of knowledge between their covers. If I read a really good one from the library, I will sometimes even go buy a copy just to have for myself. I think I am trying to preserve that knowledge, or at least remind myself that I now have it. I generally try to get novels from the library, and have no problem not keeping a copy myself. But classics, non-fiction, and now of course, homeschool texts and history books are accumulating like mad around here. How do I choose which ones go and which ones stay? What should I do? Help!!!!!

Happy Birthday I-Baby!

Nourishing Traditions

I just read "Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats". This was a really interesting book - another one talking about the benefits of a diet of real food - not packaged, processed, sugared, etc. Given all the books I have read over the years on this topic, it was not super insightful to me, although I never knew about preparing food traditionally in order to enhance enzyme production and digestion. I'm excited to try a few recipes. There is one main reason I am blogging about this book - the best sentence I have ever read in an eat-healthy book... "use as much good quality butter as you like, with the happy assurance that it is a wholesome - indeed, an essential - food for you and your family." Yippeeee!!!!!! I love butter. Especially the grass-fed, pasture butter that I am now buying. And it is healthy! For somone whose philosophy with butter is the more the better, this is revolutionary! And, the fact that the book also touts popcorn as being a healthy snack really has made my day. I can eat my favorite snack, with TONS of butter and not feel guilty! Who says real food has to be bad???

Books Read as of September 30, 2010

As of September 30, 2010 I've read 68 books. Lots of kid lit. It's fun and quick!

49. Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card
50. Love in a Time of Homeschooling: A Mother and Daughter's Uncommon Year by Laura Brodie
51. The Story of the World – Ancients by Susan Wise Bauer
52. The Story of the World – Middle Ages by Susan Wise Bauer
53. The Great and Terrible Quest by Margaret Lovett
54. The Omnivore’s Dilemna (Young Edition) by Michael Pollan
55. Life in a Medieval Monastery by Victoria Sherrow
56. The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli
57. The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly
58. Beowulf: A New Telling by Robert Nye
59. Marley and Me by John Grogan
60. Letters to God by Patrick Doughtie and John Perry
61. Isabel and the Miracle Baby by Emily Smith Pearce
62. Just One Wish by Janette Rallison
63. Six Months to Live by Lurene McDaniel
64. Beowulf – translation by Seamus Heaney
65. The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
66. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
67. The Promise by Eva Schloss
68. Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon

A Driver's Manifesto

Dear Seattle Drivers:

You win the award for being the most incompetent drivers in the world. And this is saying a lot, considering I have been a driver or passenger in some of the worst trafficked cities in the world - Chicago, San Francisco, New York, Boston, Washington D.C., London, Paris, Rome. You even rival the drivers on the Circle of Death in Lima, Peru. Actually, maybe not. Those drivers are pretty good, considering the traffic.

I especially love you Seattlites who see another car merging into your lane, either from a highway ramp or due to a construction lane closure, and speed up just enough to cause that car's driver to either gun the engine to get in front of you or slow way down in order to keep from hitting you. Like yesterday on I90. What you didn't realize is the dark shadow on the back of my van is not a glare from a rare sunbreak. It's a dent. It's one of the reasons I continue to nurse along my geriatric, 10 year old, 162,305 mile van. So that when amazing drivers like you decide to speed up just enough so that I either have to choose to hit the orange cones indicating the lane closure in front of me, or merge into and maybe hit you, I will choose the possibility of hitting you every time. Especially if you have a BMW, or an Acura or Lexus. That's half the fun of having an old car. And when you honk and finally move into the wide open lane next to you and drive past staring at me, like I'm the idiot who didn't pull off the road so you didn't have to speed up to tailgate me, I really wish I had a sign indicating the award I have just given you. Maybe I should make one. One that's okay for kids to see...

I'm moving

Or, at least I wish I was - to a place like this.


Do you ever feel like you were born in the wrong time period? I do. I should have been living in the mid 1800's. Ever since I was a girl reading and watching Little House on the Prairie, I have wished it was me riding along in a covered wagon, making quilts, skipping off to a one-room schoolhouse and battling Nellie. As an adult, I long for a simpler life. I would love my own tiny farm, with a big garden and some chickens. Maybe some alpaca for the wool. No TV. More time. More quiet. Sustainability. Self-sufficiency. Sensing a theme? Oh, and the house above? Well, I can't really live in it. It's just way too small...

A Little House

Rachel and I delivered a replica of the Little House on the Prairie to the Puyallup fair today. We started this project 3 years ago, when Rachel first started homeschooling. She wanted to study pioneers and our intention was to build the Little House and electrify the fireplace using a paper clip switch. Three years later we are finally done! Well, done enough to take to the fair anyway. We still have some work to do.

We started out using a kit made by Dura Craft. However, after reading "Little House on the Prairie" by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and consulting "The World of Little House" by Carolyn Strom Collins, we realized we needed to completely modify the kit. My intention was for our house to replicate the size of the real little house on a 1/12 miniature scale, but our kit wouldn't allow for that, so our house is a little small (in more ways then one!). We used pictures from the website of the official historic site near Independence, Kansas to replicate where the door and windows would have been.

First, I redesigned the layout of the house, sticking to the size of the wood "logs" as provided on our kit. I did have to cut some to allow for the change in window and door position. Instead of using logs for the floor, as directed in our kit instructions, I used a solid plywood floor, thus allowing for extra logs, which were the ones I cut as needed. Rachel painstakingly glued all the logs together using tacky glue. She did an amazing job. And all this gluing was done three years ago. Then, the walls, floor, roof and door sat gathering dust while we waited to stain everything and put it together. That finally happened last weekend! I mentioned to Rachel that the fair was coming up and asked her if she wanted to enter our little house for judging. Of course she did! So, we had a huge weekend project. We went from pieces to an almost finished house in one week.

On Friday we put the walls and roof together. We used grout to chink our logs, and let it dry overnight.

We started staining everything on Saturday. It was a big job, and messy!

After the stain dried, I started building the stone chimney. This was a painstaking job, as I could only glue one row on at a time, then wait until it was mostly dry to glue the next row. I used Tacky Glue. If I had a better glue, it would have probably gone much more quickly. The top of the chimney will be made with sticks, and then the whole thing will be grouted, once our house returns from the fair.

This is how the little house looked the day before we took it to the fair.

We have some really cool details in our house. My favorites are Ma's blue china doll on the mantle and Pa's fiddle. We also have Jack the bulldog, and even the one tin cup shared by Laura and Mary. Our scale is a little off. The house is around 15" long and 12" wide. To be true to Pa's actual cabin, it should be 16" long by 15" wide. We were limited by our "logs". Also, our family is small - probably 3/4 of an inch rather then the 1 inch scale, so some of our accessories are a little large - like our rocking chair, fiddle (which is really a violin), cradle and spinning wheel. We still love it!

In addition to the chimney, there are a few other things to be finished when our house returns home. The front door has to fastened on. I used leather strap hinges fastened with tiny black screws. The lantern hanging from the roof beam needs to be ordered and fastened on. We created a praire grass base on which to display the house. We also have an outhouse which will conceal our mini-generator which will power our fireplace and candles! ( No more paper clip switch.)

It was hard to leave our house. We walked away, picturing it falling or being knocked over. Well, I hope it stays safe. And maybe it will even win!

More Rules

I thought of some more!

Finish reading every book you start. There are probably hundreds of books that I want to read - really. If I finished every lousy book I started, I would never get to the good ones. If I get a book that is just sitting there staring at me, after I've tried to read it a few times, I bag it. On to something more exciting.

Make your bed every morning. You're just going to get back in it at night!

Brush your teeth while camping. Now, if you are going for a week, then yes, please brush! But I always thought it was funny when moms would run around every night nagging their kids to brush their teeth, at Girl Scout camp or a camping weekend. One or two days of not brushing is NOT going to make your teeth fall out. You might wonder why other people aren't talking to you, but your teeth will still be there.

Keep the heat at 68 and the air conditioning at 78. Strike that, reverse it. I love air conditioning! I wish we had it. If we did I would keep it on every single day, and I would make sure I could feel it. None of that half-hearted - maybe we should turn on the air stuff for me. Same with the heat. In the winter I want to be warm. Now I know this does cost extra money, but hey, I can use the money we save on not paying for the boob-tube.

Rules

Why do people have so many rules?

Like, sorting clothes before washing. Alex said someone at camp asked him if he could wash a light blue shirt with a dark one. He was like - "sure...". We don't sort clothes around here. Why should we? We don't really have that many white clothes and anyway, I read somewhere a few years ago that clothes are made so poorly now-a-days that they won't last more then a year or two - even with precise washing machine care. So why?

Cats should not go on the table. Realistically, if you have a cat in your house, its fur is everywhere, all the time. Just because your cat is shunned from the table does not mean there will not be any fur on it. If it bugs you, then you will need to wipe the table down everytime before you eat anyway. I do draw the line on cats on the table while I eat. I also really don't like them on the counter - but that's what a squirt bottle is for.

Pots, pans and sharp knives shouldn't go in the dishwasher. Why not? They get cleaner, especially since these are the things that usually are touching meat. They don't get handwashed and then sit for a few days in the drying half of the sink, waiting to be put away. I say the more things in the dishwasher, the better.

Mow the grass every week. Who cares about grass? I really wish all our grass would go away and be taken over by more natural landscape like Oregon Grape or Sallal. Especially in our front yard. If we have to grow grass in the back, then I prefer it to be the type that is healthy for deer and elk and the rabbits who come through here. No fertilizers and pesticides. And if it grows long, there's more for the critters to eat

Don't use too much butter. WHAT! Again I say the more, the better. Especially on vegetables, And especially if it is pasture butter.

Kids need to play sports. Again why? I am all for physical fitness, but really. Four seasons of team sports, practices, games - no time for family vacations, or even family dinners. See this.

Kids need to go to school. Enough said.

For rules that might actually be worthwhile, see here.

In Defense of Consumerism

I have a question. How can I "know" so many bloggers with the same values (in general - not political) as I, and yet meet so few in person? I guess it could be the blogs I read - blogs of good friends, and blogs like this and this and this and this. But what about the "mainsteam" people? Don't they blog? I'd love to read some blogs of people defending why it is good for your kids to text 24/7. And why shopping at the mall for designer clothes is a family activity. Living life with your "friends" on Facebook instead of, well, living life. (And Farmville? Come on!!!) Watching TV enough so that your kids hear 14,000 references to sex in one year? Playing video games for hours on end instead of reading or playing a family board game - please enlighten me!!! I'd love to read about what is going on with the affluenza set, because that seems to be how most of the people I meet in person think.

If you know any blog sites like this - defending consumerism - please post them as a comment.

Judge Not.

Today, in the place where I should not be judgemental, I was. During Mass - ALL of it - a little girl 3 pews in front of us spent the whole time playing her Nintendo DS! At first I thought this girl had a pink book. Never mind that she looked to be around 8 or 9 years old - at the very least past First Communion age when kids should be listening. But while looking up at our priest during the homily, I was startled to notice it was a DS! This little girl sat all through Mass, even when the rest of us stood, playing DS with her little sister looking over her shoulder.

It drives me crazy enough when parents allow their kids to bring the DS into a restaurant, rather then take responsibility and teach them how to sit and socialize, but church? Come on! Now I have to add this to my list of things that irresponsible parents do in church. (My list also includes food in church - it's only an hour, eat before...) I even contemplated telling her smug, affluent looking parents that I would pray for them at the end of Mass. And then, right after the Eucharest, I looked over and the girl's mom was kneeling, and praying and crying. And I realized, who am I to judge? I have no idea what is happening in that family. And maybe if the DS was the only way to get that family to Mass and allow the mom to have Communion and pray and cry, then so be it. God doesn't mind, so why should I?

You People...

Yesterday, Alex, my mom and I picked up Rachel from Veterinarian Camp at Purdue. There was a "graduation" ceremony and the speaker was really interesting. Here's the gist of what she said:

"Purdue has been running it's GERI summer program now for 33 years, and it just keeps getting better and better. Programs like this are so important for kids like yours, given the state of education. Most of these kids are probably straight A students. Some maybe not - they're too bored. Those are my favorites - the ones too smart to conform. They go to school everyday, but are they really getting what they need? Mark Twain said "I never let schooling interfere with my education". Unfortunately, education today is a lot like filling a pail full of water and never using it. Eventually it either gets dumped out or stagnate. At GERI, we make sure it's not stagnate. Our classes give kids hands on opportunities to dive into their subject. There are no grades, because we want to encourage kids to soar, not worry about what kind of grade they will get. We want them to think of a million ways to do something. Benjamin Franklin said "I didn't fail the test, I just found a million ways to do it wrong." We think kids should be allowed to specialize in what they are interested. Whose purpose does the "well-rounded" student serve? If someone is brilliant in math, but still required to take 4 years of English, what purpose does that serve other then taking time away from what that student does best? We think kids should have the opportunity to learn in a way that is encouraging, fun and meaningful."

(There was more - her speech was 20 minutes. She mentioned things like 99% of Valedictorian's end up in middle management...)

At the end, I was like WOW! They really get it here at Purdue. I went and talked to her, thinking she might have some good resources for high school kids who have the luxury of not having to sit in class all day, learning information that stagnates. Here's the conversation.

Me: I really enjoyed your speech.
RM: (huge smile)
Me: I am currently homeschooling two high achieving kids
RM: (frown)
Me: (now hesitant) and was wondering if you have suggestions or resources, especially for high school students that will be applying to college...
RM: Well, you know they still need to take AP classes and all the tests and anyway that's not my area of specialty. Don't you people have all kinds of resources?

You people... Really? Someone that sounded so enlightened could only reach as far as offering a 1 week summer alternative to schooling as a solution to what she five minutes before called stagnate? Very closed minded. Alex called her hypocritical. Rachel said her speech was bull(onie!) I am not very enamored with Purdue. Maybe Ms. Mann needs a lesson from Ms. Goldson.

Valedictorian Against Schooling (a must read & was not written by me)

(Author's horse - bucking the system!)

Dear Editor,

(The following was read as the valedictorian's speech at Coxsackie-Athens High School in recent weeks, creating quite a stir among administrators, to great applause from students and many of their parents)

There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master: "If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen?" The Master thought about this, then replied, "Ten years . ." (The student then said, "But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast - How long then?" Replied the Master, "Well, twenty years." "But, if I really, really work at it, how long then?" asked the student. "Thirty years," replied the Master. "But, I do not understand," said the disappointed student. "At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?" (Replied the Master, "When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path."

This is the dilemma I've faced within the American education system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.

Some of you may be thinking, "Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn't you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.

I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer - not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition - a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning.

John Taylor Gatto, a retired school teacher and activist critical of compulsory schooling, asserts, "We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness - curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids into truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then. But we don't do that." Between these cinderblock walls, we are all expected to be the same. We are trained to ace every standardized test, and those who deviate and see light through a different lens are worthless to the scheme of public education, and therefore viewed with contempt.
H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. ... Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim ... is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States. (Gatto)

To illustrate this idea, doesn't it perturb you to learn about the idea of "critical thinking." Is there really such a thing as "uncritically thinking?" To think is to process information in order to form an opinion. But if we are not critical when processing this information, are we really thinking? Or are we mindlessly accepting other opinions as truth?

This was happening to me, and if it wasn't for the rare occurrence of an avant-garde tenth grade English teacher, Donna Bryan, who allowed me to open my mind and ask questions before accepting textbook doctrine, I would have been doomed. I am now enlightened, but my mind still feels disabled. I must retrain myself and constantly remember how insane this ostensibly sane place really is.

And now here I am in a world guided by fear, a world suppressing the uniqueness that lies inside each of us, a world where we can either acquiesce to the inhuman nonsense of corporatism and materialism or insist on change. We are not enlivened by an educational system that clandestinely sets us up for jobs that could be automated, for work that need not be done, for enslavement without fervency for meaningful achievement. We have no choices in life when money is our motivational force. Our motivational force ought to be passion, but this is lost from the moment we step into a system that trains us, rather than inspires us.

We are more than robotic bookshelves, conditioned to blurt out facts we were taught in school. We are all very special, every human on this planet is so special, so aren't we all deserving of something better, of using our minds for innovation, rather than memorization, for creativity, rather than futile activity, for rumination rather than stagnation? We are not here to get a degree, to then get a job, so we can consume industry-approved placation after placation. There is more, and more still.

The saddest part is that the majority of students don't have the opportunity to reflect as I did. The majority of students are put through the same brainwashing techniques in order to create a complacent labor force working in the interests of large corporations and secretive government, and worst of all, they are completely unaware of it. I will never be able to turn back these 18 years. I can't run away to another country with an education system meant to enlighten rather than condition. This part of my life is over, and I want to make sure that no other child will have his or her potential suppressed by powers meant to exploit and control. We are human beings. We are thinkers, dreamers, explorers, artists, writers, engineers. We are anything we want to be - but only if we have an educational system that supports us rather than holds us down. A tree can grow, but only if its roots are given a healthy foundation.

For those of you out there that must continue to sit in desks and yield to the authoritarian ideologies of instructors, do not be disheartened. You still have the opportunity to stand up, ask questions, be critical, and create your own perspective. Demand a setting that will provide you with intellectual capabilities that allow you to expand your mind instead of directing it. Demand that you be interested in class. Demand that the excuse, "You have to learn this for the test" is not good enough for you. Education is an excellent tool, if used properly, but focus more on learning rather than getting good grades.
For those of you that work within the system that I am condemning, I do not mean to insult; I intend to motivate. You have the power to change the incompetencies of this system. I know that you did not become a teacher or administrator to see your students bored. You cannot accept the authority of the governing bodies that tell you what to teach, how to teach it, and that you will be punished if you do not comply. Our potential is at stake.

For those of you that are now leaving this establishment, I say, do not forget what went on in these classrooms. Do not abandon those that come after you. We are the new future and we are not going to let tradition stand. We will break down the walls of corruption to let a garden of knowledge grow throughout America. Once educated properly, we will have the power to do anything, and best of all, we will only use that power for good, for we will be cultivated and wise. We will not accept anything at face value. We will ask questions, and we will demand truth.

So, here I stand. I am not standing here as valedictorian by myself. I was molded by my environment, by all of my peers who are sitting here watching me. I couldn't have accomplished this without all of you. It was all of you who truly made me the person I am today. It was all of you who were my competition, yet my backbone. In that way, we are all valedictorians.

I am now supposed to say farewell to this institution, those who maintain it, and those who stand with me and behind me, but I hope this farewell is more of a "see you later" when we are all working together to rear a pedagogic movement. But first, let's go get those pieces of paper that tell us that we're smart enough to do so!

Erica Goldson
Athens, NY

Here's her blog - America Via Erica . And, read the comments too!

And, here's an interview - Washington Times Homeschool Community.

"Love in a Time of Homeschooling"

I just read a new book - Love in the Time of Homeschooling by Laura Brodie. A super easy (like 3 hour) read, and pretty cute. The author decided her daughter needed a sabbatical from school and homeschooled her for 5th grade. I appreciated mom's description of real life homeschooling - it's not always a June Cleaver world. I also thought it was cool that most of the books that inspired the author to homeschool like The Well-Trained Mind, and Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense were my inspirations as well. Since the Brodie's plan was to homeschool for just a year though, they created an insane plan to make sure they covered everything the public school was covering. This left little time for fun and flexibility, and I found that pretty sad. The main thing I am going to work on for next year, in fact, is more FUN! I did not sign up to be a Nazi homeschool mom, and I don't want to have to micromanage the kids' work. Now if they would just get their stuff done...

Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

I found a new, funny website - "weird, unsocialized homeschoolers". Check it out!

Team G-Force

This Saturday is the Snoqualmie Valley Relay for Life. Rachel has been working her tail off getting a team together. She has been recruiting friends, stenciling shirts, fundraising, building carnival games, organizing snacks, creating a website and a flyer, and so much more. She is really amazing. Check out the website: Team G-Force.

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After relay update:


Relay turned out great! It was very tiring, but very fun. Team G-Force ended up earning more then $2,000 to become a Bronze Award fundraising team AND won a pizza party for having the best decorated booth.

G-Force Pizza Party!

Luminary for Grandma Virginia