Category Archives: Learning

Mom’s night out

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So. Met a bunch of moms from the Christian home schooler’s group last night for dinner, book-sharing, and general, friendly chat. And it was. I don’t know what it is with this group, but I’m having a heck of a time getting to know these people.

It’s not that they’re not friendly, it’s just been slow going. I suspect it’s because they are all busy home schooling their kids and they have no time for the likes of me. This was also a rare occasion of us getting together without kids. I find it difficult to have meaningful conversation when my children are around. Too distracting.

I love talking to the moms who are nearing the finish line with their home schooling journey. One mom, her face just lit up when I asked her what it was like to be in the home stretch, to be almost done. She said she was retiring.

And educating your kids really is like a full-time job, so it makes sense to look at it that way. She’s got five years to go. I figure I’ve got at least 13, Lord willing.

If you home school your children, how long to do plan to do so?

Field trip to the place-that-shall-not-be-named

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Public school.

Shudder.

My gang has never, ever set foot in a public school. We are “from the cradle” home schoolers. The closest Susan came to attending with the masses was when our Awana club met at an elementary school for a few months due to church repairs. Today we were on a mission of mercy. A friend – without wheels – needed someone to pick up her girl from school, just a minor emergency. Since we are just down the road, the task fell to us.

So, we marched into the front office, where all the women can gawk at us. I said something about not being able to leave the kids home alone. I played it cool, sending up a prayer the kids will behave, wondering if I’m going to be asked The Question, and will I have to defend home schooling to these teacher’s union members.

And what of my children? Long-time readers of this blog know how they can be. My wonderful, obedient children that make me weep with frustration because of their ill manners and monkey shines in public.

They behaved. Yeah, baby. It was a good day to home school.

So I got my visitor badge (no. 18) to walk two doors down the hall to the nurse’s office. We watched a bunch of kids herded down the hall for recess, a bunch more coming in from recess. The sound of drum beats came from a music room. We peeked into the mysterious faculty lounge. Very educational. And not one of my four asked to stay.

Like I said: it was a good day to home school.

Books for rent

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It’s called BookSwim and it works like Netflix. Yeah, I know that’s the beauty of the library, borrowing books, so you don’t have to pay for your reading habit, but my local library sadly is not the most child-friendly place. (See this post for more. I’ll not rehash it all again.)

For about $20 a month, I could avoid going to the library by walking to the mailbox. Think of the gas I would save. Think of the cash in my pocket because I forgot to take back the Barney DVD with a dollar-a-day fine. And BookSwim has a wonderful assortment of educational books for us book-crazed homeschoolers.

I so want BookSwim to be be worth the up-front cost, that I’m going to talk myself into it. Anyone in the BookSwim pool care to share a yea or nay?