Field Trip!

There are many positive reasons to homeschool and definitely one of them for me is taking field trips. This past week we went to the annual auto show at the Qwest Center in Omaha. The very nice gentleman at the ticket booth didn't charge me for my sweet smiling six year old so I just had to pay admission for Luke and I. Being sixteen Luke enjoyed the day more than Laramie and I but we all had a great time. We sat in incredibly small vehicles and Hummers. Ooohed and ahhhhed over the Mercedes and BMWs. It wasn't just a good time, we learned about sticker prices and options and the difference between economy and luxury cars. We enjoyed speaking to the representatives of the Smart Car and hybrid cars. The current economy has greatly affected the automotive industry and many of the representatives held different opinions as to where it was headed. Only one dealer questioned why mine were the only children there that day. When I explained to him that we homeschool and this was a field trip he asked if he could show me a minivan. I guess many people have that stereotype of homeschoolers as the uber-evangelicals with a passel of conservatively dressed kids.

So we learned about more than cars that day, we learned how funny and inaccurate stereotypes can be.

You Gotta Love the Lunch Box

For many of us just the sight of a lunch box brings back reels of memory tape of our elementary school days. I remember every fall getting a new metal lunch box with a coordinating thermos inside. I loved my Dukes of Hazard lunch box. It was so cool. My mom put milk in the thermos, peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a banana or cookie for dessert. Often she would write Love, Mom or a smiley face on the napkin. Ah, good times. As a homeschool mom I don't send my six year old daughter off to school everyday with her lunch in tow but old habits die hard and I still buy her a new lunch box every fall. The thermos comes separately now and there is more variety to choose from Various styles and colors. Soft sided, plastic, old school tin . The thrill is still there. Sometimes she packs a lunch in her horsey lunch box to go to her Grandma's or puts toys in it if we are going on a road trip. She loves her lunch boxes. Guess she gets that from me.

EASIER SAID THAN DONE

Sometimes homeschooling is like trudging through mud. It is tough but not impossible and best if you keep chugging along. It is when you get thrown off track or lose your balance that make it tough to get your footing back and get in the groove again.

Our home school group breaks for seven weeks beginning in mid-November which occurred right about the time as my son's 16th birthday and Thanksgiving. We took a short enough three day trip out of town to see family, shortly thereafter we had family come visit us. Throw in some Christmas preparations and well, I am a bit off schedule with my homeschooling. OK, a LOT off schedule. There goes my ''HOME EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD''. I might not have exactly been in the running for that one anyway. Being a stay at home mom is wonderful and sometimes it is just exhausting. It is easy to get off schedule with errands and household chores but remind myself of what is most important. My children aren't going to succeed in life because I vacuumed and dusted. They are going to succeed because I am going to impart upon them love and knowledge. So I will ignore the dust bunnies and get up to speed on our curriculum. It is easier said than done but it will get done.

Yeah, it's that good.

I love the flexibility of homeschooling. Teaching my kids at their level at their pace makes so much more sense for us .

Entering into public school at six years old with a hundred or so other children and being expected to arrive on graduation day thirteen years later all having accumulated the same level of knowledge at the same pace just doesn't make that much sense to me. It doesn't seem realistic or achievable. According to CNN the graduation rate in our country is 73%. That is not to say that homeschooling is the answer for everyone just because it was the answer for us. Schools need to get away from their assembly line thinking and actually teach the children so that they can learn at their pace and ability level.

Not everyone can afford to have a parent stay home to teach but if vouchers were available as they are in some areas for private and charter schools then it might be more accessible. These are the children who in twenty years or so are going to be our doctors, lawyers, soldiers and politicians. I want them to have the best education possible, don't you?