Homemade Art Supplies from the The Homeschool Network Internet Library News
Baker's Clay
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 tsp. powdered alum
1 1/2 cups water
Food coloring
Mix all ingredients in bowl. If too dry work in extra water with hands. Color by dividing and adding food coloring to each portion. Roll or mold as desired. Once molded or rolled bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 30 minutes in 250 degree oven. Turn and bake another 1 1/2 hours. Remove and cool. When done, sand lightly if desired and paint.
Bath Paint
Shaving cream
Food coloring
In a muffin tin, place a quantity of shaving cream. Mix in food coloring.
Big Bubbles
2 c Joy or Dawn dishwashing liquid
6 c Water
3/4 c Light corn syrup
Mix ingredients in bucket. Let settle 3-4 hours. Makes super big bubbles.
Bookbinding or Leather Glue
1 packet (1/4 ounce) unflavored gelatin
3 tablespoon boiling water
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon glycerin
1. In a pan, add gelatin to boiling water. Stir until gelatin is completely dissolved.
2. Add vinegar and glycerin. Stir until well mixed.
Makes about 1/3 cup. For larger projects, double the recipe.
How to use it: While the glue is still warm, apply a thin layer with a brush. This waterproof glue is excellent for binding leather to leather.
It also makes a good flexible glue for use on paper, or for gluing cloth to cardboard for making notebook binders or scrapbooks.
Stored in a tightly capped plastic or glass jar, this glue will keep for several months. It will gel in the bottle after a few days. Warm bottle in hot water to reuse glue.
Colored Playdough
1 cup flour
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
Food coloring
Mix all ingredients in saucepan. Heat, stirring constantly until ball forms. Knead until smooth.
Condensed Milk Paint
1 cup condensed milk
Food coloring
Mix one cup condensed milk with a few drops of food coloring. This makes a very bright, glossy colored paint.
Cornstarch Finger Paint
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 cups cold water
Food coloring
Soap flakes
or liquid dishwashing soap
Mix sugar and cornstarch in medium saucepan over low heat. Add cold water and stir until mixture is thick. Remove from heat. Divide into four or five portions (in muffin tins or cups). Add a drop or two of food coloring to each portion and a pinch of soap flakes or soap. Stir and let cool. Store in airtight container.
Egg Dye
1/4 teaspoon food coloring
3/4 cup hot water
1 tablespoon vinegar
Measure liquids into a bowl. Separate into small bowls. Add food coloring to each mixture. Soak hard boiled eggs in dye.
Face Paint
1 teaspoon corn starch
1/2 teaspoon water
1/2 teaspoon cold cream
Food coloring
Stir together starch and cold cream until well-blended. Add water and stir. Add food coloring. Using a small brush paint designs on child's face. Remove with soap and water. Store in airtight container.
Glue
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1 tsp. white vinegar
1/2 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup cold water
Mix water, syrup and vinegar in small saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil. In small bowl, mix cornstarch and cold water. Add this mixture slowly to first mixture. Stir constantly. Let stand overnight before using.
Goop
2 cups water
1/2 cup cornstarch
Food coloring
Boil water in saucepan - add cornstarch stirring until smooth. Add food coloring and stir. Remove from heat and cool. Child can play with the goop on any plastic covered surface.
Homemade Paste
1/2 cup flour
Cold water
Add cold water to 1/2 cup flour until a thick cream forms. Simmer on stove for 5 minutes. Add food coloring or flavoring if desired. Wet messy paint that takes a while to dry.
Jewelry Clay
3/4 cup Flour
1/2 cup Salt
1/2 cup Cornstarch
Warm water
Mix dry ingredients together. Gradually add warm water until the mixture can be kneaded into shapes. Make beads by rolling the dough into little balls, piercing the balls with toothpicks, and allowing the balls to dry. Paint and string the beads.
Kool-aid Playdough
1/2 cup salt
2 cups water
2 tablespoons salad oil
2 cups flour
2 tablespsoons alum
Kool-aid for color
Boil salt in water until salt is dissolved. Add Koolaid for color. Add salad oil, flour and alum. Knead or process until smooth. Keeps for two months or longer.
Library Paste
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon alum
4 cups water
Oil of cloves
Mix all ingredients in saucepan and cook until clear and thick. Add 30 drops of Oil of Cloves and store covered.
Modeling Clay
2 cups salt
2/3 cup water
1 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup water (cold)
Stir salt and water over heat for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cornstarch and cold water. Mix until smooth, return to heat and cook until thick. Cool before using. Store in plastic bag.
No-Bake Craft Clay
1 cup cornstarch
1 1/4 cups cold water
2 cups baking soda
Food coloring
Paint
Mix all ingredients except paint in saucepan over medium heat for 4 minutes until thick (like mashed potatoes). Add food coloring to water before mixture adding for color. Remove from heat, turn out onto a plate and cover with a damp cloth until cool. Knead like dough. Store in airtight container.
Paper Mache Paste
1 cup water
1/4 cup flour
5 cups lightly boiling water
Mix flour into one cup water until mixture is thin and runny, stir into boiling water. Gently boil and stir for 3 minutes. Cool before using. (Use with newspaper/newsprint strips for Paper mache).
Pasta Dye
1/2 cup rubbing alcohol
Food coloring
Mix alcohol and food coloring in bowl. Add small amounts of any type of pasta to liquid and gently stir. Dry on newspapers covered with wax paper.
Poster Paint
1/4 cup flour
1 cup water
3 tablespoons powdered tempera paint
2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon liquid starch or liquid detergent
Measure flour into saucepan. Slowly add 1 cup water until mixture is smooth. Heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens. Cool. Add 1/4 cup flour paste into small jar or plastic container. Add tempera paint and water for each color. For opaque finish add liquid starch. For glossy finish had liquid detergent.
Salt Playdough
1 cup salt
1 cup water
1/2 cup flour
Mix ingredients and cook over medium heat. Remove from heat when thick and rubbery. As mixture cools, knead in enough flour to make a workable dough.
Sidewalk Chalk
Plaster of Paris
Water
Colored Tempera Paint OR Food Colors
Mix 2 quarts. plaster of Paris w/ 1 part water. Mix in desired color. Pour into paper towel or TP tubes (about 3" high). Let dry thoroughly (may take several days). Remove from tubes.
Silly Putty
2 parts white glue
1 part liquid starch
Mix ingredients and let dry until workable. Add more glue or starch if necessary. May not work on humid days. Store in airtight container.
Simple Playdough
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups salt
6 teaspoons cream of tartar
3 cups cool water
3 Tbsp oil
Food coloring
Mix dry ingredients in a big cooking pot. Blend liquids together in a bowl. Combine with dry ingredients and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat when dough pulls away from the sides of the pot and can be pinched without sticking (about 5 min.) Turn onto board or counter and knead until smooth play dough consistency. Store in an airtight container.
Soap Crayons
1 cup Soap flakes
Food coloring
2 tablespoons Hot water
Have one large bowl and several small bowls, one for each color. You will also need an ice cube tray with different sections, or containers to act as small molds.
Put soap flakes in a large bowl and drop the hot water into the soap flakes, stirring constantly. The mixture will be extremely thick and hard to stir.
Spoon some of the soap into each of the small bowls and color each separately, adding the color by drops until the soap has the consistency of a very thick paste.
Press spoonfuls of the soap into your molds and set the crayons in a dry place to harden. They should take a few days to a week to dry completely.
Uncooked Playdough
1 cup cold water
1 cup salt
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
3 cups flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
Tempera paint or food coloring
Mix water, salt, oil and enough paint to make bright colors. Gradually work flour and cornstarch to consistency of bread dough.
Waterproof - Glass Glue
2 pk (1/2 oz.) unflavored gelatin
2 tablespoons Cold water
3 tablespoons Skimmed milk
Few drops of oil of wintergreen
In a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin into cold water. Set aside to soften. Heat milk to boiling and pour into softened gelatin. Stir until dissolved. Add oil of wintergreen as a preservative. Makes about 1/3 cup. Use while still warm; may be applied with a brush. This glue is very effective for gluing glass to glass, metal to metal, wood, mending china and labels on glass jars.
To glue marbles together allow glue to cool slightly so it begins to jell. Glue should be stored in a screw capped glass jar. It will jell as it cools. To restore it to use set jar in hot water.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Calling for all links!
I'm looking for all useful links to resources, books, and games for learning. Free is the operative word. User friendly is nice, too. Over the years, I've gathered quite a few links and they are currently spread out over four or more computers. I am going to attempt to tame them by listing them on this blog so they will be available to anyone who has use of them. Feel free to leave links in the comments and I will get them added. Thanks! This will be left as a sticky post for awhile.
I Love My Girls!
In the last post I talked about perceived 'doing something'. My spouse doesn't see our son as doing anything, but I see that he is always doing something just maybe not what dad is wishing he would do at a particular moment. This has lead to an interesting couple of days.
The youngest is trying his hand at persuasion and manipulation by going back and forth between my spouse and I and trying to pit us against each other. This might work if I was persuadable and or if my spouse and I hadn't been in a talking friendship for over twenty-five plus years. We have a few more years under our belt of dealing with each other then he has of being on earth. I get where my spouse's issues are coming from. I just don't agree with them. I believe that my spouse will come around pretty quick to not wanting to send our son back to school. I don't for a minute believe that my spouse ever really wanted to send him back to school but the threat was made, therefore, the options looked into.
The original game plan was to let him unschool until he he was around fifteen and then get him started in Early College. I always figured around fifteen or sixteen and my spouse has always wanted to start him earlier. George himself has stated he would like to be taller so he doesn't stand out so much. Going before he can grow a beard makes him stand out from the crowd.
So with this current decision on the table of whether or not to send him to middle school, of deciding to place him in sixth grade as one of the older kids in the class or to seventh as one of the younger kids in the class, (by birth it would be sixth grade), or skipping to eighth just because he can, has been getting tossed around. The school isn't open to discussing placing him into gifted nor honors but I know I could argue for honors classes but I won't as I wouldn't be sending him there for an academic education.
Since both my girls attended this school, I did ask them both individually for their thoughts on the matter. The oldest who experienced the range of classes; regular, honors and gifted, highly recommends NOT allowing him to get placed in the gifted program. Most kids who do gifted don't recommend it. She took some time and talked to her brother about behaviors of the kids, how to behave himself, what are things to not say and things that would be fine to say. She gave him good advise on how to read a teacher and had him practice sending and receiving text messages so we know he is comfortable texting in case he should need one of his sisters to come rescue him.
She also gave me some good advice on the best way to get him aquanted with the school and their procedures. She advised me to request a conference with his teachers, find out what he needs (supplies), what he needs to know (procedures), and what he needs to read/do to be where the rest of the class is. She also recommended getting a tour of the school so he knows where everything is including the cafeteria and those procedures. None of this was offered by the school but it makes sense and would make the transition smoother.
My other daughter said she has never thought of her brother as uneducated or lacking in knowledge. She does feel that he is lacking in social skills, more by his own choice then any real lack of skill. She feels that his attending school would be excellent training in how to deal with the social issues of a concentration camp. She went on to say she doesn't fault the parents nor the schools for the situation but the schools are more of a daycare then a place of learning. The teachers just do what they have to do to get a paycheck which doesn't necessarily mean teaching.
She went on to say many people have told her college professors don't really care about the students but that hasn't been what she has found. She feels that the professors she has met teach because they wouldn't know what else to do with themselves if they didn't teach. They teach for the love of learning not the paycheck. She says the college classes can't even be compared to all the other school classes she has ever had. Sending her brother to school will only allow him to see how much better college is of an option.
Both my girls have clearly stated that they will be there for their brother whether it's help with school work, help with dealing with social issues, or just needing to be picked up from the place at any time. They both have said they will even leave their own classes to come and get him should he need to escape. I love my girls!
The youngest is trying his hand at persuasion and manipulation by going back and forth between my spouse and I and trying to pit us against each other. This might work if I was persuadable and or if my spouse and I hadn't been in a talking friendship for over twenty-five plus years. We have a few more years under our belt of dealing with each other then he has of being on earth. I get where my spouse's issues are coming from. I just don't agree with them. I believe that my spouse will come around pretty quick to not wanting to send our son back to school. I don't for a minute believe that my spouse ever really wanted to send him back to school but the threat was made, therefore, the options looked into.
The original game plan was to let him unschool until he he was around fifteen and then get him started in Early College. I always figured around fifteen or sixteen and my spouse has always wanted to start him earlier. George himself has stated he would like to be taller so he doesn't stand out so much. Going before he can grow a beard makes him stand out from the crowd.
So with this current decision on the table of whether or not to send him to middle school, of deciding to place him in sixth grade as one of the older kids in the class or to seventh as one of the younger kids in the class, (by birth it would be sixth grade), or skipping to eighth just because he can, has been getting tossed around. The school isn't open to discussing placing him into gifted nor honors but I know I could argue for honors classes but I won't as I wouldn't be sending him there for an academic education.
Since both my girls attended this school, I did ask them both individually for their thoughts on the matter. The oldest who experienced the range of classes; regular, honors and gifted, highly recommends NOT allowing him to get placed in the gifted program. Most kids who do gifted don't recommend it. She took some time and talked to her brother about behaviors of the kids, how to behave himself, what are things to not say and things that would be fine to say. She gave him good advise on how to read a teacher and had him practice sending and receiving text messages so we know he is comfortable texting in case he should need one of his sisters to come rescue him.
She also gave me some good advice on the best way to get him aquanted with the school and their procedures. She advised me to request a conference with his teachers, find out what he needs (supplies), what he needs to know (procedures), and what he needs to read/do to be where the rest of the class is. She also recommended getting a tour of the school so he knows where everything is including the cafeteria and those procedures. None of this was offered by the school but it makes sense and would make the transition smoother.
My other daughter said she has never thought of her brother as uneducated or lacking in knowledge. She does feel that he is lacking in social skills, more by his own choice then any real lack of skill. She feels that his attending school would be excellent training in how to deal with the social issues of a concentration camp. She went on to say she doesn't fault the parents nor the schools for the situation but the schools are more of a daycare then a place of learning. The teachers just do what they have to do to get a paycheck which doesn't necessarily mean teaching.
She went on to say many people have told her college professors don't really care about the students but that hasn't been what she has found. She feels that the professors she has met teach because they wouldn't know what else to do with themselves if they didn't teach. They teach for the love of learning not the paycheck. She says the college classes can't even be compared to all the other school classes she has ever had. Sending her brother to school will only allow him to see how much better college is of an option.
Both my girls have clearly stated that they will be there for their brother whether it's help with school work, help with dealing with social issues, or just needing to be picked up from the place at any time. They both have said they will even leave their own classes to come and get him should he need to escape. I love my girls!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Deals
Monday night left me emotionally exhausted Tuesday. (It is now Wednesday, right?) So what happened you ask? Well, life ebbs and flows and is always changing. For most of us it seems anyway. In my spouse's eyes, it did not seem so with our youngest. Our older girls have moved out for the most part. One still stores most of her stuff in her room and we see her once or twice a week, but being a young adult, working, going to college, she has only to obtain her own home to be completely out on her own. My spouse's mother fell and broke her hip last fall and still hasn't learned to trust her new hip enough to re-learn to walk so she now resides in a nursing home. As for my spouse, his job is always giving him new challenges to learn and grow from. Recently, he was assigned the job of creating a new training lecture that would be used to train his fellow co-workers and possible sold to other departments to train their employees.
I recall him feeling the pressure to make sure he created an easy to understand, easy to read, manual. He knew he did not want to use a PowerPoint format as from experience, he knew that tends to make the audience fall sound asleep. I knew that the last few months has filled his free time with dealing with Medicare and nursing homes, and insurance companies, and taxes, and tons of other things that there are not clearly written rules and regulations on. Life is so much easier to handle when the path is straight and clear. Unfortunately, it seems that the rules for dealing with the elderly, as with government, are purposely made convoluted and abstract at best. My spouse even received the advise of legal counsel on a few of these issues and was advised of the few possible ways to address some of these topics with the lawyer saying that some of these laws are written to be confusing therefore open to being altered to fit the desire of the day of the power in charge of the topic.
I'm not a personal fan of non-clear rules but such is life. So just what does all this have to do with stressful Monday night? As stated above, my spouse has been dealing with many, many, issues, and recently, more then he has ever had to tackle at one time. Along with all these added pressures, there are still the everyday daily tasks of life. Monday morning found him checking all the electrical pathways throughout the house to find out what was causing a breaker outage. (The day before while he was at work, I had lost half the power in the house so to prevent a possible fire, I had to re-route where the refrigerator was drawing power so I could leave those breakers off.)
Now dealing with electricity is interesting. My spouse knows his stuff. While he was working, he involves our son so he can learn. My spouse has always taught the kids everything he does, hence how we have a young lady for a daughter who knows how to work on her vehicle's engine, brakes, tires, and knows how to weld, too.
Monday night...Monday night found my spouse seemingly upset with the youngest. I can't really say why, as I'm still somewhat unsure, but it seems that my spouse was resentful over what appears to be the youngest having a life of leisure. I'm the parent who has for the most part, over seen the children's education. Gross total, I've got over forty years of combined dealings on this topic! Oh my! There's a reason one should never combine one's numbers as gross totals, so let's just say I've been dealing with childrens educations for near the past twenty years.
I'm a curious sort, so I was reading all I could before I ever conceived my first child. I knew what to expect; the milestones, the resources available, the old ways and the new. I thought I was prepared. The private school was easy to deal with and provided an outstanding education for our daughters. When the girls switched to public school, I learned one had to fight to obtain a decent education. The public school wasn't designed for the student. We were deluded to believe that if your child could attend an 'A' rated school, then the child would receive a top education. Then our baby boy reached the age to take his turn and we learned differently. I'm not going to bother repeating all that transpired more then to say this child is who sent me looking deeper for other paths.
In the past, my spouse had mentioned homeschooling. Homeschooling would allow us to be free and travel whenever we wanted. I never gave it much thought as the private schools never restricted our traveling and the girls loved going to school and did well in school. The baby boy did well in school educationally, but it didn't take long to realize that he already knew the information prior to the school 'teaching' it and he only regurgitated it for the grade if I paid him for said grade. Otherwise, the grade meant nothing. This child and the school setting with age like peers was a bad mix so I pulled him home and set out to learn all I could about homeschooling. I remember my spouse referring to me as having the tenacity of a pit-bull. I can't say I was thrilled with that description but I understood his meaning. I was going to learn what our son needed.
Many of you know that I learned of unschooling and it all just made so much sense! I talked to my spouse about all that I learned and he pondered it. He wasn't so sure of all I was telling him but I was stubborn and stuck to the course. It's been over four years now and in my personal opinion, our son is doing well. Then Monday night happened.
To hear my spouse's side, he would tell you it's been brewing for much longer then one night. He feels that our son does nothing. I don't see it this way, but then again, I'm constantly reading at the unschooling sites so I have a different concept of "doing nothing". My spouse wants to impose his new rules. Bed by such and such a time. No food after such and such a time. You must accomplish such and such each day...yada, yada, yada.
Now, I'm not unsympathetic to what my spouse is getting at. I just don't see it the same way on some of these points. Our son has been living in his own natural rhythm and has been a much happier person for it. He sleeps late because there is no demand to force him up. He's always up and ready to do things with me when I get home. He use to be up and ready to do things with his dad, too, but then dad got really busy dealing with his own mom, and stopped being available so much. The girls ebb and flow as to when they are stopping in between classes, visits, laundry or whatever, but there is no demand for a certain young teenager to be up and running at any particular hour. The couple of virtual courses he attends, can be signed on to whenever he chooses, twenty-four/seven.
This all being said, my spouse was having issues over this lifestyle and Monday night made the threat of our son either 'doing something' or being put back into school. I don't do idol threats well. I wasn't very happy over this and really needed to figure out just what was setting my spouse off on this topic. The sad part came when I hugged my son good night and he whispered that when dad's not home, he really missed him and wished he was, but when he was home, he wished he wasn't.
A paradox. A sad and unfortunate paradox.
When I woke in the morning, I still wasn't very happy. As I prepared for work, I spoke to my spouse and suggested he follow through on his threat. I suggested that he take our son over to the school at the time of all 1600+ kids being in the halls and go talk to the school about just what would be required to re-enroll him back into the system. The look my spouse shot me! I informed him just to take our son there and inquire not enroll him. I knew they would want a current bill of health, paperwork filled out, I've heard of possible testing but didn't know if this school would require it, but I also knew that they would have to accept him. The going theory is many schools will test the student, then subtract five from their current age and that's the grade they are placed in regardless of test results. I also suggested he not mention unschooling as the school would have enough issue over 'homeschooling' without venturing into understanding 'unschooling'. No sense wasting ones breathe on that topic. He told me in general, he doesn't go into unschooling for exactly that reason, but he does explain it when someone is genuinely interested which usually occurs whenever someone meets our incredible son.
So they arrived at the school early but not early enough to see all the kids in the halls. My spouse received the needed paperwork, which included two different health certificates or proof of shots and vaccines. They spoke to a counselor who asked questions on what our son has studied. Upon being informed of the two virtual school classes for sixth grader, she informed them that our son would qualify for seventh grade as the kids in this school's seventh grade, were just learning the stuff covered in the virtual school's sixth grade! Don't even get me started on my thoughts on THAT topic. Have I mentioned my son's opinion of the virtual classes?
Needless to say, I don't look at sending my son back to school as something that would be done for an 'education'. The school is even further behind then it was years ago when our girls attended. No, sending our son back to school would only be to have him out of the house, to occupy his time with 'something', in lieu of him hanging around the house 'doing nothing'. It would give him the chance to interact with that 1600+ young teens that I already know he has little interest in interacting with. As for how he would do? From my daughters switch from private school to public, I doubt he will do well. Partly because he isn't interested in impressing them and partly because he hasn't had their system beat into him. My daughters found that since they hadn't been shown the public schools way of doing things, they had some adjustments to make. They also learned that the teachers had no desire to show them the system preferring to just dole out 'F's for non-compliance.
What I found most interesting was the lack of interest in actually speaking to my son. The school had no interest in the fact he has a very high IQ, proven by their own testing. They have no interest in the fact that per their own system, he has already been placed into their 'gifted' program having had an IEP written up for him to attend their highest offered classes. No, should he be sent back to school, he would be place in the 'regular' classes. I say 'regular' because of my past experience with fighting with this same school over my daughter's placement. Regular means in a class with many kids who can barely read and few who can handle simple multiplication and possibly a little division if one is lucky. Per their own words, the last statement is true. They stated that when their students are placed into the same virtual school my son was in, that their kids fail as it's too hard!
In speaking to my spouse, I learned he had already set up the doctor's visit to get the forms filled out. It was already past time for our son to have his yearly physical, so two birds with one stone. I suggested that we start our son back this coming Monday which seemed to surprised my spouse. He was unaware that I had already spoken to my son and figured that dad would offer some sort of deal. Some things are predictable. I just wasn't sure exactly of what the deal would be. The deal turned out to be that my son could continue to unschool at home if he returned to learning a musical instrument or wrote a book.
Wrote a book? This coming from a man who had recently struggled over writing directions for an item he used on a regular basis. My spouse's defense was that our son needed to produce something. So last night I set out to help our son get started while, also, preparing him to return to school.
I looked over quick reference sheets for the terminology or 'schoolese' he would be expected to know or laughed at for not knowing. As our son has recently started learning to play Magic the Gathering card game with his sister, I knew he had been intensely researching the subject. I was also aware that his other sister had recently posted a great reference link on her Facebook account for how to write a twenty page paper. Pulling all these resources together, my son sat down and got started writing that book. Now, dad never said how large of a book had to be written. Loop holes. At first my son started to panic over the concept of diving into writing a whole book but I re-iterated the above fact. Just because the word 'book' makes my son picture at least 500+ pages, does not mean that a book couldn't be much less. I suggested he start with a 'Beginner's Guide to How to Play Magic the Gathering' aimed at instructing his father and/or me in how to get started. I counted that he had about four days in which to produce this book as he would need the fifth day for his dad to read it and or accept it as 'payment' to stay home, for if it wasn't acceptable, he would be back in school on the sixth day.
As my son was getting going on his writing, my spouse came in and asked our son to come outside and help him build a new stall. It turns out that my son told him couldn't because he was working on something I got him started on and he was under a time crunch. My spouse then came and asked me what I had him doing as he had wanted his help with the stall. I told him that he wasn't doing something for me, but he was working on that book for him. The young man only had a few days in which to earn his right to stay home and he was more then welcome to go help outside but that would greatly reduce his time to complete his part of the deal. At this, dad went outside and worked on the stall alone.
I recall him feeling the pressure to make sure he created an easy to understand, easy to read, manual. He knew he did not want to use a PowerPoint format as from experience, he knew that tends to make the audience fall sound asleep. I knew that the last few months has filled his free time with dealing with Medicare and nursing homes, and insurance companies, and taxes, and tons of other things that there are not clearly written rules and regulations on. Life is so much easier to handle when the path is straight and clear. Unfortunately, it seems that the rules for dealing with the elderly, as with government, are purposely made convoluted and abstract at best. My spouse even received the advise of legal counsel on a few of these issues and was advised of the few possible ways to address some of these topics with the lawyer saying that some of these laws are written to be confusing therefore open to being altered to fit the desire of the day of the power in charge of the topic.
I'm not a personal fan of non-clear rules but such is life. So just what does all this have to do with stressful Monday night? As stated above, my spouse has been dealing with many, many, issues, and recently, more then he has ever had to tackle at one time. Along with all these added pressures, there are still the everyday daily tasks of life. Monday morning found him checking all the electrical pathways throughout the house to find out what was causing a breaker outage. (The day before while he was at work, I had lost half the power in the house so to prevent a possible fire, I had to re-route where the refrigerator was drawing power so I could leave those breakers off.)
Now dealing with electricity is interesting. My spouse knows his stuff. While he was working, he involves our son so he can learn. My spouse has always taught the kids everything he does, hence how we have a young lady for a daughter who knows how to work on her vehicle's engine, brakes, tires, and knows how to weld, too.
Monday night...Monday night found my spouse seemingly upset with the youngest. I can't really say why, as I'm still somewhat unsure, but it seems that my spouse was resentful over what appears to be the youngest having a life of leisure. I'm the parent who has for the most part, over seen the children's education. Gross total, I've got over forty years of combined dealings on this topic! Oh my! There's a reason one should never combine one's numbers as gross totals, so let's just say I've been dealing with childrens educations for near the past twenty years.
I'm a curious sort, so I was reading all I could before I ever conceived my first child. I knew what to expect; the milestones, the resources available, the old ways and the new. I thought I was prepared. The private school was easy to deal with and provided an outstanding education for our daughters. When the girls switched to public school, I learned one had to fight to obtain a decent education. The public school wasn't designed for the student. We were deluded to believe that if your child could attend an 'A' rated school, then the child would receive a top education. Then our baby boy reached the age to take his turn and we learned differently. I'm not going to bother repeating all that transpired more then to say this child is who sent me looking deeper for other paths.
In the past, my spouse had mentioned homeschooling. Homeschooling would allow us to be free and travel whenever we wanted. I never gave it much thought as the private schools never restricted our traveling and the girls loved going to school and did well in school. The baby boy did well in school educationally, but it didn't take long to realize that he already knew the information prior to the school 'teaching' it and he only regurgitated it for the grade if I paid him for said grade. Otherwise, the grade meant nothing. This child and the school setting with age like peers was a bad mix so I pulled him home and set out to learn all I could about homeschooling. I remember my spouse referring to me as having the tenacity of a pit-bull. I can't say I was thrilled with that description but I understood his meaning. I was going to learn what our son needed.
Many of you know that I learned of unschooling and it all just made so much sense! I talked to my spouse about all that I learned and he pondered it. He wasn't so sure of all I was telling him but I was stubborn and stuck to the course. It's been over four years now and in my personal opinion, our son is doing well. Then Monday night happened.
To hear my spouse's side, he would tell you it's been brewing for much longer then one night. He feels that our son does nothing. I don't see it this way, but then again, I'm constantly reading at the unschooling sites so I have a different concept of "doing nothing". My spouse wants to impose his new rules. Bed by such and such a time. No food after such and such a time. You must accomplish such and such each day...yada, yada, yada.
Now, I'm not unsympathetic to what my spouse is getting at. I just don't see it the same way on some of these points. Our son has been living in his own natural rhythm and has been a much happier person for it. He sleeps late because there is no demand to force him up. He's always up and ready to do things with me when I get home. He use to be up and ready to do things with his dad, too, but then dad got really busy dealing with his own mom, and stopped being available so much. The girls ebb and flow as to when they are stopping in between classes, visits, laundry or whatever, but there is no demand for a certain young teenager to be up and running at any particular hour. The couple of virtual courses he attends, can be signed on to whenever he chooses, twenty-four/seven.
This all being said, my spouse was having issues over this lifestyle and Monday night made the threat of our son either 'doing something' or being put back into school. I don't do idol threats well. I wasn't very happy over this and really needed to figure out just what was setting my spouse off on this topic. The sad part came when I hugged my son good night and he whispered that when dad's not home, he really missed him and wished he was, but when he was home, he wished he wasn't.
A paradox. A sad and unfortunate paradox.
When I woke in the morning, I still wasn't very happy. As I prepared for work, I spoke to my spouse and suggested he follow through on his threat. I suggested that he take our son over to the school at the time of all 1600+ kids being in the halls and go talk to the school about just what would be required to re-enroll him back into the system. The look my spouse shot me! I informed him just to take our son there and inquire not enroll him. I knew they would want a current bill of health, paperwork filled out, I've heard of possible testing but didn't know if this school would require it, but I also knew that they would have to accept him. The going theory is many schools will test the student, then subtract five from their current age and that's the grade they are placed in regardless of test results. I also suggested he not mention unschooling as the school would have enough issue over 'homeschooling' without venturing into understanding 'unschooling'. No sense wasting ones breathe on that topic. He told me in general, he doesn't go into unschooling for exactly that reason, but he does explain it when someone is genuinely interested which usually occurs whenever someone meets our incredible son.
So they arrived at the school early but not early enough to see all the kids in the halls. My spouse received the needed paperwork, which included two different health certificates or proof of shots and vaccines. They spoke to a counselor who asked questions on what our son has studied. Upon being informed of the two virtual school classes for sixth grader, she informed them that our son would qualify for seventh grade as the kids in this school's seventh grade, were just learning the stuff covered in the virtual school's sixth grade! Don't even get me started on my thoughts on THAT topic. Have I mentioned my son's opinion of the virtual classes?
Needless to say, I don't look at sending my son back to school as something that would be done for an 'education'. The school is even further behind then it was years ago when our girls attended. No, sending our son back to school would only be to have him out of the house, to occupy his time with 'something', in lieu of him hanging around the house 'doing nothing'. It would give him the chance to interact with that 1600+ young teens that I already know he has little interest in interacting with. As for how he would do? From my daughters switch from private school to public, I doubt he will do well. Partly because he isn't interested in impressing them and partly because he hasn't had their system beat into him. My daughters found that since they hadn't been shown the public schools way of doing things, they had some adjustments to make. They also learned that the teachers had no desire to show them the system preferring to just dole out 'F's for non-compliance.
What I found most interesting was the lack of interest in actually speaking to my son. The school had no interest in the fact he has a very high IQ, proven by their own testing. They have no interest in the fact that per their own system, he has already been placed into their 'gifted' program having had an IEP written up for him to attend their highest offered classes. No, should he be sent back to school, he would be place in the 'regular' classes. I say 'regular' because of my past experience with fighting with this same school over my daughter's placement. Regular means in a class with many kids who can barely read and few who can handle simple multiplication and possibly a little division if one is lucky. Per their own words, the last statement is true. They stated that when their students are placed into the same virtual school my son was in, that their kids fail as it's too hard!
In speaking to my spouse, I learned he had already set up the doctor's visit to get the forms filled out. It was already past time for our son to have his yearly physical, so two birds with one stone. I suggested that we start our son back this coming Monday which seemed to surprised my spouse. He was unaware that I had already spoken to my son and figured that dad would offer some sort of deal. Some things are predictable. I just wasn't sure exactly of what the deal would be. The deal turned out to be that my son could continue to unschool at home if he returned to learning a musical instrument or wrote a book.
Wrote a book? This coming from a man who had recently struggled over writing directions for an item he used on a regular basis. My spouse's defense was that our son needed to produce something. So last night I set out to help our son get started while, also, preparing him to return to school.
I looked over quick reference sheets for the terminology or 'schoolese' he would be expected to know or laughed at for not knowing. As our son has recently started learning to play Magic the Gathering card game with his sister, I knew he had been intensely researching the subject. I was also aware that his other sister had recently posted a great reference link on her Facebook account for how to write a twenty page paper. Pulling all these resources together, my son sat down and got started writing that book. Now, dad never said how large of a book had to be written. Loop holes. At first my son started to panic over the concept of diving into writing a whole book but I re-iterated the above fact. Just because the word 'book' makes my son picture at least 500+ pages, does not mean that a book couldn't be much less. I suggested he start with a 'Beginner's Guide to How to Play Magic the Gathering' aimed at instructing his father and/or me in how to get started. I counted that he had about four days in which to produce this book as he would need the fifth day for his dad to read it and or accept it as 'payment' to stay home, for if it wasn't acceptable, he would be back in school on the sixth day.
As my son was getting going on his writing, my spouse came in and asked our son to come outside and help him build a new stall. It turns out that my son told him couldn't because he was working on something I got him started on and he was under a time crunch. My spouse then came and asked me what I had him doing as he had wanted his help with the stall. I told him that he wasn't doing something for me, but he was working on that book for him. The young man only had a few days in which to earn his right to stay home and he was more then welcome to go help outside but that would greatly reduce his time to complete his part of the deal. At this, dad went outside and worked on the stall alone.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
An Unexected History Discussion
I've been posting random things here and there that gives a small glimpse into unschooling in action. Well, last night turned into another one of those interesting evenings and all because I tend to like movies that the others in my home tend to shy from. I had wanted to see the Kit Kittredge film when I had first heard about it, but opted to put in in our movie queue in lieu of seeing it at the movies. Last night it had finally arrived and I have to admit that beyond remembering it had gotten good reviews, I couldn't remember what it was supposed to be about.
So my spouse said we had three movies to watch: The Producers, Kit Kittredge, and a third I can't remember at the moment. We started with Kit and once it was loaded, it was quickly realized that it was rated 'G' and 'An American GIRL Movie'. These things do not bode well in the eyes of a twelve year old boy who's father has asked him to join us watching these films.
Said twelve year old joined us but he also brought his DS and only sorta tuned into the movie...at first. As the story began to unfold, he found himself being drawn in as were both my spouse and I. The parallels to our current times of home foreclosures, unemployment, people needing soup kitchens, really gave one pause to see how things were going to unfold in this movie.
The movie allowed you to see the distress of neighbors losing their homes. Of the prejudice of the haves against the have nots. It brought up personal family stories from my spouse as even though he wasn't alive back in the 1932's, his parents were. My spouse's own grandparents had families living in their home, in their barn, so my spouse was raised on many true life stories of the Great Depression therefore being able to reflect the real life facts the movie portrays.
The movie portrayed homeless children, hobos, and how they lived. At one point, the mobile librarian offered a young hobo child a loaner book to read. The child stated that they only knew how to read hobo. Now at this point, I was pondering that the child only read the letters 'H-O-B-O' and was wondering what else this child had suffered when my son whispered in my ear as if he could read my mind, what the Hobo language was. My spouse paused the movie and my son went on to explain the system of symbols the hobos used so other hobos would know where to go and where to avoid. I'll have to ask him again where he learned this system, but I believe he had said he learned it from reading about it in the Warrior Series.
So many other issues were covered in this movie; pride, living frugal, kindness, recycling. I love that they took the time to show the extremes people went to to make do. They even added some positive spins like showing the feedsack cloth dresses Kit's mom went on to make and sell and how Kit preferred selling eggs to moving in with her uncle. That last part, made me laugh as the uncle was not portrayed as a kind fellow.
I would highly recommend this movie just for the simple fact that it's a good movie. If you add in the benefits for it's timely lessons to our country's current economic situation, plus it's an excellent jumping off point for deeper discussion into life in the USA in the 1930's and the Great Depression, one can easily see why homeschoolers, unschoolers, well, every 'schooler' could get something out of this film.
So my spouse said we had three movies to watch: The Producers, Kit Kittredge, and a third I can't remember at the moment. We started with Kit and once it was loaded, it was quickly realized that it was rated 'G' and 'An American GIRL Movie'. These things do not bode well in the eyes of a twelve year old boy who's father has asked him to join us watching these films.
Said twelve year old joined us but he also brought his DS and only sorta tuned into the movie...at first. As the story began to unfold, he found himself being drawn in as were both my spouse and I. The parallels to our current times of home foreclosures, unemployment, people needing soup kitchens, really gave one pause to see how things were going to unfold in this movie.
The movie allowed you to see the distress of neighbors losing their homes. Of the prejudice of the haves against the have nots. It brought up personal family stories from my spouse as even though he wasn't alive back in the 1932's, his parents were. My spouse's own grandparents had families living in their home, in their barn, so my spouse was raised on many true life stories of the Great Depression therefore being able to reflect the real life facts the movie portrays.
The movie portrayed homeless children, hobos, and how they lived. At one point, the mobile librarian offered a young hobo child a loaner book to read. The child stated that they only knew how to read hobo. Now at this point, I was pondering that the child only read the letters 'H-O-B-O' and was wondering what else this child had suffered when my son whispered in my ear as if he could read my mind, what the Hobo language was. My spouse paused the movie and my son went on to explain the system of symbols the hobos used so other hobos would know where to go and where to avoid. I'll have to ask him again where he learned this system, but I believe he had said he learned it from reading about it in the Warrior Series.
So many other issues were covered in this movie; pride, living frugal, kindness, recycling. I love that they took the time to show the extremes people went to to make do. They even added some positive spins like showing the feedsack cloth dresses Kit's mom went on to make and sell and how Kit preferred selling eggs to moving in with her uncle. That last part, made me laugh as the uncle was not portrayed as a kind fellow.
I would highly recommend this movie just for the simple fact that it's a good movie. If you add in the benefits for it's timely lessons to our country's current economic situation, plus it's an excellent jumping off point for deeper discussion into life in the USA in the 1930's and the Great Depression, one can easily see why homeschoolers, unschoolers, well, every 'schooler' could get something out of this film.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
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