tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58364946282585566512024-02-07T21:17:37.672-05:00Balderdash and BlokusAn unschooling journey as we explore the world and all it has to offer.Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.comBlogger241125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-32677971497545823182014-04-27T16:47:00.002-04:002014-10-08T08:58:17.633-04:00Crossfit, BJJ, Crohn's & a ResectionApril 2014<br />
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It's been awhile seen I wrote. Much has happened.<br />
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First, my leg is still healing. I'm back to walking but dancing and running still cause large amounts of pain and stress on the leg. I now do Crossfit at 6:30am and Brazilian Jui Jitsu at 6:30pm. I'm getting stronger, but not yet smaller. >.<<br />
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Nutrition continues to be an annoying topic as we had been following the SCD for a few years now, but even though the results were positive, they were not perfect. I managed to hold weight but this plan was never 'about me'. No, we followed this protocol for the sake of our son who was found to have Crohn's. It helped but it turns out, stress, emotions, ...love... all have their effect. Our son's first crush nearly took his life. He survived thank God! But I'm afraid it may leave him far more cautious about how he handles his feelings. I write that, but we all know [even him] that one can't control whom one looses their heart over.<br />
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George almost died over the 2013 Thanksgiving/Christmas season.<br />
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My close friends are aware of just how horridly close we came. George was finally strong enough for surgery early February 2014 after over a month in the hospital while they worked to strengthen him up for it. He is now doing much better and has begun to gain weight!<br />
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[He had three surgeries total over this time frame.]<br />
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George has now started Remicade transfusions. He opted for this choice even though the side effects can be extreme as the doctors feel it is the better option. So far the transfusions are leaving him weak and tired but he is handling them so far. This drug is a one time ride. He must continue the transfusions for the rest of his life. If he stops, or misses one, we have been told he is done. One can never restart them. George knows the risks and opted to take them.<br />
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This is where Unschooling... loving your children... trusting... and being there for them.... really comes into play. Gather all the information one can handle, then choose as wisely as possible.<br />
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George is doing well. He is off racing our Subaru with his dad today. I'm waiting to hear how well they did! They might even come home with some good video footage. If, so, I'll attach it later.<br />
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I have more good news to write about, but I do believe I shall save it for tomorrow. <br />
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Peace and laughter,<br />
Remember to hug your kids daily.<br />
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Love,<br />
Vicki <br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-7959539556470426932013-06-23T23:37:00.001-04:002013-06-25T08:39:41.719-04:00Epic Camping Trip in the BWCA<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Rv_2NXV_BtjyIYr_mBrw_BgKAE-YxzLqLJatGosdMqLAaxSKs0eDO_SpJCowNw2aXkB7Gy05cna3qcZydSuu8MwEyxzIl885Buk7SAMt0ERySYuwsq8mLJ0LyYskfj27_uRMn14NCL4/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+389.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">My spouse has been dreaming of </span>re-visiting one of his childhood summer vacation places he enjoyed each and every summer. Due to me not being a fan of bugs, he opted to go the first half of June. The above are the temperatures we were looking at camping in. Yes, this was going to be an adventure!</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZH00cxzGHLQe5YSkArqYdAdEgwQz20QDt-4ZGYaZZaxU3jZ4rIde2On2fUo6T_mpdsW6diVU2t3POBdiGjEjGluz0DOy9YfnQtJS3FhykJpDXwcUGGgy4D9kvKwNFQ2AiwDAkj65a4hg/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+034.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> Ely, MN June 2, 2013 </a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The canoes are loaded</span> and we are ready to get paddling.</td></tr>
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<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"type":45}" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpJW2iPiZwuPJofcrft_ItTTUajfgIpOOYyZeKlLl7zgKKMKEY5LyB0KPKSQmbaB4B9YBSreRdpaSrtxl5vV5DWZx1P0CkbcO1dUGdf__L0dfTcyhYQjZa9Do4pgJx-zUo-R1f3JuigE0/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+066.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a></span></span></span> <br /> June 2, we he<span class="text_exposed_show">aded
into the wilderness of the boundary waters north of Ely, MN via canoe
and packing everything to live on for the next eleven days. Good times
to be had by all canoeing, camping, portaging...</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The water looks beautiful but it's freezing!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">George on a portage</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">My spouse carrying a canoe across a portage</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Taroth Rock </span></td></tr>
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<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyR8n3IZxGhGbmOTi_izSXzjFS6mtp_K0rIt9KbTQsB-A91u3h8j2mddiFVDLouthN3SVLKDBv-9BpUsRMxesag2fE8SlrkM95iSI10eip9hhZ-0a501_p7Sp1OVOvYZ3P4KL1N_e5apU/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+389.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></span></span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbnxs7NueJBoq-ayo0StPYl7spi9bCmhpBP2FGVxj8B1Lpho_753LHCINtOR4q8gYtt_TZtVg-FO8Fo_g1AktgNLtvzTtWWxbQSvosV2lELQnBF2KX1E9PI_RM7FAjKX_2wOOooU_nyEo/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+193.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbnxs7NueJBoq-ayo0StPYl7spi9bCmhpBP2FGVxj8B1Lpho_753LHCINtOR4q8gYtt_TZtVg-FO8Fo_g1AktgNLtvzTtWWxbQSvosV2lELQnBF2KX1E9PI_RM7FAjKX_2wOOooU_nyEo/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+193.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">George, James and me</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTPcwgLb-nQ-OdIp0SxKdeAvB2z9-cBKHSzmkMzug-N0Phzr0C8ZK33XBtRXLGEozNCaIOR7CvVmrKZN-ITBMydk6TR8FJzWArkHOmP0kl2qi21kN1WBcdMJm9VBS4VuJGfjyv6reyVcs/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+309.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTPcwgLb-nQ-OdIp0SxKdeAvB2z9-cBKHSzmkMzug-N0Phzr0C8ZK33XBtRXLGEozNCaIOR7CvVmrKZN-ITBMydk6TR8FJzWArkHOmP0kl2qi21kN1WBcdMJm9VBS4VuJGfjyv6reyVcs/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+309.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">John and a couple of Walleye</span></td></tr>
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<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifwtYVjvPf6R7BhMji94hVHpHzDOSF8IgQibbI1_O8qWQkAqm_jI1hcXcKpBgcWBR38LJeiaa7EAZHdDbvFlOQ8W39waslIxVNT9IpPKXXzBmjrRFnRwLBhYfP1JJ_0-L6oGHAGK5hOL8/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+429.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifwtYVjvPf6R7BhMji94hVHpHzDOSF8IgQibbI1_O8qWQkAqm_jI1hcXcKpBgcWBR38LJeiaa7EAZHdDbvFlOQ8W39waslIxVNT9IpPKXXzBmjrRFnRwLBhYfP1JJ_0-L6oGHAGK5hOL8/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+429.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></span></span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhklps6W_94kPbfHzJQz63uOZB_mqW931rsORQRz0kw0FjIiOjr4XfW3Bzuqfcs2JMvgH08c0FXwPTkGPVIWnpG40iMUn_Nc-AbR5iP1clkO5RlDAKSCTpQ_FIkqNQlknEtYTPSDuRaULE/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+450.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhklps6W_94kPbfHzJQz63uOZB_mqW931rsORQRz0kw0FjIiOjr4XfW3Bzuqfcs2JMvgH08c0FXwPTkGPVIWnpG40iMUn_Nc-AbR5iP1clkO5RlDAKSCTpQ_FIkqNQlknEtYTPSDuRaULE/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+450.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">James brought solar panels. They worked nicely.</span></td></tr>
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<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"type":45}" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption"><span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"type":45}" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption"><span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"type":45}" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpFg_1FRM9u_7ZBCr5XK_mtGL4tCsrty4Tu0SiYqoFZ057qYhZoaNGKRipsLiKHrE20EcNBdI6zEvknUw9r8d_R2j86qR9GaZpBIvoS9raVWGPHb015gevjsQzKtr4UMXH4RXg6lA9iJs/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+132.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpFg_1FRM9u_7ZBCr5XK_mtGL4tCsrty4Tu0SiYqoFZ057qYhZoaNGKRipsLiKHrE20EcNBdI6zEvknUw9r8d_R2j86qR9GaZpBIvoS9raVWGPHb015gevjsQzKtr4UMXH4RXg6lA9iJs/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+132.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></span></span></span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIDx0RWM9Fm8-PvXX9zKWfviHtuSgrKij5qhX0IpngvYtoF_dpH-hzqY5Wlahhx-4SG88QcVH27YPCUeIPsZTljOffgC4q08r7eZsYtRUsJc-aagCLWg3et77XzmIjOsphHK59ECysnaM/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+138.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIDx0RWM9Fm8-PvXX9zKWfviHtuSgrKij5qhX0IpngvYtoF_dpH-hzqY5Wlahhx-4SG88QcVH27YPCUeIPsZTljOffgC4q08r7eZsYtRUsJc-aagCLWg3et77XzmIjOsphHK59ECysnaM/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+138.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">We had island camps. This was one of my favorites. </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" data-ft="{"type":45}" id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption"></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show">On Monday June
10th, we had begun the journey back out. Around 5pm, we pulled into the
only available campsite which also happened to be a not so nice
campsite being on a rocky slope with little level space.<br /> <br /> We
weren't there long when I had a mis-step on a mossy wet rock. My foot
slipped plunging me down the slope as I heard a series of CRUNCH CRUNCH
which was my tib/fib shattering.<br /> <br /> I was now in serious
trouble as we were still a day away from civilization and cell phone
connections with five more portages to do. There was no way I would be
able to get out on my own.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"></span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhfH47XwKk0aA1J5qzHEOmyrKQzR5iN89Ype-9roU-3XAaRtTjTH-KIH1J4xu2zqQ8abjwWcvWKwKnGhzM-i7VeQCzeGEOxYQ_XL3dcwTlqw5TTsbOaN-qJq_lj5Ya2qXysl3eSjb5WrI/s1600/Campsite+I+fell+at.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhfH47XwKk0aA1J5qzHEOmyrKQzR5iN89Ype-9roU-3XAaRtTjTH-KIH1J4xu2zqQ8abjwWcvWKwKnGhzM-i7VeQCzeGEOxYQ_XL3dcwTlqw5TTsbOaN-qJq_lj5Ya2qXysl3eSjb5WrI/s1600/Campsite+I+fell+at.png" height="392" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">BWCA map I marked to show where we were when I got injured</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"> What to do? We had no Satellite phone...<br /> <br />
So our friend John, who was traveling with us, set out by canoe to see
if anyone else camping had a SAT phone. One person gave him a basic spot
but they activated it in their camp then put it in his canoe so the
receiving agency thought it was an accidentally set off call as it turns
out the spots are to stay stationary. [live and learn]<br /> <br /> Another camper gave him a Sam splint that might be of use.<br /> <br /> Another said they'd be going past a Ranger station in about six hours and would leave word of the emergency.<br /> <br />
As the above was going on, my Firefighter:EMT spouse James was
assessing my situation and trying to keep me from going into shock. </span></span><span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show">Even the slightest move caused me agonizing pain. I did go into a bit of shock from it so James got me off the ground by slipping the life vests under me and bundling me in an emergency blanket. He then built
a shelter over me while my son kept me calm and breathing to help prevent
further shock and control the pain. </span></span>. </span></span><br />
<br />
James and Geor<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show">ge were amazing! As James went into Emergency Rescuer mode, George followed his lead and kept me calm as he sat by
my head and sang to me when the spasms were so bad I forgot to breathe and read to me till late into the night. George monitored me so James could do other things to
better prepare for all of our needs. James would come by frequently to check my vitals as he worked to prepare a better shelter against the coming storm.</span></span><br />
<br />
<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1372104921821_4068">
</div>
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"> </span></span><br />
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show">Even had we been able to call for help ASAP, it was going to take awhile to get help in.<br /> <br /> What to do?<br /> </span></span><br />
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show">James came up with the idea of writing out
a short text message with our situation and location, then hitting
send, then taping his phone on to his DJI phantom quad copter and then he flew it straight up about 1000 feet and held it there for 30 seconds
as he hoped the text would go.</span></span><br />
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"></span></span><br />
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"></span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Rv_2NXV_BtjyIYr_mBrw_BgKAE-YxzLqLJatGosdMqLAaxSKs0eDO_SpJCowNw2aXkB7Gy05cna3qcZydSuu8MwEyxzIl885Buk7SAMt0ERySYuwsq8mLJ0LyYskfj27_uRMn14NCL4/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+389.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Rv_2NXV_BtjyIYr_mBrw_BgKAE-YxzLqLJatGosdMqLAaxSKs0eDO_SpJCowNw2aXkB7Gy05cna3qcZydSuu8MwEyxzIl885Buk7SAMt0ERySYuwsq8mLJ0LyYskfj27_uRMn14NCL4/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+389.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">James and his DJI Phanton Quad Copter</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfgNCjcF26Z9C87ZXnMr1H8wC7Q0WdS2y7LxEkPq5N-h28h6HCOK8pd0klEYZIHBk2KrLxR2bjqdcCJ4FbXU4fsF7gbuxxS_CwcOSi7iC5F0H0H8YoZvRyRu6j9uPZCXyDX-EcW7EU-WA/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+453.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfgNCjcF26Z9C87ZXnMr1H8wC7Q0WdS2y7LxEkPq5N-h28h6HCOK8pd0klEYZIHBk2KrLxR2bjqdcCJ4FbXU4fsF7gbuxxS_CwcOSi7iC5F0H0H8YoZvRyRu6j9uPZCXyDX-EcW7EU-WA/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+453.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">James's DJI Phantom Quad Copter</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"> We had no way of knowing if the message was received and a storm was coming</span></span><br />
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show">My spouse set up a tent on the edge of the lake, on
a flat rock inches above the water and a few feet down from where I
was. He was able to cut my boot into a splint and he helped me slide into the
tent just before the storm arrived.</span></span><br />
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"></span></span><br />
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdUxV26HDk6HPl0UZ1ssgn8kI1-L2e4m5XDhyphenhyphenAmxmtBAdN9g8P-9YdyF9sXPfd-nYq4WeL_2knldKSO1Osk4dVLam3MLz4NbEdbP018iVUA4FE50wu1QJ0UUcXQ08Fo08yVfpujh8Wqv8/s1600/BWCA+Waiting+on+float+plane.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show">It was a long cold painful
night as I prayed someone received the call for help. My spouse was
finally able to rest after securing the canoes between us and the lake.
Think of them as a form of early alarm system should the waves come our
way as we were inches above the water level.<br /> <br /> Sunrise in the
boundary waters is about 5 am. As I saw the first lights appear, I
prayed someone would come as the pain was extreme.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"> 4:48am we heard the voices of the rescue team!! Four
volunteers had gathered at 9pm to prepare for my rescue. They headed
into the river at 1:30am, in the dark, in the pouring rain, in a
thunderstorm. In just two canoes with their equipment. One even missed
one of the portages and had to navigate the rapids in the dark, in the
pouring rain and thunderstorm! What brave men!</span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdUxV26HDk6HPl0UZ1ssgn8kI1-L2e4m5XDhyphenhyphenAmxmtBAdN9g8P-9YdyF9sXPfd-nYq4WeL_2knldKSO1Osk4dVLam3MLz4NbEdbP018iVUA4FE50wu1QJ0UUcXQ08Fo08yVfpujh8Wqv8/s1600/BWCA+Waiting+on+float+plane.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdUxV26HDk6HPl0UZ1ssgn8kI1-L2e4m5XDhyphenhyphenAmxmtBAdN9g8P-9YdyF9sXPfd-nYq4WeL_2knldKSO1Osk4dVLam3MLz4NbEdbP018iVUA4FE50wu1QJ0UUcXQ08Fo08yVfpujh8Wqv8/s1600/BWCA+Waiting+on+float+plane.png" height="355" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The rescuers who paddled in and the tent I was in waiting to be rescued.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"> When the
rescuers got there, they were amazed at the great job my spouse had done
preparing me for the journey. They splinted my leg all the way to my
hip and with a few Tylenol on board, I finally fell asleep while we
waited for the seaplane.</span></span><br />
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiqZ3tbEF4x04u7QzDCn_7w2tNSHZRAAWB6v2bUt6lv3kaZ3gCpBivGbX2KcmlarAM7bxo-QRzLGcMVwo98c9SHygGK9mDFMVLAJwpQWbaJKnSgU6n2kUoTnKOP9LBtmWcpFqRvoPaGUw/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+766.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiqZ3tbEF4x04u7QzDCn_7w2tNSHZRAAWB6v2bUt6lv3kaZ3gCpBivGbX2KcmlarAM7bxo-QRzLGcMVwo98c9SHygGK9mDFMVLAJwpQWbaJKnSgU6n2kUoTnKOP9LBtmWcpFqRvoPaGUw/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+766.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Medic splinting my leg </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"> By 7am, the seaplane was making an
epic landing on Lake Agnes in the boundary waters.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnIbAsOjOUHuUAMGvP7bpWnGoADHaAI1LhtGKqoCGadw0RTBYmuRmKcoLh3gWK8lCZZAYjDv8W7_C-hMhxa_kA7NnhoVssraXMbI0q-Apeg3tLz0AN1dqgSvLkRErYYTc21G8A_QpKAgE/s1600/plane4.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnIbAsOjOUHuUAMGvP7bpWnGoADHaAI1LhtGKqoCGadw0RTBYmuRmKcoLh3gWK8lCZZAYjDv8W7_C-hMhxa_kA7NnhoVssraXMbI0q-Apeg3tLz0AN1dqgSvLkRErYYTc21G8A_QpKAgE/s1600/plane4.png" height="336" width="640" /></a> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show">They carefully
navigated the rocks as I watched the wing pass over the tent on the
rock, on the edge of the lake, that sheltered me.</span></span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV_2fHFrDjVGSK4LmIgICVZleWzj81vqzf1nPI2FkGaCHNKZCxZ3YTd9qEFLu8ZrDLkmiLBv8nAi0r5xDYxoPH2KjV0mfCykot3qvUbL1vWGzOaNuXoCzM8sUbkdYgVaPUCQTsHIEoA98/s1600/BWCA+Backboard.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV_2fHFrDjVGSK4LmIgICVZleWzj81vqzf1nPI2FkGaCHNKZCxZ3YTd9qEFLu8ZrDLkmiLBv8nAi0r5xDYxoPH2KjV0mfCykot3qvUbL1vWGzOaNuXoCzM8sUbkdYgVaPUCQTsHIEoA98/s1600/BWCA+Backboard.png" height="640" width="564" /> </a><br />
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<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show">I was placed on a backboard then placed in the seaplane for transport back to civilization.</span></span> </div>
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<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show">The Seaplane made a nice water landing then docked at a floating dock in Ely, MN..
Many good people had gathered to help unload me and the ambulance was
waiting. They quickly transferred me into the ambulance and transported
me to the Ely Hospital. (I'll have to find it's real name later) <br /> <br />
The Doctor was waiting. They gave me pain medicine and I recall hearing her
giving the x-ray techs permission to take pictures as needed. Look as
they go and snap as they see fit. Those techs were awesome! My bed was
spun and things moved but they never caused me a moment more of pain by
manipulating my leg. The look on their face was scary. The more
pictures they took, the more concerned they appeared. Once they were
done, I suggested they help me move my leg and they both threw their
hands up and said, "NO!" <br /> <br /> That's when I realized that my leg was in really bad shape, worse then I thought.<br /> <br />
The doctor came to see me right away and advised me that she needed to
send me to Duluth for surgery as it was that bad. They arranged
transport and wrapped my leg like a priceless vase. More pain medicine were
administered to make the trip as pain free as possible. (There's some
really bumpy roads up there.)<br /> <br /> I'm not sure how long the trip
actually took as it felt like we were traveling as fast as possible on
some precarious roads. The average trip takes two hours.<br /> <br />
Anyway, they got me safely to the Duluth Hospital (Need to find correct
name here, too) and I was taken immediately to see the surgeon. He
talked to me, advised what had to be done, got my permission to do it,
and initialed my foot. <br /> <br /> Off I went to surgery.<br /> <br /> I woke up in a hospital room with my leg in my Stormtroopers cast.
My nickname for it. The staff took excellent care of me while we waited
for my family to paddle and portage out of the Boundary Waters with one
less person to help. They arrived the following evening to pick me up
and head to Minneapolis so we could fly home the following day.<br /> <br /> I'm home now, being cared for by my wonderful husband and son. </span></span><br />
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<span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="text_exposed_show"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsLy5Nh34686u6-zn-v8raJXiU_gKTBKYrqcIK4bXANwSb1AOZDL998M-iXzQOBJ2fsoGTz-S4dLqeTvi1yx3apt5AA4pO8tYOA7IZG9OYg7oKzxFltaYBrKS1XzaSLisK9tsY7imzIaI/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+431.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsLy5Nh34686u6-zn-v8raJXiU_gKTBKYrqcIK4bXANwSb1AOZDL998M-iXzQOBJ2fsoGTz-S4dLqeTvi1yx3apt5AA4pO8tYOA7IZG9OYg7oKzxFltaYBrKS1XzaSLisK9tsY7imzIaI/s1600/Boundary+Water+Trip+2013+431.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a> </span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic88XZP132rO7FHoMVHfjgRvloyFz-NIUlzAH8PoZpIDjcWUPKTk4j-vMi01K3YD4BcNnIsJg5KhGhSE8fY1P-ttQAjNMFNTNAmbPSE0EAd-x6JtMax1M5fDN8FPmLiypLUcG1KCs3Yek/s1600/hardware.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic88XZP132rO7FHoMVHfjgRvloyFz-NIUlzAH8PoZpIDjcWUPKTk4j-vMi01K3YD4BcNnIsJg5KhGhSE8fY1P-ttQAjNMFNTNAmbPSE0EAd-x6JtMax1M5fDN8FPmLiypLUcG1KCs3Yek/s1600/hardware.png" height="604" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is an X-Ray of my new ankle hardware.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-15994757213813506512012-09-18T11:30:00.000-04:002012-09-18T11:40:59.040-04:00It's already Fall? Where does the time go?
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This 'school year' finds us with our youngest still at home of an age to be considered ninth grade should he decide to go to high school. Every year I toss him that option as one of his choices and just like all the years before, he turns me down. He is quite content to continue on as an unschooler.
He has grown so much! Just think. His next birthday will mean taking his Driver's Test for his Learners Permit! I'm not worried about him learning to drive though as life on a farm has already taught him those skills. He's growing up and soon will be a full fledged man off to college. I'm so proud him and my girls, too.
This year has seen my oldest daughter celebrating her first year of home ownership and my second daughter just now moving into her own first home. They are starting out their adult lives nicely. It's a good feeling to know they are doing well and have a decent start.
So where have I been you ask?
This summer, we went camping. We traveled to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee,
Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky,
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Cumberland Caverns in Tennessee,
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYCWoUJgESFU71IslwpK-6sDzntFpJeuGOpk8BbPkecP5AugwMHs1LuV-SPjOG69t2ZXBDQRNs0LLFntDSs3EStvN6axeiAqzyB7PiRgU2a_z-JG6-E4kiMH6lY7alIR9Pe0aQ3U6up1w/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYCWoUJgESFU71IslwpK-6sDzntFpJeuGOpk8BbPkecP5AugwMHs1LuV-SPjOG69t2ZXBDQRNs0LLFntDSs3EStvN6axeiAqzyB7PiRgU2a_z-JG6-E4kiMH6lY7alIR9Pe0aQ3U6up1w/s400/5.jpg" /></a></div>
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then continued on to the National Whitewater Center near Charlotte, North Caroline.
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We tent camped along the way and spent our days hiking, exploring,
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spelunking,
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ziplining, mountain biking, and kayaking.
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It was awesome!!
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-22991073511809142832012-04-16T11:52:00.004-04:002012-04-16T13:12:39.564-04:00Boys & Home Ec<a href="http://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/religiousimages/D010_ShearingSheep_BookHours.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 371px;" src="http://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/religiousimages/D010_ShearingSheep_BookHours.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Many moons ago, when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, I was sent to middle earth, ehm.. school, somewhere near the <a href="http://pacanyon.com/">Pennsylvania Grand Canyon</a>. Or somewhere east of there...<br /><br /><br /> Back in those early days of civilization, me being of the gentle persuasion, I was tasked to learn the gentle arts of tending a home; Shearing sheep, carding the wool, spinning the wool into thread, weaving it into material to be made into clothing, curtains and carpets... Along with the art of learning to clothe my future family, I was tasked with learning how to properly feed them; Growing vegetables, tending chickens, plucking chickens, making fire, and how to set a table. Those were the days.... (All due respect Mrs. Lynn! I loved your class and your Early American Club!)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.deeprootsathome.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Munier+may_i_have_one_too.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 362px;" src="http://www.deeprootsathome.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Munier+may_i_have_one_too.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />My girls have grown and now are tending homes of their own which finds me now in a home with two men. The oldest (my spouse) has realized that he wasn't taught these skills back when he was a youth on the farm. Back then, the woman (his mother) tended all these needs. The younger male has also been reliant on his mother for years, too! This is a situation we are working to rectify. As mom, I'm also learning new cooking skills to do away with the ancient practices taught to me that have now been shown to not be oh so healthy, too.<br /><br />If you have been following our life saga and unschooling journey, you know my son has been diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. At first we were a bit freaked out and then we came to acceptance and now we have moved into learning coping skills which include learning how to eat, proper nutrition, and exercise.<br /><br />This journey has included reading many books and trying to find the doable, sane, common ground, ways to eat clean and healthy. The other day while following a clean recipe for beef stew, my oldest daughter pointed out that one of the ingredients for the stew is a known gas producer so it should be left out of the recipe. And this is where one comes to realize that food preparation is truly a science not to be neglected. <br /><br />I'm not going to list out any links nor books as I can't truly recommend any particular one at this point. There are many excellent resources and there are many that will steer you off the right track. We are still working our way through weaning items off our grocery list and finding doable alternatives. <br /><br />Currently, after a hard workout, protein shakes have been a Godsend for my son. They are something that his system can tolerate and take the edge off. He has been learning to cook so he, hopefully, will never have to rely on fast food when he is grown. We will be working on learning all we can so all of us can live a long and healthy life. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1cMtSY82JEQS45kuBst18O1RYy76BtIgCV9Yn_4bNh_sBaSkX5ccEX906vdAfQ-dteU24duhSoPUkGlBn8yO8xwLMkkuPcdnKybMwyvF-N8CS1QtT6G3kL7f14fbjEHrXT8ZW79LeyK4/s1600/Geo.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 302px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1cMtSY82JEQS45kuBst18O1RYy76BtIgCV9Yn_4bNh_sBaSkX5ccEX906vdAfQ-dteU24duhSoPUkGlBn8yO8xwLMkkuPcdnKybMwyvF-N8CS1QtT6G3kL7f14fbjEHrXT8ZW79LeyK4/s400/Geo.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5732047197876272706" /></a><br /><br />George after earning his first belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.<br />Ossss!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-55187767661497910522011-12-29T10:09:00.006-05:002011-12-29T10:23:39.180-05:00Eight Year Olds and Unschooling<span style="font-style:italic;">This is a response to a worried mom of an eight year old.</span><br /><br />I'm coming into the discussion a wee bit late and have skimmed the majority of responses and have just a few points to add:<br /><br />Jane McGonical was on TED Talks. You can view <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html">here</a>.<br /><br /><br />The original poster states a few concerns I'd like to address:<br /> <br />"but I miss my cheerful son who in younger years would happily be up for all kinds of adventures."<br /><br />"if we do go out, a hour or 2 later he's ready to go home."<br /><br />"I hate to make an arbitrary ban/regulation of this, but it seems like it might be helpful."<br /><br />We started 'homeschooling when my son was 7yo and moved into full blown radical unschooling by the time he was 8yo. He is now 14 so I've run the gambit of much of what you address in your questions and this is what I have learned.<br /><br />1) You haven't really 'lost' your cheerful son. He has grown and his interests have grown with him. Ask him what sorts of adventures he'd like.<br /><br />When my son was 8, I pulled up the Dwarf Fortress website and let him read it to see if he would like that sort of game. (Got the link off the homeschooling Mensa site so I had no clue how my son would take to it.) He liked what he read and is still actively involved with the game/forum/linked branches/etc ever since. To this day if you looked at what he is reading on his iPod, it's usually something linked from this original site.<br /><br />Do I worry? Not at all! What I have done is stay connected and in tune with what has him so intrigued. I take the time to listen and get engaged with him and his interests. This also gives him someone close that he can talk to about all his discoveries. It has allowed him to ask crazy questions like, 'Can a carp really kill a man?' which lead to us researching everything about carps and how big they grow, the probability of 'man killing carps' and a game designers right to be as silly as they so choose to be.<br /><br />Along with Dwarf Fortress, I, who was NOT a gamer in any sense of the word, learned to play Runescape, World of Warcraft, and tons of other 'addicting' games. But my learning wasn't limited to just learning games! No! By bringing my boy home from school, I was now his number one person to whom he spent the most time with. I'm the one he talked to about EVERYTHING. This meant I got to enter his world and I considered it my place to know his interests and feed them. I read all the books he read (and he reads a lot!) so he always had someone to discuss the stories and plot lines with. <br /><br />When his interests expanded beyond my time constraints/desires/and or tolerance, (I got motion sickness from some of the xbox games) my spouse jumped in. The two of them watched every Star Trek, played Halo, and discussed all types of weighty subjects even doing the math to see if the directors got it right. This lead to them getting into Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawkings to name a few.<br /><br />My point being is your 'happy son' is still there. You might just need to get to know him again as a slightly older child with slightly grown interests. <br /><br />2) My son also grew to hating to leave the house. To the point at one point, I feared he would become a shut in. He balked at having to even accompany us to the store. Well, turns out it was just a phase. The store bored him and being a typical boy, he really hated shopping ~ unless it was like a gaming store ~ but even then, he could look online at home and skip the actual store shopping. He had grown out of play dates and playgrounds. He hated roller skating and the likes. He always carried reading material and getting his nose out of a book was near impossible.<br /><br />Sure, we could intrigue him out to things he was interested in like one year for his birthday we spent the day going to the parks that had the big cats (The Big Cat Rescue & Busch Gardens)but that would be cost prohibitive to do often. My spouse took him to see the Space Shuttle launch close up a few times, but even things like this didn't happen often enough to make it a weekly adventure.<br /><br />The good news is age does in fact change this. When my son turned 13, he began to take an interest in people again. Now at age 14, he is actively involved in taken martial arts classes with adults and teens alike making many friends. Turns out that he really wasn't 'anti-social'. He was simply 'anti-interested'. <br /><br />3) Arbitrary rules do not work. They never worked for my parents. They've never truly worked for anyone. Sure, you can make all sorts of miserable consequences but does it truly work? You might get compliance but you won't get growth.<br /><br />Teaching the 'why' behind the reason makes more sense to me. My son knows that if he stays up late on a day he needs to be up early the following day, he will be too tired and grumpy. If he goes to bed too early in the evening, he is going to wake up extra early the next day, etc, etc.... I once had some lady give me crap that if I didn't force my child to sleep 8pm to 7am the next day, he would never be able to function as an adult and I was doing a disservice to society as a whole. Considering all the crazy shifts I've had to work in my life, I can tell you that her concept is totally off! The whole world is not asleep between 8p and 7a. Nor should it be. <br /><br />So as far as 'arbitrary rules' go, what has worked better for us, is talking about the cause and effect of choices and learning to make wise choices. Yes, kids as young as eight can handle these sorts of discussions.<br /><br />Well that's my $.25 for what it's worth.<br /><br />May your New Year be blessed with laughter and joy!<br /><br />Vicki<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-77123916085210782562011-12-07T10:44:00.008-05:002011-12-07T12:00:13.870-05:00Shaolin & Brazilian Ju JitsuIn 1986 I earned my black belt in Shaolin Kempo Karate. What a day! I still remember it as if it was just yesterday abet my body isn't nearly so tired nor sore, lol. I still remember the first day I walked into the dojo to see about signing up. I wasn't looking for a black belt then. I just didn't want to become another statistic and end like my big sister. Back then, I referred to my first gi as 'my three hundred dollar pair of pajamas'. (Bet the Sensei wouldn't have liked to know that!) Fond memories.<br /><br />2011, after over fifteen years of none training nor keeping myself healthy, I have once again joined a dojo. This time my youngest child has joined me. I'm enjoying watching him learn the techniques as he progresses. Already in only a few months, there's been great changes in his form, strength, and attitude. It's a beautiful thing to watch my quiet introverted son start growing into a strong young man. It warms my heart to have this chance to share my love of the martial arts with him.<br /><br />After the first weeks of training, my son felt he wanted more time in the gym. We were already attending all the scheduled classes and he was working out at home everyday. We asked the Sensei for privates so we could feed this hunger but he felt my son was still too new. <br /><br />Maybe it's just a side effect of unschooling but I tend to think it's just my way. I had a teenager with a craving to learn so I wished to feed that craving while it was still there. I researched where all the other martial arts schools were in our area and when they held classes. I found a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) school otherwise known as Brazilian Ju Jitsu (BJJ) that had classes that wouldn't conflict with the first dojo's class times. (Or at least not too much.) It looked promising so I asked my spouse to take my son over and check it out.<br /><br />HA! They were gone a very long time! Turns out that my spouse and the instructor had much in common. Both my spouse and son decided to give the place a try. It's now been over a month and we have officially joined the world of BJJ! Yes, I, too, have joined BJJ along with my spouse and son. My son and I are doing both Shaolin and BJJ. My son is getting faster and stronger everyday. I'm praying to get faster and stronger everyday. <br /><br />LOLZ ~ Never too late to take up a new sport!<br />Wish me luck!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-60796011987604769552011-10-12T12:26:00.004-04:002011-10-12T12:47:37.555-04:00Red Eagle Racers: 2 Months in 3 Minutes<center><iframe width="459" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/aR5yRkUwoE0?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen=""></iframe></center><br />George had the unique experience of assisting the Red Eagle Racers prepare for the Tampa 2011 RedBull Flugtag!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzJ_cKFzWx2krYebLvBYj17LXNzfoMwyELLxKweH7l9rxsam7h96TlNnBaJXqCB9YBcXxhYFmi6HyOhItxGRFdDkRD8wkb2QK8IzI0uoJJSjI0vKSdKOrVz-kIv_-4EPOHcI4Q-9J-6as/s1600/James+Gray+Photo.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzJ_cKFzWx2krYebLvBYj17LXNzfoMwyELLxKweH7l9rxsam7h96TlNnBaJXqCB9YBcXxhYFmi6HyOhItxGRFdDkRD8wkb2QK8IzI0uoJJSjI0vKSdKOrVz-kIv_-4EPOHcI4Q-9J-6as/s400/James+Gray+Photo.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5662646932302955986" /></a><br />George sitting in the pilot's seat. No, he wasn't the actual pilot. John is at the tail of the racer checking things over.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJIvHehA3TZq1nY0FuGRf5T5D3vOCFyQY5uZRgOFUU_KHTG3RydfNp_XBgEDDg_qZWbXQ6z3VQzYA0IzwGvRhShihoLop_eMl9fQKNQ8vUH4awnkQiEHpYVsJSh9BVQTxsYEkPYPu3RJM/s1600/Alain+Aguayo%2527s+Photo.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJIvHehA3TZq1nY0FuGRf5T5D3vOCFyQY5uZRgOFUU_KHTG3RydfNp_XBgEDDg_qZWbXQ6z3VQzYA0IzwGvRhShihoLop_eMl9fQKNQ8vUH4awnkQiEHpYVsJSh9BVQTxsYEkPYPu3RJM/s400/Alain+Aguayo%2527s+Photo.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5662644451754201074" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-46942002005996473372011-10-07T10:38:00.003-04:002011-10-07T11:22:27.516-04:00The Zen of Unschooling<blockquote>Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.<br /><br />Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.<br /><br />The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"<br /><br />"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?" </blockquote><br /><br /><br />Zen: such an interesting concept. Much like Unschooling in many ways. Trying to explain unschooling to one like the above mentioned professor garners about the same results. One has to be open to receive. <br /><br /><blockquote>One of the great, persistent myths of education in our culture is that children become reluctant learners as they grow older. In fact, what they become reluctant about it going to school, where they’re bullied, regimented, bored silly, and very effectively prevented from learning…We know what works for children up to the age where we ship them off to school: Let them be around you, pay attention to them, talk to them, give them access to as much as you can, let them try things, and that’s it. They take care of the rest. You don’t have to strap small children down and teach them to speak, all you have to do is talk to them. You don’t have to give them crawling lessons or walking lessons or running lessons. You don’t have to spend an hour a day showing them how to bang two pots together; they’ll figure that out all by themselves–if you give them access to the pots. Nothing magical happens at the age of five to render this process obsolete or invalid.</blockquote> Daniel Quinn<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-74493049585183100132011-08-15T10:15:00.009-04:002011-08-15T12:29:48.644-04:00Enjoying LifeMany years ago, as I was learning about unschooling, a woman in the group I was conversing with wrote a tearful story about her daughter. Someone had been asking about rules and such which had started the conversation towards ambiguous thoughts in the mainstream on the ways children grow and learn. This story has stayed with me through the years as it truly made me consider just what is <span style="font-style:italic;">really</span> important. Having lost my older sister when she was barely twenty and I was only fifteen, has lead my thoughts down this road before and left me to ponder just what does really matter in this life.
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<br />I guess I should tell you the gist of this mother's story. This mother had a beautiful daughter whom she unschooled. They spent wonderful days together exploring, and learning, and being as joyful as they could. One day, the daughter died leaving behind a heartbroken mother. She was able to share with us that had she the chance to do it all again, she would still love and spend her days with her daughter the same way. She was so glad their days were not filled with fighting over homework, chores, and other ambiguous things that would have tainted the joy of the every day.
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<br />Recently, I rushed my son to the emergency room for extreme abdominal pain. On the way, he told me he couldn't feel his arms nor even his heartbeat. He began to panic. So did I. I called 911. They dispatched an ambulance as the dispatcher, too, began to panic with us. The fire truck met us. (Here Firefighters are first responders trained in emergency medical skills.) They advised me there was nothing to be done accept to get my son to the Emergency Room, and considering where we live, it would be quicker for me to continue the drive myself. So I did.
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<br />In the ER we learned that my son was fighting an infection and that part of his bowel was inflamed. It was bad enough that they put him into the hospital and called in a Specialist. Anyway, he has now had further testing that revealed he has ulcers in his colon and severe swelling of his small intestine. The doctor started him on three different meds and has ordered more testing. So far all we know is the first biopsies weren't found to be cancerous but they were very infected. It's looking like he is suffering from Crohns but the doctor hasn't made that a confirmed diagnoses yet. She is still waiting on more tests results.
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<br />Last week, during the follow up doctor's appointment, when we learned of the biopsy results, the doctor mentioned that school would be starting soon and that my son would need to learn coping methods for stress as stress is thought to make the attacks worse. My son told her that wasn't a concern as he is unschooled. She started to debate 'school' then quickly altered it to asking him if he planned to go to college. He told her yes, he was. She then went on to explain that school and youth come with immense stress. >.< This is where getting into a debate about the concepts of learning with someone who obviously has devoted much of their life to learning, isn't worth it. Obviously, the GI Specialist enjoys learning as one would require this ability to truly enjoy their work, but chances are, they were also traditionally raised, plodding through school the way most people do.
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<br />So later, when my spouse and I were alone, we talked at length about our son's future and whether or not college was really a necessity. If it was a choice between serious stress that would cut our son's life short, or not going to college, we were all for skipping the killer stress. There are many ways to live one's life without throwing a mountain of stress on one's shoulders. College is possible without carrying a mountain of stress, but to do that, is really up to the person involved.
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<br />So me being me, I got talking to my son about this and he told me that he <span style="font-style:italic;">wanted</span> to go to college so it wouldn't be stressful to him. Recently, before his trip to the ER, he had read an article about the person he most admires: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of-dwarf-fortress.html?_r=3&ref=technology&pagewanted=all">Tarn Adams, the creator of Dwarf Fortress. </a> This lead to a discussion about how Mr. Adams has chosen to live his life and the point that seems to come across the loudest, is he is <span style="font-style:italic;">happy</span>!
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<br />How many people can truly say that they get to be happy in that which they do? It's a wonderful place to have one's life. This is the charm of unschooling. <span style="font-style:italic;">Unschoolers get to be happy about life and learning!</span> So many people hear 'unschooling' as 'un-educated' and that is so far from the truth! The GI Specialist after spending a short amount of time with my son, told her staff she was impressed with the intellectual young man. Yes, over hearing that, did in fact make me smile.
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<br />Through the freedom of unschooling, my son gets to learn at his own pace, things of interest to him. He tends to enjoy the weightier subjects of math, physics and computer languages. He has been putting forth effort to write well, as he has become active on a forum where other intellectual types converse. He has found his intellectual peers. I do not need to force him to study. Recently, I came across another online free resource for learning Python called '<a href="http://code.google.com/p/swfk/">Snake Wrangling for Kids</a>'. I had printed it out and left it on his desk for him to peruse should he want to. (He has already learned some Python via other means so I wasn't sure if this manual would be helpful or not.) Last night, I found him working his way through this new manual and he showed me his beginning progress on a simple program he had just written. Recently, there's been other times, I've found him working his way through <a href="http://www.khanacademy.org/">Kahn's Academy</a> which is another terrific free resource. He is <span style="font-style:italic;">enjoying</span> learning. He does in fact, plan on going to college and therefore, he is making sure he will be ready.
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-42213513703690475172011-07-08T09:51:00.006-04:002011-07-08T11:58:12.338-04:00Biology and Math<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL04BSYlFQhR83W3W1SXW9QS_Hr95qZ2Czumte369XMqLLYsI3RiCLmqkSqQx7FChPS_XZzdKL6sZWUf9O0jnLOxSyxEdNM9syEdX1kl5k4KniCjmG1RaPBrUITWm-vkemjNqbUl03deg/s1600/photo.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL04BSYlFQhR83W3W1SXW9QS_Hr95qZ2Czumte369XMqLLYsI3RiCLmqkSqQx7FChPS_XZzdKL6sZWUf9O0jnLOxSyxEdNM9syEdX1kl5k4KniCjmG1RaPBrUITWm-vkemjNqbUl03deg/s320/photo.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627011261390548402" /></a><br />Question asked: For the original Life of Fred books you have to be able to do long division. I assume they need to be done sequentially but I am not really sure.<br /><br />I bought the complete original series of LoF when my son was 10. He asked if he could just read them as novels instead of working the math as he went. I told him of course! He read and giggled his way all the way through the complete series. Later, when he and his dad were busy discussing quantum physics and black holes, my son decided he really needed to get a better handle on the higher maths. He jumped right into the calculus book and after a bit of struggle, he decided that it would make sense to go through the math in a more step by step procedure actually working the problems as he went. (We had already talked about this, but coming to his own realization was beautiful!)<br /><br />He is now 13 and every so often he picks up the books and works his way through them. He now has a strong grasp on Algebra and Geometry. As for Biology, he has had an intense interest in that since around age 8. Back then he wanted to learn everything he could about cats. I looked for every book I could find, every video, and I totally disregarded 'age level'. Soon he was reading college level biology books just because he was interested. We let him breed his cats and raise all the kittens. He's pretty much an expert on cats and all their biology now. (Our vet was impressed.) Also, in letting him learn all he could about cats, he now has a solid foundation on the biology of mammals which has lead to many more studies including humans.<br /><br />For my son, the most beautiful part of unschooling, is the freedom for him to be able to explore a subject as deeply as he likes. I just pay attention to his interests and do everything I can to feed those interests. Needless to say, his bookshelves are loaded with books on biology, physics, religions of all forms, mythology, math, tons of various reference books, tons of D&D books, comics, tons of fiction and classical literature, to name a few. He has access to the local library should he want it. He has unlimited access to the web. He has unlimited access to video games. He has unlimited access to a menagerie of pets and a life outdoors.<br /><br />Today finds him in a kayak with his dad and a family friend who till just recently worked at NASA while they wait to watch the final launch of the space shuttle. Yesterday had him working on a SeaDoo learning to rebuild a carburetor. <br /><br /><br /> Who knows what he will learn tomorrow? I'm sure it will be something interesting.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-91472666151174957012011-07-07T10:08:00.000-04:002011-07-08T10:11:13.975-04:00Living BiologyPosted on original blog May 5, 2009. <br /><br />Living Biology is something we get to experience here on our farm. Over the past few years, I've been sharing many of these experiences as they have come along. My children have been raised with many pets so I'd like to share with you our newest bebies born just this morning. First, here is the story of how these new precious babies came about.<br /><br />Hobbs the daddy, was born born here on May 30, 2007. You can read his birth story at <a href="http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/MOMflippedisWOW/335823/">Lamaze for cats?</a> He and his siblings baby pictures are posted at <a href="http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/MOMflippedisWOW/346156/">Introducing Five Little Kittens</a>. All of the kittens and momma were fixed except for <a href="http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/MOMflippedisWOW/417480/">Hobbs</a>. We kept him intact as he was such a beautiful cat, with a loving personality, which we thought would be excellent in future generations.<br /><br />Then along came Suvy and Stickers who were rescued on June 11, 2008. To this day, Stickers, still earns that name. She's sweet and loving but she just can't grasp the concept that her claws need to be in. Stickers was also a bit of a surprise. Early in her life, she needed an emergency trip to the twenty-four hour vet clinic. Her life was saved but the vet insisted that she was a he. Since that left Suvy as the only unfixed female, we didn't give it another thought. We were going to breed Hobbs and Suvy and see what type of kittens they'd throw. You can read Suvy's and Sticker's story at <a href="http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/MOMflippedisWOW/546082/">How Many Kittens?</a><br /><br />Well, sometimes it's best to trust yourself when sexing kittens. Both Suvy and Stickers are females. Early this morning, Suvy gave birth to four beautiful kittens. Stickers should be having her's soon. Both mommas are being kept safe inside away from all the other pets. Poor Suvy was very confused this morning about what those wet noisey creatures were. My spouse soothed her and got her to lie down and I went and gathered her babies, dried them off a bit, then handed them to James. He rubbed them on Suvy's face and placed them on her belly. Poor Suvy was so very confused. She wasn't taking to motherhood very well and it was beginning to look like it wasn't going to go well. James encouraged her to lick her babies and I'm happy to report nature has taken over and even the smallest is now nursing!<br /><br /><a href="http://s185.photobucket.com/albums/x79/geppetto24/?action=view&current=065.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x79/geppetto24/065.jpg" border="0" alt="New Kittens!" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://s185.photobucket.com/albums/x79/geppetto24/?action=view&current=066.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x79/geppetto24/066.jpg" border="0" alt="Momma Licks" /></a><br /><br />National Geographic has an excellent series called <a href="http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/in-the-womb/4047/Overview">In the Womb</a> for any one who would like to learn more about cats and their development. I'll post babies pictures once they get a little bit bigger.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-41886060639151654462011-07-07T10:02:00.000-04:002011-07-08T10:10:02.559-04:00Lamaze for cats?Originally posted May 30, 2007 on my original blog:<br /><br />I'm currently holding a phone to my ear as I type this to share what's happening at home while I'm at work. My son is delivering his first baby!! Baby kitten that is. (My son is only nine.) Our cat, Tonga, is having her first babies and my son has been anxiously attending her for weeks now waiting for this blessed event.<br /><br />The sounds of my spouse and son as they time Tonga's contractions, and describe what's happening is priceless!<br /><br />The first baby is born! They say it appears all black and wiggling! Momma is licking her first born and all appears well. I'll post this now and update it later with pictures when I get home<br /><br /><a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x79/geppetto24/CIMG0062.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket" /></a><br /><br />Comforting the soon-to-be momma.<br /><br /><a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x79/geppetto24/CIMG0104.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket" /></a><br /><br />Tonga loves her new babies!<br /><br /><a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x79/geppetto24/CIMG0101.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket" /></a><br /><br />Helping the babies find norishment.<br /><br /><a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x79/geppetto24/CIMG0117.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket" /></a><br /><br />Five Little Kittens!!<br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /><br /><a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x79/geppetto24/CIMG0059.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket" /></a><br /><br /><span style="color: #ffff99; font-size: small;">And a peep?</span><br /><br />Just kidding.<br /><br />This is one of the peeps the kids found in the barn the other day.<br /><br />I'll get sweeter pictures of the kitties when they get a little bigger.<br /><br /> <br /><br /> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-28920812285747893162011-06-01T19:57:00.017-04:002011-06-02T08:32:55.916-04:00Writing and PatienceWriting...it's such a wonderful form of art. A pure expression of thoughts, emotion, or controlled structure in which laws are written, directives administered. Words are POWER! No wonder that we all so worry about whether or not our children will master the written word. <br /><br />When our children are little, we worry over when they will learn to read and how they will learn it. If we happen to have an early reader, we tend to be PROUD and LOUD about it! Not meaning to be rude, just it's hard not to celebrate when our little ones seem to master a major stage and early!<br /><br />When our children seem to trail behind the spectrum of the perceived norm, we worry. What if ...? How can we help? What did/didn't we do? Should we hire a specialist? Different teacher? New school? Different learning style? On and on till one day, we either give up hope or (what seems) miraculously, the child is reading!<br /><br />Writing doesn't seem to be as large of a hurdle, yet we still worry abet, a bit less. <br /><br />I remember the day I took my son to the library to get his very own library card and the condescending way the Librarian 'asked' him to sign his name once she learned he was a homeschooler as if, by being a 'homeschooler' he would be seriously lacking in simple writing skills. What she failed to observe, is that my son did notice her attitude. Needless to say, she may have been an adult, but she wasn't looking to be someone to be looked up to.<br /><br />Why would this matter? Well, my son wasn't so worried about her attitude as much as he was worried about my <em>feelings</em> about her attitude. He did fine, though her attitude didn't leave either of us feeling very welcomed to use the library. Perceived views.<br /><br />What I have observed over my long life is people who enjoy writing, write. People who want to have a voice, write. People who need a place to calm their thoughts, write. There are many reasons people write but when you go looking for the reason of why, the reasons are varied yet oddly, come back to one simple truth: They need or want to get their thoughts out and writing fulfills that need.<br /><br />When we jumped into homeschooling, and I tried to 'make' my son write, I felt like I was hitting a wall. It's not that he <em>couldn't</em> write. It's more a case of he was a deep and logical thinker so just telling him to write, wasn't going to work. I tried creative writing books. I tried designed lessons plans. I tried everything that everyone suggested for such a young man. For those who have followed me, you know it didn't take long for me to try unschooling.<br /><br />The unschoolers told me to relax! Don't worry about it! He will write and write just fine when he decides he wants to. No grammar lessons needed. No spelling drills, nor weekly spelling tests would change any of this except to further him <em>not</em> wanting to write. <br /><br />I pondered this a wee bit, but then I observed my nephew and his attitude towards reading and writing. If he wasn't in school, and earning a grade, he had no curiosity to read nor write anything! Books? WHY WOULD WE EVER GIVE HIM A BOOK!?!?!? Were we sadistic?!<br /><br />So it's been a few years now, five years to be precise, and I am here to inform you, that the unschoolers got it right! No lessons nor writing drills required!<br /><br />Writing happens. <br /><br />Years ago, I was told if he could read, he would write. Have faith and let it happen. My son has become quite the writer! He found his passion online, writing in gaming forums where he has met people from all over who share his passion for gaming and such. He is always doing research, taking notes, and putting together interesting findings. No writing lessons nor English classes required. It really is true that if they read, they will write. They just have to have the desire and that comes from within.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-72441734272287509832011-03-04T13:41:00.000-05:002011-03-04T13:44:06.371-05:00Diane Ravitch on the Daily Show<table style='font:11px arial; color:#333; background-color:#f5f5f5' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='512' height='340'><tbody><tr style='background-color:#e5e5e5' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com'>The Daily Show With Jon Stewart</a></td><td style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; text-align:right; font-weight:bold;'>Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c</td></tr><tr style='height:14px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-march-3-2011/diane-ravitch'>Diane Ravitch</a></td></tr><tr style='height:14px; background-color:#353535' valign='middle'><td colspan='2' style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; width:512px; overflow:hidden; text-align:right'><a target='_blank' style='color:#96deff; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/'>www.thedailyshow.com</a></td></tr><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><embed style='display:block' src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:376268' width='512' height='288' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' flashvars='autoPlay=false' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' bgcolor='#000000'></embed></td></tr><tr style='height:18px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><table style='margin:0px; text-align:center' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='100%' height='100%'><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/'>Daily Show Full Episodes</a></td><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.indecisionforever.com/'>Political Humor & Satire Blog</a></td><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow'>The Daily Show on Facebook</a></td></tr></table></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-58156540616104941142011-03-01T09:00:00.004-05:002011-03-01T15:16:54.300-05:00Florida wants Parent Accountability<a href="http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2011/January/Fla-Lawmaker-Proposes-Report-Cards-for-Parents/">Florida legislation will soon be deciding on whether or not to pass a bill that would require teachers to grade Florida parents on how well they are preparing their children for school. </a> <br /><br />Are they serious? Yes. <br /><br />This bill would require the teachers, grades kindergarten through twelfth grade, to grade the parents on homework completion, the child's attendance, how well the child has slept and whether or not the child has eaten a proper meal, along with the parents' responsiveness to these opinions of the teacher. (OK, they phrase it as 'communication' and not opinion, but I digress.)<br /><br />So let's take my past experience with the Florida school system and break it down to what they have used in my experience to where they are going with this new legislation. For the record, I and my siblings attended Florida schools then sent our children through the Florida system so I could rightfully say I've years of experience as to how the Florida system works in a few different Florida counties.<br /><br />Let's start with homework.<br /><br />When my family first moved to Florida, I and my two older brothers entered high school and my baby sister started kindergarten. Never was homework collected and graded. It was given, but the teachers didn't care if you did it or not. They didn't bother. One teacher had explained that the homework was 'student optional' and if the student wanted to do well on the final, then they would do the extra work to master the subject. If they opted not to, then their grade would reflect this.<br /><br />Hmmm.. Student accountability in high school.<br /><br />Now, in the lower elementary grades, this same attitude was present. Except, younger students don't tend to remember what they copied off the board by the time they get home. I will offer that I much preferred how a few of the private schools handled this situation. In a few of the private schools, they simply required that the parent sign the homework after it was completed. This allowed the teacher to be in daily contact with the parent and the parent to have a daily idea of just how well their child was handling the topic. I still have happy memories sitting with my daughter when she was in first grade, while she read her reading assignments to me. I suppose the difference here is that I cared and somehow the current thought is that unless you score the parent on the job they do of parenting, today's parents don't care. Both my spouse and I fall into the 'we care' concepts of parenting so both of us spent much time helping our children with their homework. I don't see how grading parents would change this much but we'll get back to this later.<br /><br />Florida schools have had an attendance policy in place for a very long time if not forever. Simply put, the teacher marked whether or not a student was present and the attendance was then sent to the office. I remember in high school, this being done at the start of every class and a student sent with the results each hour. (Classes were an hour long when I was in high school.) Now I was under the impression that it was up to the attendance office to notify the parent when a student went missing (i.e. skipping) or when the absentee student was in excess of the allotted amount.<br /><br />Now, back in the day when I was in school, the attendance office wasn't watching so closely. The school I attended was close to the ocean so when the surf was up, the surfers weren't in school. At least not till the surf died down. At some point along the way, I became so disappointed in the "education" I wasn't receiving that I, too, started skipping school. At first it was just a day or two, then it became a week. Eventually, going to school felt weird. I'd show up on test day, ace the test, then head on back to the ocean. At some point, I gave up on bothering with the tests, too.<br /><br />I believe I hadn't been in school for over three months when my father came across me on his way to work. It was one of the few times I can still remember steam coming out of my father's ears! Well, that's another story. I just bring this up to point out a simple fact. Why hadn't the school's attendance office notified my parents about my lack of attendance in all that time? I was in the top five percent, an advanced and gifted student, yet, no one, noticed I was not attending school. I opted to not return to high school and went to college at age seventeen instead.<br /><br />Some would say, well, that was so long ago. Florida schools have improved! They are much more vigilant of such things today. Hmmm. Really? Well maybe a little. Looking back to when my girls were in public school, the attendance office was much better at sending out form letters once fifteen days were missed. I still remember the first time I saw one of those form letters! I promptly called the school to find out what it was all about. I had sent in doctor's notes whenever my girls were sick so the absences were legit, due to illness. The very kind lady who worked in the attendance office, informed me that it was just a form letter and not to worry. She had all the doctors' notes and they never pursue anything in regards to non-attendance. I couldn't say if they do or don't. I'm just repeating what I was told.<br /><br />So let's address the proper meal issue. I totally agree that children need proper nutrient. I'm also aware that the schools have in place a free and a reduced breakfast and lunch plan for those less fortunate and in need of food. Now, my kids ran into a different problem. We had to head out for school before their bellies could handle food. None of my kids ever wanted to eat that early, and my son would throw up every day on the way to school whether or not he had eaten. Needless to say, we later realized he had issues with his teacher which ended up with us removing him from that school. The morning vomiting only occurred if he thought he had to see her.<br /><br />So I would always keep Pop tarts and other easily packed breakfast type items available for my kids and once their stomachs had woken up, they would eat. They either took a packed lunch from home or bought a school lunch but in all honesty, after spending time in the schools volunteering my time, I doubt the schools could truly monitor what every child eats for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's a noble concept which I believe they would completely fail at. The sleep issue would also be a hard one for them to accurately rate. Young teens are notorious for preferring to sleep the mornings away while staying up late so God bless them for even considering trying to score that one.<br /><br />Now, as for the parents' responsiveness to the teacher's communications, that is a loaded topic. I found that in the 'communication process' it was the teachers and school administrators that caused the road blocks. I've got years and years of them refusing to communicate I could list. Usually, an issue had to become a mountain before I could get them to address it. In the end, I got tired of the war and gave up on them and their system. Finding another path was a positive way to go.<br /><br />Now, in the school's defense, I do recall watching teachers as low as kindergarten level, having so much paperwork to fill out, that they had to leave their students in the hands of a 'helper' who would hand out crayons and busy work. After witnessing this phenomenon, I don't see how adding more paperwork on to the teachers obligations is going to improve the classroom. This new legislation may be seen as just another 'tool' to help a teacher out but how will this tool really work?<br /><br />Homework. The schools currently have in place a system for low achieving students to be monitored by both the teacher and the parent. The student is required to pick up a form from the office each week, write out the homework assignments, and have the teacher sign it, verifying that it was copied correctly. The parent is then expected to review the completed homework and sign off that they have reviewed it. At the end of the week, the student is to get a weekly grade from the teacher. So if this current system which is only monitoring the weaker students is already failing, how is monitoring ALL the students going to improve this?<br /><br />Attendance. Parents are already held accountable for the students' attendance. This just adds one more form and without a comprehensive follow up, won't change a thing.<br /><br />A good night's rest and a proper meal. Wow. Now this is a hot topic. In a stable home, attaining both of these are achievable, but if you look at the totality of society, not all children come from 'stable' homes. God bless the government for thinking that they are going to be able to solve all domestic issues in every house. This has me wondering just how the legislatures plan to address this. They already have Children's Services in place, so just where are they planning to take this one?<br /><br />As for the proper meal issue, bullies stealing lunch money and leaving the victim to go hungry has been a story line since I can remember. The only real way I see for kids to be guaranteed, no matter of the reason for lack of food, to be fed, is for the schools to provide free meals, breakfast and lunch and possibly an after school snack, for all students regardless of whether or not their parent applied for it. This just raises the bar that all kids are fed and removes the need to prove need.<br /><br />Is this new legislation really necessary? Well, some may feel it is. I doubt that the poor child who comes from an abusive home will have any more hope than they had before. Will some parents feel the stress and put more pressure on their kids? You bet. There will always be 'over-achievers' even if misdirected and there will always be parents who really weren't ready for the job when they entered parenthood. No legislation requiring teachers to grade parents is going to change this. Parents who care will continue to care and parents who don't, won't. So I see this as the first step to many future steps where parenting rights will slowly start to be taken away. The state will start to believe that they can do a better job. (In a few cases, they may be right, let's not look too closely at Florida's record on how well Florida has protected children in the 'system'.)<br /><br />All and all, I don't see this legislation as necessary or truly useful. The teachers need less paperwork and more time to actually get to the business of teaching. Make teaching engaging, and most students will become engaged in the learning. No paperwork mandating records of food intake and sleep habits is going to make learning fun and intriguing. Homework isn't really needed when class is interesting and if the class is interesting, then the homework would be, too. If we are going to change our system for the better, why don't we return to making learning an interesting thing to do?<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-61889930079367881392011-02-05T15:08:00.005-05:002011-02-06T10:26:12.870-05:00Anonymous said...<blockquote>Anonymous said...<br /><br /> <a href="http://balderdashandblokus.blogspot.com/2009/08/is-college-for-unschoolers-even.html"> most things I read assume that the unschooled teen who desires college is academically able to handle it. I am not.<br /> I love my life, but Im not a musical prodigy, I don't really have a passionate hobby, My math is at about a middle school level if that,I don't like ot read and I can't write well. my only option seems ot be community college with years of remdial classes to "catch up"<br /> sometimes I feel like I was shortchanged.i don't always feel like that, but sometimes I do</a>.</blockquote><br /><br /><br />Anonymous raises much thought on what I've been thinking lately. See I have a younger sister. Nine years younger. I was the "baby" up until her arrival. She is now approaching the end of her thirties and I am approaching the end of my forties. It's interesting to look back and see how we each view the same event. As my spouse would tell you, it doesn't appear we were raised by the same family. So here below, I shall try to elaborate without 'upsetting' any parents whether they be mine or yours.<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>Anonymous's point one: most things I read assume that the unschooled teen who desires college is academically able to handle it. I am not.<br /></blockquote><br />OK. So why are you not? I ask this on many levels, when did you decide college was an option you might desire? When did you learn you weren't ready? How old are you currently to make this hard to achieve? <br /><br />I'm gonna try try hard here, not to throw stones at ANY parents. I try and talk to my kids BEFORE large decisions need to be made. I also spend, or have spent, a great deal of time researching just where they will be required to be and the many ways to get there. It DOES NOT mean that they always hear me.<br /><br />Anonymous, I can't know what happened in your world, nor where the 'failings' were should your not being 'college' ready comes from. But I will tell you that should you decide that you want to be ready, there are many ways to get ready, besides just going deep in dept to pay the college to bring you up to speed. I will add, that my baby sister, did in fact, use that method, taking six years of junior college to earn her two year degree, after opting (all on her own) to never learn a thing in school. There's far more back story here that may or may not make it into this rant.<br /><br /><blockquote>Anonymous's point two: I love my life, but Im not a musical prodigy, I don't really have a passionate hobby, My math is at about a middle school level if that,I don't like ot read and I can't write well. my only option seems ot be community college with years of remdial classes to "catch up"</blockquote><br /><br />I'm so happy to hear you love your life. Do you even know how few people can say that? I love mine, too, but not all the time. (Extended family ~ Oy Vay!!) I always seem to want to improve it but fail in the motivation to do so. But I'm blessed with a man I love and a wonderful home which we all love. That's not to say there hasn't been times my oldest has been ashamed of us, nor times I wished we had a showier place to invite friends to, but all and all, we have a nice home, a roof over our heads, and an abundance of love under that roof that radiates out through our fields to all our many pets. Do I know for sure that some day my kids will want to care for me? No, but one can hope and pray and do their best to be a lovable parent the kids will want to care for out of love, not obligation.<br /><br />Math. Most people in the world do not understand math past a middle school level. Middle school is where they tend to introduce algebra and geometry which starts to tickle the ends of abstract thought. If I was making a skirt, for a group of dancers, and each girl had a different size, then algebra would apply in the pattern making. You probably have a better understanding then you think, but need the tried and true formulas taught to you, or a damn good reference library. I've found excellent algebra links online and excellent geometry links, too. If you want to learn it, you are blessed with interest and a current ability to find it on the web. This wasn't an option when my sister and I were younger. Check out my links above and I bet a few might be able to bring you up to speed without wasting your money on college tuition.<br /><br />As for reading and writing, HAVE YOU EVER READ A POLICE REPORT?!?!?! Those boys, CAN'T write! They actually have a Report Writing 101 course just to bring them up to speed yet they get the right to carry a firearm! Proof one skill has little to do with another. Sure, sure, there are a few excellent writers in law enforcement. (I had a hard time NOT acknowledging the ones that actually turned a proper paragraph ... I digress.) Anonymous, your skills aren't all that lacking as you convade a point. Maybe you could have applied spell check.. but that's all I can criticize. (Note, my spell checking isn't finding the word I want for convade.)<br /><br /><blockquote>Anonymous's point three "sometimes I feel like I was shortchanged.i don't always feel like that, but sometimes I do"</blockquote><br /><br />I SO UNDERSTAND THIS FEELING!!!!!<br /><br />OMG! You don't even wanna get this old lady started on feeling short changed!!! I was the fourth child, (the annoying, whiny baby, being the fifth, yes, yes, that's YOU, Sandy!!! AND NO!!! I DON'T care for how you are raising your first born!!!)<br />Yes, I wrote it here, but it will require her to READ to see it. <br /><br />Dear Anonymous,<br /><br />My spouse points out ALL THE TIME how I am SO different then my family. We all get to make choices in our life. Some of us get to start younger. And some of us get to start later. My parents never chose to enter my world. They sent me to school and left me to do my thing. I can remember being angry when my perfect 'A' report card was blown off 'Because they never expected different from me" yet my failing older brother got their attention "because he was a failure". ~_~<br /><br />No, my parents weren't perfect parents. In fact, they influenced both my baby sister's way to raise her son and mine on how I raised mine. In my personal opinion, my way was the better way. She tries to be strict. I'm a total radical unschooler so as far from strict as can be! I, not knowing your parents, can't speak for or against their way.<br /><br />My parents never got involved with our schooling. Period. Sink or fail or succeed by your own accord. I DO remember my dad helping my older sister on a science project for the science fair once. She fared well. I don't recall him ever helping any of the other four kids. <br /><br />Yea, I can relate to feeling short changed. I got near fifty years of being short changed by my parents. Thank GOD! I have an incredible spouse to help me through, and if you hang in there, and choose wisely, you can have that, too. So they sold ya short. What's new? Parents all over are doing this. Adjust your own self worth and go from there. <br /><br />You have the right to demand more from yourself and others. And NO I don't mean stand in line and hold out your hand...<br /><br />If you want to understand math, then learn math! The Life of Fred breaks it down in such a great way. Real math, for the real world. If you want to write better, then do so! Never has there been an easier age to master the language in! Any language! <br /><br />So exactly what DO you want from this here called life?<br /><br />Happiness?<br /><br />You are already ahead as you state you are happy.<br /><br />I worry about these things often. My son, who has already excelled, has reached a point to where I ponder, if he doesn't drill these things, will he retain them? <br /><br />I'm trying an odd approach. It's called talking to him.<br /><br />He gets to hear my concern then apply that knowledge into either pursuing higher math or accepting responsibility for not knowing higher math when he is eighteen. ~.~<br />I can't live his life for him. He goes deep on the variable options to my character I'll play in his game, but it's hard for him to accept "too many options boggle my head". We each come into this world as we are. Life experience lends itself to who we become.<br /><br />I highly suggest, before you have your own child, if it's not too late to say so, is spend some time thinking hard about just what you remember and what you would do different. So many times, this becomes about money. And money is a definitive factor! The first real unschoolers I ever met face to face, lived bi-country and traveled where they choose for whichever season! Their kids could surf! In the middle of winter!! They were fluent in German and English. They traveled the world! There's no way I could give to my kids what these kids experienced.<br /><br />I ran into this family while waiting for the release of Cataclysm. He told me that he gave up private tutors for his kids and moved into unschooling when he realized that he had no clue on what they will need to know in the future. His kids no longer fight, and are happy.<br /><br />Sounds like to me, you are already further along on the road to a happy life then many high school grads. Good luck and write me any time. I haven't even skimmed the top of my thoughts on this topic. =)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-25016453181776456982010-12-14T08:54:00.004-05:002010-12-14T11:18:20.792-05:00Carnival of Homeschooling: 42 edition<a title="Carnival of Homeschooling" href="http://whyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2008/04/carnival-of-homeschooling.html"><br /><img alt="Carnival of Homeschooling" width="160" height="200" border="0" src="http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll227/hcate3/WhateverImageA.png" >< </a><br /><br /><br />The <a href="http://jugglingpaynes.blogspot.com/2010/12/carnival-of-homeschooling-42-edition.html">Carnival of Homeschooling: 42 edition</a> is now up at <a href="http://jugglingpaynes.blogspot.com/">Home Spun Juggling!</a> <br /><br />This recent issue of the Carnival takes a look at the number 42 and all the interesting ways this number has come into play from being the Ultimate Answer to the Secret of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)to frowning using about 42 muscles. The Carnival also contains more of Cristina's wonderful and original comics, always worth a visit.<br /><br />Take a moment and go visit the Carnival. It's sure to warm your heart.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-44239400491374567962010-12-01T09:02:00.013-05:002010-12-14T08:42:40.588-05:00The Ultimate Question<blockquote>Secular homeschooling is growing, and growing amazingly fast. Much of the curriculum is now secular, radical unschooling is on the rise (don't confuse radical unschooling with unschooling),... </blockquote><br /><br />Wait...WHAT?<br /><br />The above quote is from a Christian Homeschooling group leader that started out by being 'upset' by non-Christian groups censoring 'Christian Material'. Prior to this message, she had advised upon hearing there were radical unschoolers in her group, she would have to pray about this. I remember wondering just what she needed to pray about. Whether we truly exist? If we should be burned at the stake? I pondered just what it was about 'radical' unschooling that so disturbed her. I pondered what was written in the Bible that so clearly states radical unschooling is evil. I couldn't think of one thing. Oh sure there are these verses:<br /><br /><blockquote>"He who spareth the rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him correcteth him betimes" (Proverbs 13:24)<br /><br />Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell." (Proverbs 23:13-14)</blockquote><br /><br />But think about this. Are these verses saying that we should beat good children? I believe these verses are referring to bad children and more specifically, for weighty matters that NEED to be reinforced firmly. Things like catching your two year old just before they dart into the street ignoring your order to STOP! Those are the times that a smart smack on the bottom make sense and only for the point of reinforcing the importance of listening so you can keep your child safe.<br /><br />Thinking about that old adage 'What would Jesus do?', gets me thinking about how Jesus taught the little children (and others) by telling them stories. He painted beautiful portrayals of people and the choices they made. Some choices worked out well and their life was rewarded. Some made poor choices and they didn't fair so well. Jesus just put the thoughts out there and left it more as a 'Which do you choose?' instead of 'Believe what I tell you or I'll beat you!' <br /><br />This all got me thinking about the many people I've met over the years. There were many who made poor choices. I looked at their lives and said, 'No, that isn't the path for me.' I looked at some truly happy people who were content with their life and that got me looking closer to just what was it that made them so happy. What I found was the truly happy people had an acceptance of life, a love for their fellow man, a walk much closer to the Lord. They tended to follow the idea that it wasn't their place to judge others. That they would leave that roll to the Lord himself. For themselves, they chose to just live a good life and do the best they could asking the Lord for guidance along the way. These are the people I've found that are content when their life is over. They know where they are going and are ready to go there. There's a peace in this.<br /><br />Now, just how does this tie into why I was so surprised to hear a fellow Christian state that radical unschoolers can't be true Christians? <br /><br />Well, partly, the simple fact that they were censoring someone else right after complaining about being censored, hmmm. Partly, because instead of looking and learning, they simply judged. In looking back to the stories I remember of Jesus's early life, he, too, seems as if he lived a more radical unschooling life than the conventional model most people currently tout. <a href="http://www.hurtingchristian.org/PastorsSite/gospels/luke2-21-52.htm">(Here's a list of references to Jesus's early life.) </a> <br /><br />From the above link, <blockquote>McGee writes, "Jesus was subject unto His parents. This is interesting in the light of the fact that young people today are rebelling and are demanding to be heard.</blockquote> Now maybe, just maybe, this is where people are getting confused with 'proper homeschooling' vs 'radical unschooling'. People are failing (or maybe just uninterested enough to look deeper) to see that radically unschooled kids do obey their parents. It's just that RU parents tend to not have so many arbitrary rules. RU kids don't tend to be rebellious because they tend not to have anything to rebel against!<br /><br />According to Luke 2:40 'And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.' One could surmise that Jesus was wise. How do children become wise? <br /><blockquote>Wisdom is generally thought of as keen insight that helps in navigating life. Believing in wisdom carries the assumption that there's a best way of doing things. There are many ways to gain wisdom and learn how to navigate the storms of life. Generally, wisdom is best gained from your own personal experience, but you can also learn by watching others and even through reading and meditation</blockquote>(Read more: How to Gain Wisdom | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2317069_gain-wisdom.html#ixzz180iuGmKB)<br /><br />So my friends, I am going to leave you with a final thought. If you believe in the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior, and you believe that through Him, all things are possible, why would there be doubt that being radically unschooled would prevent one from having this same belief?<br /><br />Happy Holidays to you and yours,<br /><br />Vicki<br /><br />P.S. When in doubt, the answer is always 42.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-78287766384880685152010-10-29T12:34:00.001-04:002010-10-29T12:35:22.493-04:00RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms<object style="background-image:url(http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/zDZFcDGpL4U/hqdefault.jpg)" width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zDZFcDGpL4U?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zDZFcDGpL4U?fs=1&hl=en_US" width="480" height="295" allowScriptAccess="never" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object><div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-25233333184686781872010-10-20T11:54:00.004-04:002010-10-21T18:39:03.646-04:00Educational FreedomLately I've been reading many new articles being written about unschooling and I must admit, that many of them are really getting on my nerves. The reason I'm guessing so many articles are being written is partly because some unschoolers are looking for a way to turn it into an income, other non-unschoolers are unhappy with the most prevalent school system so they are looking for other options, and the third, the people who write the news, like controversy. The later is what is really on my nerves.<br /><br />I'll not be linking the articles as I wouldn't want to line the pockets of those who write dribble that might one day be used to create a law to stop or cause harm to our educational style. I will make an issue with some of what is being written.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">1) To read one particular article, they make it sound as if Unschooling means 'non-parenting'.</span><br /><br />This is far, far, from the way I had come to understand unschooling and far from how we unschool. Unschooling done properly, means parents are more in tune with their child(ren)'s needs. The parent is always looking for things and means to enhance the child(ren)'s life and learning. Parenting to me means being involved in helping one's child(ren) grow and learn in a safe way.<br /><br />A dear friend of mine recently posted that her children no longer need her to orchestrate their Story Tellers Group. She has become more of the chauffeur and secretary instead of the director. To me, this means she has been very successful in raising her children! See a few years ago, when her children were younger, they needed their mother's guidance to learn how to tell stories, and guide the group of one-day-to-be story tellers. Now these children have grown and along with becoming quite talented story tellers, they have learned management skills! Personal and group! My friend has done an excellent job at parenting.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">2)Another article makes unschooling sound as if unschoolers just open the front door and send their children to go discover the world alone.</span><br /><br />This is also very far from the truth! Unschooling parents join their children in exploring. They are there to share experiences with, to help when help is needed or wanted. To provide options and opportunities.<br /><br />An example of this is my son has been wanting to learn how to modify PC game programs. He read a thread online about how a certain game could have modifications (mods) added that would expand the game to such an extreme, you would be hard pressed to ever reach it's limit. There are over 2,500 mods available just from the main site, so he spent the last bit of time reading and learning all he could learn. When it finally came time to start the downloads, he asked me to come be with him.<br /><br />Now this may sound strange, but we've had a few bugs and or viruses, that have made him a wee bit gun shy to just download without a second opinion. Also, learning computer programming is rather involved so it's nice to have another person there to discuss things with. So last night he gave me a crash course on mod installments by pulling up the best information for me to read over and cutting out the fluff so it wouldn't take me a month to get through. Between the two of us working together, he was able to install the first few of what I believe will become many modifications. In fact, I was so impressed with his new skill that I plan on picking him up another modifiable game for his birthday tomorrow!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">3) Unschoolers neglect math and science and other 'schooly' topics.</span><br /><br />Now I can't speak for all, nor would I want to, but unless the schools are producing every student with a near perfect higher math and science understanding, this is a mute point. <br /><br />In my home, everyone has a higher understanding of math including my only true completely unschooling youngest. He uses math naturally and way beyond the simple cooking examples many people use to show how math works in the real world. I will state that there is one thing I have noticed that tends to be missing, though, and that would be some of the titles to procedures that schools dole out. I mean really, once you are out of school, how many of you use the procedural terms in everyday conversations? (OK, I do know of one person who would, but she's a bit unusual.) So because of this, I've made sure my son owns an excellent reference book to these terms and he knows how to use it should he ever need it. We figure he most likely will never even see these terms unless he someday decides to take a standardized test. <br /><br />Unschooling isn't about neglecting our children. It also isn't about forcing unwanted and unneeded rules and drudge work on them either. When we first came to unschooling, the more experienced unschooling moms said, don't think of things in categories like reading, writing, math, science as those are forced distinctions and not how the real world works. Unschooling doesn't mean our children won't learn to read, either. Nor does it mean that our children can never have a textbook, or a course should they want one. <br /><br />What unschooling does mean, is that our children are allowed to thrive! For my son, this meant that I fed his desire to read and kept him stocked with books, books and more books, on every subject he wanted to read about. When he wanted to learn everything he could about cats, I found him everything I could get for him to explore this topic as deep as he wished to go! I had to learn not to look at a book by it's marked level and more for what information it contained. I found him science videos, and let him own cats! All his working knowledge on cats, easily transfers to other mammals. My son now knows more about biology then most high school graduates because when he wanted to learn, he was allowed to. <br /><br />Unschooling really equals educational freedom to learn all one wants to learn with no limits imposed. At least that's what it means in our home.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-56730556421852736852010-10-12T12:17:00.002-04:002010-10-12T12:37:56.010-04:00Star Trek EducationEarly the morning, my spouse and I were talking as I began to prepare for my day. This particular day had me heading off to work and he was going to be running errands and getting things done while spending time with our youngest. At some point in our conversation, he told me that they had finished the last Star Trek DVD we had received from our movie service and he was going to drop it off today, unless I had wanted to watch it, too. <br /><br />Then my spouse said, "Star Trek is very educational!" <br /><br />He went on and told me of his conversations with our son as they have watched this series. They have discussed theories, calculated light years, time travel, along with the densities of metal, temperatures of planets, solar systems, debated the concepts of other life forces, relativity of flight, biometrics, and on and on! My spouse told me that Google has been of great help in them finding real information they could calculate and compare to the series. <br /><br />I really need to convince my spouse and son to write about all of their Star Trek discoveries but that might take them away from having fun with their learning so I'll just leave it at, Star Trek is a viable source for real learning! =)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-50809424379192272902010-10-12T11:32:00.002-04:002010-10-12T12:06:40.810-04:00Anger and Life ChoicesI'm going to take a moment and talk about something a wee bit different then my usual topic. Anger. I recently asked a close friend how they saw me and they said they love everything about me except that I still carry a bit of 'anger'. They quickly added that I've been through more then my share of things to be angry about, but anger doesn't have any redeeming qualities and even though it's hard to release, it's worth it. I pointed out that I was aware of this and that's why I remove myself from having contact with those things (people) who cause these hard feelings. My close friend pointed out that , yes, they knew this, but it doesn't heal the wound and it still leaves a raw sensitive place on my underbelly.<br /><br />I've spent the last few hours thinking about this and thinking about what the Lord has to say about this. It's a lot to think about.<br /><br />There was a time, many years ago, that I was angry over my brother being a bully to his siblings. We've all grown up, but those beatings from him, didn't create a desire to have him as a close life long friend. We're not. I'm no longer angry.<br /><br />There was a time that I HATED the person who killed my sister. They never learned who murdered her so I never had a face to hate. I left this 'anger' in the Lord's hands years ago, realizing that no fate on Earth would ever equal God's wrath. I'm no longer angry.<br /><br />I was angry at the drunk driver who almost killed me when they caused an accident. Oh boy do I remember being ANGRY! But I was seriously injured and bleeding out, so I was never able to show them just how angry I was! That was years ago and the Lord saw fit that I stayed here on Earth. Guess he wasn't done with me at that time. I'm no longer angry.<br /><br />Oh, the list is long but the theme remains the same. I'm human and anger is a real emotion. One I've felt intensely from time to time. I've been aiming for a peaceful life for a long time. I live quietly, I drive cautiously, and I always try and be pleasant. You can't bubble wrap life though. So I always return to where I started and that's knowing that the Lord is always there for me. And you, too!<br /><br />Hear, O Lord, my righteous plea;<br />listen to my cry.<br />Give ear to my prayer -<br />It does not rise from deceitful lips.<br />May my vindication come from you;<br />may your eyes see what is right.<br />Psalms 17 1-2<br /><br />I am no longer angry.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-61388156470264536252010-09-21T13:19:00.000-04:002010-09-21T13:21:33.951-04:00Best Advice I Ever Received on UnschoolingFive years ago, I went looking to learn about homeschooling after my son had endured extreme bullying in school. I knew nothing more then there's no way I could do worse for my son then the current 'system' was doing. At first, I thought 'homeschooling' equaled setting up a 'schoolroom' in ones house and doing a smaller version of the classical one room schoolhouse image. <br /><br /><a href="http://homeschoolblogger.com/momflippediswow/files/2010/09/abc.jpg"><img src="http://homeschoolblogger.com/momflippediswow/files/2010/09/abc.jpg" alt="" title="abc" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-777488" /></a> <br /><br />I bought posters and charts and filled the house with all sorts of scholarly things. Looking back <a href="http://homeschoolblogger.com/momflippediswow/213864/">to the beginning of our first full year of official homeschooling</a> makes me smile. (We pulled George out of school when he was in second grade but didn't seriously push 'homeschooling' till what would have been considered the beginning of his third grade year.) He seemed to take to learning so naturally, that I soon learned to relax, which shortly after, slid more comfortably into unschooling. <br /><br />As with many new homeschoolers, I worried. As I kept finding myself more and more drawn to unschooling, I worried more! What if? As a mom, I now know I'm not alone in this concern for just how will my child learn? Will I teach him all that he will need, to go to college, to get a successful and happy life? So to help me learn more, I joined a bunch of groups. I joined local homeschooling groups. I joined national homeschooling groups. I researched and I read then I researched some more. I shared the highlights with my spouse who now is enjoying life as an unschooling father! Yes, unschooling just as with parenting, can be a family affair.<br /><br />My son is soon to be thirteen. By age requirements, he would be in seventh grade this year had he opted to return to school. He did not but the choice shall always remain his to decide. He has officially been unschooling now for four years plus one year of deschooling. He is still an avid reader and is always learning. There have been a few times he has been concerned that he might not be as smart as his same age peers, but at those times, we help him to explore just what his peers are learning and so far, he has been unimpressed. It seems that my son has a deeper knowledge base as he doesn't have to stop something he is into because he must switch to a different class or subject. He learns things because he is interested so the information sticks. <br /><br />The best advise I recall ever receiving on education, or on how kids learn, or how to teach, was this; If you read, your children will read. If you write, your children will write. If you love life, so will your children. Instead of looking to engage your children in something, go find something to engage yourself into. They will come to see what you are doing and if you make room for them to join you, they will. Love learning and they will, too. No force will ever be required.<br /><br /><a href="http://homeschoolblogger.com/momflippediswow/files/2010/09/abcd.jpg"><img src="http://homeschoolblogger.com/momflippediswow/files/2010/09/abcd.jpg" alt="" title="abcd" width="300" height="300" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-777492" /></a><br /><br />Oh, and most importantly, be willing to do the same in reverse! Be open and willing to learn what they have to teach YOU! You may just find yourself pleasantly surprised!!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-82210057788421282262010-07-21T10:51:00.002-04:002010-07-21T10:56:37.106-04:00Introduction to SAT<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmQsS3TXh94iVtJxok0CkixLk56II70wufOh2nR5vAkBSYzjDDopw8C80GuXehbrsZ8aq8QBOenK0kqbak83YCxWYacDA8rtJIn5rvGtF_-hihQ7P0YL1oJL1y9JR4VUfrcKG-O9Iqryw/s1600/SAT+Physics.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 297px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmQsS3TXh94iVtJxok0CkixLk56II70wufOh2nR5vAkBSYzjDDopw8C80GuXehbrsZ8aq8QBOenK0kqbak83YCxWYacDA8rtJIn5rvGtF_-hihQ7P0YL1oJL1y9JR4VUfrcKG-O9Iqryw/s400/SAT+Physics.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5496372557437231810" /></a><br /><br />The other day I found my spouse and son discussing the problems presented in the SAT Study Guide. It was interesting to watch as my son reasoned out the answers. =)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5836494628258556651.post-30309847017867787132010-06-29T10:39:00.006-04:002010-06-30T09:07:45.055-04:00Unschooling Social StudiesIn an unschooling life, one doesn't in general, put schooly categories on learning but as this blog is more about posting some of the learning my youngest is doing while also helping others see the value of unschooling, this post is being put into the Social Studies column. That being said, I will also need to warn that the links may have strong language. My son filters himself, we are not raising him in a bubble away from the real world, and the real people in it. He understands that under the stress of war, men tend to use explicative language they in general would refrain from if they were addressing a middle school classroom. They are not, so the language is real to their situation.<br /><br />In recent news, our current President has found the need to remove one of his top commanders from his post. I'm sure most of you have read about the situation with Gen. Stanley McChrystal. I kept seeing all the news blips, but I had to dig a little to find the Rolling Stones article. Strange as it may be, I'd rather read the actual article then the slanted news takes offered by much of the press. For those who haven't read the actual article, <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236">click here</a>. <br /><br />As I read this article, I kept thinking that my son would really enjoy reading about Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his team. See, my son has been of a military mind since he was three. Actually, much earlier, as he preferred being read to from a Military Airplane and Helicopter Encyclopedia over baby books. He, also, preferred pictures of the Blue Angels and aircraft carriers, over Blue's Clue's or Teletubbies which were all the rage when he was small. We never really figured out exactly why he had such a strong love for everything military, but he did, so I catered to it. Yes, I was an enabler. I admit to spending much time looking for the closest fit to military issue boots in toddler sizes. You wouldn't believe just how hard it is to locate appropriate BDU (Battle Dress Uniform) in his small size so I learned to sew them for him, per his correct camouflage requirements. =) Happy memories. Anyway, my little military man grew and continued wanting to be a top ranking Special Force Officer until 9/11. That was the day the reality of war came home to my young soldier. That was the day, he decided he would just play soldier, but as a career, he would become a game maker so all those kids who lost their dads would have something to help them smile again. He wasn't even four years old, yet.<br /><br />So the other day when this news broke about Gen. McChrystal, I found I really wanted to know the back story and after reading it, I knew it would be insight my son would enjoy. He sat down to read the article and was soon engaged in it. He came away with quite a bit of respect for McChrystal. We talked of the 'political' ramifications and such and just what caused the problem. Simply put, McChrystal made his mistake when he spoke candidly in front of a man who makes his living with words. This lead us into discussing the 'expertise' of different people and how one goes about putting together a great team. Different people have different skills and sometimes, the least likely source is the exact one you may need. <br /><br />As we talked, Dateline came on. They were showing their story on <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37853775/ns/dateline_nbc-international/">'A Father's Mission'</a> It's the story of a career military man who lead a group of parents to find out what happened to their sons in Afghanistan when they were sent to a remote and isolated area. They showed the video the young men took as they dug in. The pictures say more then anything else could. We backed it up a few times to really look at the terrain. My son, who has now been engrossed in all things strategic for over ten years now, couldn't believe where they had been ordered to build their outpost! Here, a twelve year old, could clearly see the error of the ones making the orders. The soldiers knew it. The videos clearly show they knew it, but they were good soldiers, so they did as they were told. <br /><br />Well, as blogger is a "public" forum, I'll refrain from stating just what we believe happened. Our prayers go out to the families and friends of these brave men. Our prayers go out to our leaders that they use good judgment in their deployment of our soldiers in the future. Watch the video for yourself, then pray for our Military.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-via="Viickisan">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Vickihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03113510205727830531noreply@blogger.com0