Enjoying Life

Many 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 really 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

So me being me, I got talking to my son about this and he told me that he wanted 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: Tarn Adams, the creator of Dwarf Fortress. 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 happy!

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. Unschoolers get to be happy about life and learning! 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.

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 'Snake Wrangling for Kids'. 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 Kahn's Academy which is another terrific free resource. He is enjoying learning. He does in fact, plan on going to college and therefore, he is making sure he will be ready.

Duel Enrollment, Art Masters, Turkey Chili & Paya Beach

Finding the right learning environment for our children is one of the largest challenges for parents. Turning our children over to the "professionals" and trusting they will get the best possible experience is most certainly the easiest route, but unfortunately, that doesn't mean the experience will be a good one. Click here for the latest example in the news.

Parents who choose to take on the challenge of homeschooling find the choices can be daunting. There are so many choices! This is were the researching starts and seeking knowledgeable and experienced homeschoolers comes in handy. (Note for those curious why as an Unschooler, I use the term Homeschooler: Keep in mind, that Unschooling is only a sub-set of Homeschooling.)

Today's parents are so fortunate as we have the internet. It provides connections to people that we otherwise would have a slim chance to ever learn from. Instead of reading through older books, we can get up to date information just by going online. Not to say that I don't love books! So many homeschooling parents currently blog which is a wonderful way to take a peek into what life outside of institutional school looks like. The internet also provides a community forum allowing for local groups, co-ops, and even the area's program directors, to keep in contact with each other. Parents can come together to get advice, plan classes,and get-togethers just to name a few of the benefits.

I use my blog as my personal reference Library. I'm always coming across interesting and or helpful links that may or may not be useful at the current time and my blog gives me a place to store them until such a time I may want to use them. I have made my blog public so others may benefit from it, too.

So today's useful links come from a few places. First, since my last post was about Early College/Duel Enrollment I will start with more information about this topic from the Davidson Gifted ~ Educators Guild. In the March 2010 Educators Guild Post, they explore the reasons for Dual Enrollment and have further links to more articles on the topic. If this is something you are considering, I highly recommend popping on over there and having a read.

The next interesting link is from Meet The Masters. Meet The Masters is an Art Education based on the work of Master Artists: Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Michelangelo, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Leonardo da Vinci. Normally, I steer away from posting resources that are not free. I'm bending that rule as I'm wishing I would have come across this link back when my son first started homeschooling as this was what he wanted to learn. Even though I had studied art myself, I found my teaching skills on the subject not very engaging. This course seems like a well put together learning tool.

The teen years bring on topics that not all parents are comfortable teaching. As I'm always looking for information I believe my son will be interested in, and he is interested in Biology, I didn't hesitate to record Sizing Up Sperm which is currently playing on the National Geography Channel. The National Geography Channel can provide all sorts of great learning on a wide variety of topics, so if you haven't tuned it recently, I'd suggest you do!

As a working mom, making dinner can become burdensome. It's not that I'm against cooking as I actually love to cook but having the energy or the time or the creativity to come up with something new can sometimes be stressful. I've been trying to carry cookbooks to work so during my downtime, I can think about what I'm going to make for dinner. (The daily phone call home to ask, "What are you in the mood for tonight?" is really more stressful then successful.) Recently, someone made the suggestion to use the crock pot. I happen to have a crock pot which was bought just for this purpose yet figuring out what to put in it, still seemed troublesome. Well today I have come across The Crock Pot Blog! There is a wonderful index of all the posted recipes here. I'm thinking tomorrow night, we might be tasting the Turkey Chili posted the other day.

I have one more link I'd love to share. This is a place I dream of visiting but doubt I will actually ever go there. The Paya Beach Resort comes highly recommended by my friend in Singapore. Her family vacations here every year. Doesn't it look like paradise?

Early Enrollment for Homeschoolers

Question about Early College: How does this process work and how do they get a diploma to get into college, I have 2 boys ages 13 and 16.

Thanks *****
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi *****,

If you were going through the public school system, your boys would be required to meet a certain GPA to use the duel enrollment option. Here is what my local high school's website says for duel enrollment:

Dual Enrollment
02/25/2010 It is time to register for Dual Enrollment classes for Spring Term. You need to fill out a guidance form to see your counselor. Early College students need to register at this time as well.

Students in grades 10-12 may take some college credit courses at ******* Community College and transfer that credit back to the high school under the following conditions:

1. The student has at least a 2.5 GPA for academic courses and 2.5 or 2.0 GPA for vocational courses.
2. The course is needed to fulfill a high school graduation requirement.
3. The student has the required score on the College Placement Test, ACT, SAT, or TABE test.

Course offerings not offered at the home school may include foreign language, math, English, science, social studies, computer science, performing or visual arts, and others. Courses in physical education will not be available through dual enrollment for high school credit. Students may also select a vocational education program, but this must be part of a high school program they have already started.

Students interested in dual enrollment should contact their counselor at least two months prior to registration for the semester they plan to attend. Any Dual Enrollment courses taken in high school may count towards the freshman year of college Grade Point Average depending upon the policies of the college you are accepted to.


And here is what my local high school has now added about Early College:

Early College
The Early College Option is an acceleration mechanism that allows students on track for graduation to begin earning college credit while still in high school. The credits earned will be counted for both high school credit and an A.A. degree.

Students must have a 3.0 cumulative, unweighted GPA and a recommendation from the high school principal or designee. It is also recommended that the student has met the FCAT requirement for graduation. Students must also meet a predetermined score on either the SAT, ACT, or College Placement Test.

Early College students will have the opportunity to participate in all high school activities. Early College students will begin and end their school day on their high school campus. This will allow students to remain a part of their zoned high school and to easily participate in after school activities.


Now, with all this being said, as we are homeschoolers (unschoolers actually) we chose to go directly through the college without bothering with dealing with the local high school. Also, I'll add the schools are changing their policies every year as two years ago, they were very confused by the two above categories. It's nice to see that they are finally figuring it out.

So as a homeschoooling student (registered with the county, otherwise you need to go through your "private school counselor") you apply directly to the college. For my daughter, they only required the CPT and never mentioned that the SAT or ACT would work. I see that per the high school, those tests now do qualify a student. The college only cares about the test results. Age doesn't matter so much. If you have an exceptional student, like a child who passes the CPT at age ten, then they may require you to get special permission from the teachers as they feel the child may not be mature enough. I know this as my son is one of those, but he has opted to wait till he is taller and would 'fit in' better at least height wise.

Now the public schools would have you believe that it takes years and years to master enough information to graduate high school and be prepared for college but the fact is that it doesn't take so many years. The student should have English skills of course, and should have Algebra, an understanding of Biology and such, but most kids have a solid foundation by 7th or 8th grade and certainly by 10th grade. You can have your student attempt the online sample test which will get you an idea of how close they are to being ready for the actual test. I believe they are only allowed to take the CPT three times but once again, my information is a few years old on that.

Click HERE for Daytona State College's link for the CPT info plus study links to improve your student's readiness.

Most colleges/universities have a link to a practice test so check out the website of the college of your choice for helpful information.

Now for my daughter, she is currently enrolled in college as a high school student so her classes are free but since she is a homeschooler, we are required to buy her books. She is taking American Sign Language to earn her two high school credits in a foreign language so she will qualify for the Bright Futures Scholarship. All her classes were chosen to fulfill the requirements of earning her AA degree. Since she will have a High School Diploma issued by me, along with an Associates of Arts Degree from the State College, she will have no trouble transferring into the Bachelor Degree program at which point the scholarships will hopefully start helping to pay the tuition costs. I'm not sure if since the college has switched from a two year to a four year college, if she will even need to change colleges now, but we will soon be learning this too. I'm also not sure just how high a student is allowed to progress through the college system under this Early College/Duel Enrollment option. All I'm currently aware of, is the student may be considered 'high school' till 19yo. If anyone has information on this, I'd love to know, as we have been discussing just how far our son could go if he starts around 14yo.

Laws and rules change all the time, so I'd suggest reading at the college/university of your choice, to see what their current procedures may be.

I hope you find this helpful.
Peace and Laughter,

Vicki ~ mom to dd 19, dd 17, & ds 12


PS ** This information is about enrolling in college BEFORE they earn a high school diploma.

Today Show Talks about College Apps

Times are changing fast and so are the words being used. I currently have two girls in college and none of these keywords in the below video became an issue for us, but maybe they will as my girls proceed towards their higher college degrees. So I'm posting this video for those of you who may actually come across these keywords and would like to know what they mean for your future college student. Enjoy!

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