Overdue

Being overdue is a lot easier to deal with when it's not you...

A little reprieve from the "I'm still pregnant" posts...

I bring you....

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List

by Deborah Markus

1. Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is — and it is — it's insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?

2. Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts.

3. Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if, as a homeschooler, she ever gets to socialize.

4. Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You're probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you've ever heard. Please go away.

5. We don't look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.

6. We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.

7. Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn't have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don't need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can't teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there's a reason I'm so reluctant to send my child to school.

8. If my kid's only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.

9. Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky.

10. Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.

11. Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don't get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I'm one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else.

12. Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.

13. Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.

14. If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.

15. Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child's teacher as well as her parent. I don't see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.

16. Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.

17. Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.

18. Here's a thought: If you can't say something nice....

Saturday's Child??

I got to thinking about the days of the week on which our children have been born.
Two have been born on a Sunday: Isaiah and Christopher
Two have been born on a Monday: Andrew and Ruby
One on a Tuesday: Nathaniel
And two were born on a Thursday: Linnea and Elijah

So, in the wee hours of a Saturday (with no sure signs of impending labor, mind you) I am wondering if we would possibly have a Saturday's child?

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for his living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

Well, I Went...

to my first ever 40 week appointment.

Well, I Never...

I have never gone to a 40 week appointment.
Never.
Seven prior births and I've never needed a 40 week appointment.

Tomorrow I am supposed to go.
I may boycott.

I'm thinking it will look something like this:

Nurse/Dr: Oh, Melissa--you're still pregnant! Bet you didn't think you'd need this appointment, didja?

Me: Nope.

Dr: We could talk about an induction...

Me: Don't even mention that word or you will make me throw my feelings about inductions right out the window! Don't hold that carrot out to me, please. I will just wait.


So unless something happens tonight...in the morning I might go to my first ever 40 week appointment.
*Sigh*

Starfall

I know that most kids don't need
another website to visit,
but I have found this one to be
really good--both for pre-readers and
independent young readers.
Starfall.com

I like that it's not a game as such,
but almost more like a phonics curriculum.

Check it out!

WFMW: I Sleep In My Workout Clothes

It doesn't take a whole lot to
dissuade me from working out in the mornings.

I still do so every morning, but man--
sometimes it's hard to get it going.

What helps me?
Sleeping in my workout clothes.

Yep. I do.

Somehow, eliminating the step
of changing out of pajamas
really helps me.

It works for me!!

P.S. I'm still pregnant.