You know, most folks think of all the things that homeschoolers miss, like athletics, music, and other extracurricular things, that might be life-enriching, if you are lucky enough to have quality instructors.

However, we are all so entrenched in our public school mind-set that we overlook the obivous, that is that these types of opportunities exist elsewhere and are often superior. Not only that, but how about  the rich and vast opportunities that homeschoolers are now free from the chains of public school to experience that we never even think of.

Here is a great example. Because her dad had business in the state capital, A was able to go along and participate in some of the activities in Austin. She volunteered as a page in the legislature and was able to meet some government officials.

She is pictured here in the blue blouse with our State Rep. Betty Brown and Speaker of the Texas House Joe Strauss. A also met some fellow homeschoolers from our city, who are the other girls in the photos. (They share a love of horses!)

Check out the really nice picture of all three girls with Governor of Texas, Rick Perry (above).

What an amazing opportunity and more than a great civics lesson.

Longhorn

Captured, coralled, mad,

the bull charges, butts, and breaks

the gate, running free.

You have to love the masculine point of view here.

Katie’s Prey 

With head bitten off

the rat, dead, gray lies bloody,

crushed , bones white hollow.

We have arrived. Whew! Almost half-way through the Spring semester, two short weeks until Spring Break. All the students at Eric Liddell Academy have been so incredibly busy, and this teacher is ready for some time off!

We have been writing poems and stories, reading, and, oh Ab has been working like crazy on her history fair project, a multi-media presentation in Windows Movie Maker. It was finished in the wee hours on Saturday morning for a competition on Saturday once the sun came up.

In fact it was the regional competition, and she was the only homeschooler there that we could identify, out of several hundred students! Her division had about 8 or 9 other competitors, and the best part of all, she won first place. Way to go!

That means we will be trekking to State competition in a couple of months, and it also means . . . more work on that project. Ab will take the judges' critiques and improve her work for the big competition. (that was only a small groan)

You can read more about the competition here: http://www.nationalhistoryday.org/

 I am just thrilled she got the project finished, as that is a major accomplishment.

The Sea 

Sea Is a bird

Eating fish

And Preening its

Blue and white feathers

In wing-like waves and

Rainbow sprays that

Dance and swoop.

News From the Land of AJ's Room

One day in the Land of AJ's Room, President John, a plastic pirate, and Vice President Spot, a stuffed dog, were talking about where to go for dinner because today is the President’s birthday.

Spot said, “How about we go to the ‘Steak and Meat’ restaurant?”

President John said, “Yes, let’s go there. I love that unbelievable restaurant. The meat is so fresh I feel like a bear when I eat salmon.”

They got into the dinosaur racecar and drove away to the Steak and Meat Restaurant.

They drove until they came to a toy stop sign right before the train tracks. There was a canon peeking around the lamp post.

“BOOOM!!” Suddenly, the canon fired, and hit the Dinosaur race car.

The dinosaur racecar exploded, shooting up in the air.

CRASH! BOOM!

“AHHHH!”

Vice President Spot and President John were still on the ground, when the racecar fell back down on the ground around them, all black and smoking.

Toys came running from the Toy hospital to help them. Their faces were red because they didn’t know what happened. They could not believe that the President was hurt.

President John’s plastic head was cracked and broken open. Vice President Spot was losing some stuffing.

Evil Santa Sponge Bob ran away from the wreck and hid.

Did anyone see him? No!

to be continued

I went with my relatives to the Fort Worth Zoo. The drive took a long time. I think it took almost one hour. I got to sit next to Granddad.

We saw lots of penguins at the zoo. The zookeeper told me one of their names. The penguin was named John. He had a blue ring on his flipper. He was an Emperor Penguin. He looked at little bit like my Dad because he looked like he had a suit on, and he was almost as tall as my Dad—a little taller than Abigail, my sister.

Abigail said, “Daddy’s inside the pen with all the other penguins!”

Daddy said, “I’m not in with the penguins!”

“Hahhahhahhhh . . .” laughed Granddad.

Then Mama said, “Let’s look at some other penguins in a different spot.”

We went around the pen, and we saw a baby penguin. It looked like it was one month old, but the zookeeper said that it was six months old. It had black eyes and tiny, downy, fluffy wings.

Then Papa said, “We need to leave because we’re going to do something very surprising.”

Then we went back home. Nobody remembered that it was Granddad’s birthday . . . not even Granddad. Me and Daddy had it all planned out. Everything was all ready at our home. We had presents ready. We had cheese cake ready. We had raspberry pie ready and grasshopper pie ready. We had ice cream ready. We had apple pie ready. When we got home, Granddad and Grandmom were very surprised.

The End

*A work of fiction dictated by Adam

Briefly, this year has begun with a lot of changes.

1) We moved. New house. New city, er. . . well, we sort of live in the country now, or at least we can see the country now, hear the country . . . so we have some new opportunities. I have plans for tilling the soil and having a garden, but for now we are enjoying the races we can literally have in our own backyard. these 1.2 acres seem a far cry from the postage stamp backyard.

2) We have joined a new sort of co-op on our homeschool journey. We meet twice per week for a full day of classes. We have the core subjects covered, and a full week of home study to complete.  I am such a veteren homeschooler that I am struggling with the changes, as I am used to being able to combine curricula and adapt freely, taking what works for me and my family.

So, I have not decided if I like losing this freedom and control or not. OK, actually I don't like that part, but is the trade-off worth it? Don't know yet.

However, all of the students at my house love it. They are enthusiastic about classes and homework. I now teach two classes, down from the 3 originally this fall. 

3) We are still sorting out what extracurriculars will befall us, but I do lean toward the when in Rome idealogy. That is to say, we can't do everything we used to do, so patronize the local talent. We have found a Karate program (Christian Soldiers) at a private school that is similar to our Christian Martial Arts Tae Kwon Do program. Similar but different enough to be a challenging transition. The 3 eldest will work hard to earn their belts (again) in this program.

4)  A has found her dream in horseback riding lessons. Finally, a quality program at a reasonable cost that is closer than an hour's drive through heavy traffic.

5) Many negative surprises befell us at the beginning of the year that made the transition rather like a very sickening roller coaster ride, but we have sorted through those details intact. Things like switching providers of online classes for A, some difficulties with our private school class, and other trivialities that made the earth quake momentarily. I have wondered if we made wise choices.

I think that all of us are truly enjoying the many good things about moving--bigger house, bigger yard, more in the country, new friends--and so it is fair to say that this has been an easy move . . . but still it was a move and hard because moving is hard even if many things go well. . . and I'm still not unpacked completely, no matter if we are reaching the six month mark soon.