May. 2, 2008
Home Spun strip #220
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
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Apr. 30, 2008
Home Spun strip #219
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
 In mom's defense, I had 3 grown cats at the time we were taking care of the kittens. But still... |
Apr. 28, 2008
Home Spun strip #218
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
 I think I can honestly say that my children are more resilient than I am. They helped care for the orphan kittens for weeks and then gave them away with a mere fraction of the tears I shed. I suppose I did a better job of convincing them it was a temporary situation than I did convincing myself. |
Apr. 25, 2008
Home Spun strip #217
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
 Distractions: God's little way of showing us that nothing we do is as important as we think it is. |
Apr. 23, 2008
Home Spun strip #216
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
 And please don't get on me about listing books among distractions. They are when you are trying to convince them that math is a subject too. I have had moments when I thought, "Maybe they would be better off in school. Maybe there would be less there to distract them." I once apologized to Chase's Tae Kwon Do master for his lack of focus one class. I said he does much better in the later class because there are fewer kids and less to be distracted by. This wise instructor told me he prefers having the kids in the busier class. Life is distraction. They need to learn to focus beyond everything going on because there will always be distractions. |
Apr. 21, 2008
Home Spun strip #215
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
 Several alert readers found my homeschooler's desk a little lacking last week. Lacking in mess, to be precise. My only response is that comic #214 represented my couch at the beginning of the day. Here is the couch again, 5 minutes after the children got up. |
Apr. 18, 2008
Home Spun strip #214
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
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Apr. 16, 2008
Home Spun strip #213
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
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Apr. 14, 2008
Home Spun strip #212
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
 To be perfectly honest, they will use the playground, but they always end up in the trees. |
Mar. 21, 2008
Home Spun strip #211
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
 Happy Easter Everyone! I will be taking a break next week while I work on the contest winning comics. I'll post some repeats. Maybe the Puerto Rico comics. I could use a tropical vacation! |
Mar. 19, 2008
Home Spun strip #210
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
 This is the reason my husband is most likely to be found searching the supermarket for chocolate bunnies the Saturday before Easter. Which is like finding a tree on Christmas eve. Making chocolate is so easy it's embarrassing. The great thing about making your own chocolate is you can control the ingredients. I use Ghirardelli dark chocolate baking bars mixed with their double chocolate chips. I temper my chocolate in a warm oven that I preheat on the lowest setting and then turn off when I put the chocolate in. Chocolate and water vapor don't mix, so I avoid double boilers, which are more work anyway. Spoon melted chocolate into your mold and set in the refrigerator to harden. Again, cover them with wax paper to avoid condensation in the fridge. This is a wonderful family activity. Children can get creative. Aside from using molds, you can drop spoonfuls of chocolate and cover in sprinkles to make nonpareils, or mix in nuts to make clusters. They can also try dipping pretzels and strawberries. But if you want chocolates for Easter, I suggest you work alone. |
Mar. 17, 2008
Home Spun strip #209
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
 Update: Alert reader Mrs. Dani wanted some links to making egg dyes. I am listing a couple of useful sites for all you Easter egg coloring enthusiasts. I should point out that they say red cabbage makes blue or blue purple. This was not our experience when we did our eggs at the Nature Center! Perhaps if they are left in for longer periods, but we got a pinkish red color. http://chemistry.about.com/library/weekly/aa042003a.htm http://whatscookingamerica.net/Eggs/EasterEggDye.htm |
Mar. 14, 2008
Home Spun strip #208
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
 One of the hardest things I've had to teach my children (and myself) is to be respectful of others. I've made a lot of decisions in my life that have taken me off the "well traveled" road. I took a year off after high school instead of heading straight to college. I wanted to have children at a young age when all of my friends were pursuing careers. I nursed each of my children until they were over three. I decided to teach them at home. Going against the norm does not make for a simple life. Since I began homeschooling, I've lost count of the number of times we've been asked, "No school today?" When I mention what we do, we hear the usual responses. Most often, people say, "I could never do that!" I usually just smile and shrug. We all have our choices to make. I am in no position to respond since I have had my own days of thinking, "I can't do this!" I have rarely met with adversity since I began homeschooling. I consider myself fortunate that my husband and our families have been very supportive of this decision. I think because I am always going against the norm I am very sensitive about the choices others make. I assume (a really bad habit) that since I agonize over my decisions, others must put as much thought into their choices. As a result, I try to respect the choices of other families even if they are not in alignment with my own. We all have a path to follow in life. When our roads cross I would much rather greet other travelers with smile, instead of frowning at them for choosing a different way. |
Mar. 12, 2008
Home Spun strip #207
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
 I think it is wonderful that there are families who limit television or do without it altogether. I've met many homeschoolers who have done this. I used to feel apologetic about letting the kids watch T.V. My husband and I grew up with television. For myself, it was a comfort during asthma attacks, especially hospital stays. But if so many parents I respected were unplugging, I thought I must be doing something wrong. Maybe I'm not providing an environment that is stimulating enough. Sometimes you have to step back to see. It used to frustrate me that my children could watch a show or see a movie once and spend months describing the plot for anyone who would listen. It is true that my children have long memories. Chase, my visual learner, was especially good at this. If I thought about it, they also did these plot synopses for books that excited them. Because of my own interest in animation and children's television, I tend to watch programs with them. I'm somewhat outspoken if I don't like what I'm seeing. Without realizing it, I've turned my children into program snobs. Discussion is happening, advice is being thrown at characters, plots and animation are being critiqued. It's amazing we hear half of the dialogue. Television is not a monster for us. It is another learning tool. While they are watching, Marina usually curls up with her knitting or a sketch pad. Chase sometimes listens as he builds men out of whatever construction material is at hand. I'm amazed at what he can make with a pipe cleaner. When their show is over they are off to do other things. |
Mar. 10, 2008
Home Spun strip #206
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
Last week for contest entries! Please send in your ideas by March 15! Thanks to many homeschooling blogs and my own homeschooling email loop, I've felt very aware of any press concerning homeschooling. Sadly, most news coverage has been negative. That's a shame, but consistent with how reporters work. After all, for every positive public school article, I can find at least ten negative articles without trying. Why is that? Simply put, good news is boring. In our news world of sound bite sensationalism, reporters latch onto controversy to sell papers and increase readership. Because home educators are usually not in the public eye, reporting tends to be limited to the times when things go wrong. Horribly wrong. Those negative articles become examples for public school advocates the same way homeschoolers use negative press about public education to further our cause. Before you know it, there is mudslinging right and left and everyone is scanning the paper for articles that support their cause. Who wins in this case? The news media, of course! While it is important to keep track of the negative press produced by mainstream media, it is my hope that bloggers who home educate will eventually generate some positive press about what we do. We are such an educationally diverse group, and through reporting our creativity in teaching our own, I believe we help our homeschooling community to be better appreciated and respected. |
Mar. 6, 2008
Home Spun strip #205
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
 Time is running out folks! Enter the See YOU in the Funny Papers, part 2 before March 15! |
Mar. 5, 2008
Home Spun strip #204
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
 What do you do when you know someone who could help inspire your child but they live on the other side of the country? Why you email, of course! When Chase showed promise with a camera, I knew I was out of my league. My sister was the family photographer, but she had moved to the West Coast. Over the course of a year, she emailed picture-taking assignments for Chase. He would choose his best shots for me to email back. She told him what was good about the pictures he chose and gave him ideas to experiment with or pointers to make them better. There is always a way to bring teachers into your child's homeschooling life! |
Mar. 3, 2008
Home Spun comic strip #203
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
 Chase was always begging to take pictures. He was only 5 0r 6, so you can imagine how nervous we were to hand over the expensive digital camera. When we looked at the results of his camera time, we were amazed. His shots were clearer than mine, and some, whether by accident or design, were very well laid out. I emailed them to my sister to see if I was just a doting parent or if he was really as good as I thought he was. My sister is an amateur photographer, the one we can always rely on for good portrait pictures. She agreed. Chase had a photographer's eye. There is still time to send entries for my contest, See YOU in the Funny Papers, Part 2 Deadline for entries is March 15. |
Feb. 29, 2008
Home Spun strip #202
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
 In hindsight, I realize that the problem is she's just like me. Flashback time: I was trying to teach Marina, then 8 (?), how to draw a self-portrait, but she was so frustrated because she couldn't get it to look like her. In my defense, I thought her drawing was really good for her age and skill level, considering she had only spent a few minutes working on it. To show her how hard it is to draw an accurate likeness that fast, I did a quick line drawing of her face. Of course, I didn't think it looked good, but she did. Like mother, like daughter. |
Feb. 28, 2008
Home Spun strip #201
Posted in Home Spun comic part 11
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