This is what we are making in co-ops tomorrow. It is a cookie map of the United States during the Civil War. The red are the northern states and the white are the southern states.The pink is for the territories.

Well we finally made our blessing trees today. The kids had alot of fun and I think they turned out pretty good.

I had to post this. This was sent to me by another homeschool mom. I thought it was too funny not to post it here. So much of it is true.

> The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List
>
> From Secular Homeschooling Magazine, Issue #1
>
> 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 Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the
> same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.
>
> 5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either
> on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.
>
> 6 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. We all hate you, so please go
> away.
>
> 7 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.
>
> 8 Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.
>
> 9 Stop assuming that if we're religious, we must be homeschooling for
> religious reasons.
>
> 10 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.
>
> 11 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.
>
> 12 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.
>
> 13 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.
>
> 14 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.
>
> 15 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.
>
> 16 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.
>
> 17 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.
>
> 18 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.
>
> 19 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.
>
> 20 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.
>
> 21 Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she's
> homeschooled.
>
> 22 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool
> my kids.
>
> 23 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my
> kids.
>
> 24 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.
>
> 25 Here's a thought: If you can't say something nice about homeschooling,
> shut up!

If no one has used Amanda Bennett's Thanksgiving Unit Study let me highly recommend it. I did her Christmas Unit Study last year and we loved it. It goes into depth about the characters in the Christmas story. I plan on using it this year too. The Thanksgiving study is great. It gives allot more background into why the Pilgrims left England, and who they really were. This week we studied the Psalms and King David because allot of the Psalms are about Thankfulness. Also we have studied Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. Now we are on the Separatists and why they left England and went to Holland. But there are also memory verses and quotes to be memorized and copied. Then there are crafts of course. We are working on a pine cone Turkey today. That is if I can find my brown pipe cleaners. Oh well we may have to improvise. P.S. If anyone needs pine cones I have a yard full. Thanks to all the lovely pine trees in my yard. I also have a drive way covered with Pine needles. We are also as a family making a blessing tree. We used some of Daddy's big roll of drafting paper to make the tree part and then every day we write something we are thankful for on a leaf and add it too the tree. By the end of November we should have a pretty full tree. I will put a picture of the finished project on here.  If you would like to have the unit study you can get it on Homeschool Estore. It is only 10 dollars and you download it straight to your computer so there is no wait.

The title reflects one of my favorite lines from Shakespeare. When Hamlet is asked what he is reading that is his answer. Well yesterday I took a trip to my favorite place. The Library. Some people must have thought I was insane as I left there with about 20 books. Yep that is right 20. I am preparing for a Unit Study on Thanksgiving. I had books on crafts and recipes. Books on Colonial life and Pilgrims. And books on Virtues. I always go a bit overboard. I take home every book on a subject then decide weather or not they are useful to me and then take back what I don't need.

As I sat there looking at my huge pile of books I had just put away I remembered my dad's advice to me when I was growing up. (My dad who went to 6 years of school because he couldn't decide what he wanted to be when he grew up,routinely kicks my butt at Jeopardy,can never answer a yes or no question with just a yes or no, and who taught himself how to  ski and many other things by reading a book about it.) He always told me that you don't have to know all the answers as long as you know where to find the answer. I am a hands on learner. I can't learn anything without just doing it. Trial and error are my teacher. I have always been amazed by this man who could just read a book about something and then go do it. I have to say though that I believe some of my love for learning and books and reading came from him. Which is why I think I had the confidence to homeschool my children. I took to heart what he told me. I knew that I didn't have to have all the answers because I knew I could always find them. Now whenever Tristan asks me a question that I don't know I respond the way my dad did to me when he didn't know(which was rare by the way) "I don't know. Lets look it up."  I hope that I can instill the love for learning and reading and books that I received from my father into my children.

Thanks dad.

Well I have read all of the information on the opinions of many people who think that only professionals should teach children. I find it funny that allot of those professionals support homeschooling. One of which is my aunt Becky. She is a high school teacher and tells me all the time how little the public school system expects out of kids. Then kids like my nephew who are more advanced get labeled as trouble makers because they get their work done quickly and end up doing something besides sitting quietly at their desk. When they are not challenged they start to rebel. I had this same problem myself in school. Not to mention the fact that they are not engineered to any learning style really but visual. I know homeschooling is not for everyone and I will say that some women are not able to homeschool. To me this is one of the things Feminism has done for us but that is another blog for another day. I am glad I am not a professional.  I think the professionals that do really care about the children are fighting a loosing battle.  I pray for them.

I was so proud of my son today. When he took his end of the year test last year he had trouble with reading comprehension. He could read but he concentrated so hard on the word that he didn't get the meaning. He was too busy concentrating on one word at a time. We have been doing a new reading comprehension workbook on Tom Sawyer. Not only did he read it he answered all of the comprehension questions correct. Then he read a Dr. Seuss book with his sister(who is 5). He let her read all of the words that she could read and then read all of the ones that she couldn't. He pointed to each word with his finger. So this child who tested borderline in reading just last year is now teaching his little sister to read. I just love these moments when I get to see my child really learning and helping others. I wouldn't give up homeschooling for anything in the world.