Do your kids ask to go to public school?

This came up in the facebook group today:

Sara asks: Do your kids like homeschool or do
they ever ask if they can go to public? do you give your Kids a choice
or make it for them? I homeschool my 3 boys and my oldest who is now 12
going on 13 seems to think the grass is always greener on the other
side. Does anyone else have this topic come up with their olde...r
children?

Sara, my kids do ask about it sometimes. We have had our kids in public school at times and homeschooled at other times. Generally speaking we try to go year-by-year and kid-by-kid to choose the school situation that we believe will be best for them. I do listen to what they are wanting, usually asking questions about what it is that they are really wishing for. Sometimes it is more time with friends, a certain kind of activity they want to do, sometimes the littler ones have ideas that it would be fun to go to recess or ride the bus, etc. Sometimes I can meet their wish/need while homeschooling. Sometimes I give them more information about what they are saying they want, to see if they really do want it once they have a fuller idea of how it would work. Sometimes I learn about things that are legitimate issues not going too well at home and then I can work on addressing that problem. If they are still going to be homeschooled, I just talk to them about why we believe that it is the best choice for them, and sometimes we have to agree to disagree for awhile.

I think that it is good to respect our children's feelings about their life and school situation. It is not always wise to let them choose for themselves, but sometimes it certainly can be.

Having gone through upheaval in life that took us to public school turned into a great thing for us because we learned that no one situation is right for every child. I know not everybody has a great public school situation in their area, so you have to use your best judgment (based on reality, not imagination or heresay), but public school can also be a valid, good choice for some kids.

Unfortunately, there isn't one perfect formula on raising kids successfully, regardless of what so many books and magazines and web sites tell you. There are lots of great people coming out of public school, many damaged people coming out of homeschooling situation, and lots of everything in between from everywhere. Do your best to be wise and thoughtful and make choices in love, and know that no educational choice has to be forever. You can try school and see how it goes for a year, and if it doesn't meet the needs, do something different the next year. (same goes for parents thinking of homeschooling but aren't sure about whether or not they will like it or be able to handle it)

I hope this helps,
Erica

Supercharged Science is So FUN!

I recently learned about Supercharged Science because they were giving away a bunch of fun free science experiments. I really liked the teacher's style, so when I found out that she was offering an online science curriculum, I was very interested. I had already purchases Switched on Schoolhouse Science for the kids, but once my husband started using it he was like, "Ugh. Is there something different we could do?" Yeah. :) So I showed him the Supercharged Science site and he was hooked.

Supercharged Science is an internet-based learning experience with high-quality teaching via video instruction as well as instructions for doing the experiments at home, and textbook type reading you can do as well. Pretty much everything you need to have a fun and successful experience teaching science to your kids.

On day 1 of using the program my boys ages 7-12 were begging me to go get supplies so they could start doing experiments. On Day 2 they made hoovercrafts! They also watched an awesome video that showed them how to fly an airplane! (clickety click here to enjoy it with your own family!)

Check out the FREE Trial! plus be sure to sign up to get additional freebies as well

I love Alice.com and so will you!

Alice.com is a fabulous place for you to bypass a whole lot of your grocery shopping, without paying more! In fact, Alice's prices are comparable to Walmart prices, they add in coupons, and they ship all of your stuff to you for FREE! And it's fast. Like, within a day or two, depending on where you live.

Alice.com has toilet paper, feminine products, cleaning products, snacks and cereal, toiletries, pet food, office supplies, stamps, and just a ton of other stuff that you are buying every time you walk through your regular store. (not weird off-brands, either. The real brands you already buy!) The difference: less stuff to shlepp through the checkout, into your car, and into the house with the kids in tow!

I have been using Alice since fall of 2009 and I love love LOVE it. I recommend it to everybody! Right now you can get $10 off your first purchase of at least $50 when you clickety-click above to sign up. How cool is that?

Back to School Goodies for Homeschool Moms!

In my part of the country school will soon be back in session, and for you northerners that still have more than a month to go, it'll be here before you know it!

Today I decided to put together a special collection of goodies for my fellow homeschool moms that will enrich them in body, mind, and spirit. It is chock-full of wonderful stuff that has a retail value of well over $100, but is available to you for a super-low price. You can read all about it here.

Today is also the start of our new No-Cooties School Year sale! For a limited time you can get TWO bottles of my Supermom's No-Lice Hair and Body Spray for the price of one, OR you can choose to donate the extra bottle to a family in need. Read all about it here.
(because, yeah, it's true--homeschoolers can get head lice too....)

That's it for today. Enjoy what's left of your summer! (personally, I'm looking forward to fall!)

Floatie Swim Suit Safety Alert

I wrote this post several years ago, and now dig it out every year and re-post to share with people each summer.

We have an Easy Set pool at our house. It's a pretty big one, and we have floatation swim suits for our three youngest boys to wear, although we keep the pool shallow enough that all of them can walk around in it and still have their heads above water. Last year when I bought the suits the baby was one and the better quality suits did not come in his size, so I got a cheaper one, which he had continued to wear this year.
The other day the kids were playing in the pool while my husband and I sat on the deck watching them and chatting. Our youngest, who is now 2, lost his footing in the pool and very quickly was floating face down in the water. Fortunately my husband saw it right away and got to him within just a few seconds, so everything turned out ok.

BUT

The problem is that this suit was not designed to flip a child over onto their back if they needed to rely on the floatation! Our baby was helpless, face down in the water. He would have actually been safer with no suit on at all, since he would have been able to stand to his feet after losing his footing.

It only takes a very few moments for a little one to drown. I am so thankful we were right there with our eyes on the pool happenings.

We tossed out that suit and today I went and bought him one of the better ones, that are designed to keep a kid floating on their backs. Here is the difference between the two suits:

The kind that flips a child onto their back has a float in the front of the suit that is longer than the one in the back.

The kind of suit that put my baby into the pool face first is a kind that is designed for children who need a floatie while learning to swim. The floats are all around the suit and are the same size all the way around.

Just thought someone else might appreciate the reminder. Go check and see if your little one's floatie suits will flip them to their backs in their moment of need.

Pressing On

While just about every homeschool mother I know is finishing up the school year and getting ready to enjoy a break, we're pressing on here. We've been utilizing Time 4 Learning for about 3 weeks or so and are finding it helpful in helping the kids cover more material than they had been, all with significantly less Mom Power required to keep it going. Also, it's fun and they are enjoying it. Even the one or two that tend to not like to do school. Instead of the usual moans and groans and avoidance tactics, they smile and say "ooh I love this one!" when they see their learning activity loading up on the computer screen. So, it's a good place for us to be, and I sure hope it keeps on working for us because it's nice to lift a few of those worries off my plate.

Since I started homeschooling I have been a proponent of the year-round schooling idea in theory, but have rarely been able to pull it off. I'm actually glad to be keeping on this time around. The kids will be continuing to move forward, instead of forgetting and then needing a lot of review time, and they'll have that built in structure to their day which helps. Too much time on their hands seems to contribute to a significant amount of bickering around here. School time is short enough that there is still plenty of time to enjoy playing, swimming, the garden, and everything else. In addition, I love it that by keeping going year round, I have more wiggle room for taking time to do other activities when the need arises. Whether it be making grape juice, going apple picking, visiting grandparents, or whatever, I like having total flexibility, so paying the piper on those school days sure helps alleviate any homeschool mother anxiety I have.

I ordered a few new materials from Timberdoodle today. I am looking forward to checking out several new resources and seeing how they work for us. Timberdoodle has been one of my favorites for probably 12 years, and I love that they keep on showing up wonderful, fresh, new resources year after year.

Are you using paperbackswap yet? I love it! It has been a long time since I had time to get books from the library and actually read and return them on the proper schedule. Now when I hear about a book I want to read I just order it (or add it to my wish list) from pbswap and when it arrives, if I don't have time to read it, I add it to my wonderful To-Read pile and don't worry about it. It'll get read when the time is right, and then I'll probably send it on via paperbackswap again.

Well, I do the same for our Sonlight books. We are doing core 4 right now and almost all of the books were rec'd through paperback swap. Once I got core 4 in hand I started collecting core 5 books through pbswap as well. Any that were not available went onto my wish list, and they trickle in as they become available. By the time I need core 5 I will order whatever I have not already obtained, and core 6 books will be coming in. Also, as I finish core 4 books I just send them back out into the world through pbswap as well. So many of those readers are easily obtained this way. I will say that one small "rule" I have for myself is that if I see that I can buy the book new from Sonlight for around $4-5, I don't usually try to get it through pbswap. Each credit basically costs $3-4 for me to ship something to someone else, so I am content to get those new, and focus on the money-saving aspect of obtaining other books through pbswap.

I obtained almost all the books we needed for core 300 through pbswap, including some that retail for around $30. I thought that was pretty great. :)

One other resource we are enjoying here is college-level DVD course from The Teaching Company. They have a huge selection of course that regularly go on sale for around 70% off. Although my two teens are not college-age yet, we decided to give a few of the courses a try. My thinking was that although some of the material may go over their heads, they would probably benefit from being stretched and introduced to some more challenging material. My 14 year old daughter is taking The Joy of Science (cost around $90 when I got it on sale) as well as The History of European Art (was around $40 on sale). She likes the art one more than the science, but I believe both are beneficial to her and are bringing learning opportunities to her that were not previously happening. I definitely plan to add more of these courses to our collection, and of course then I will have them available as the other children get older as well.

FREE Ebook: Planned Spontaneity

Just found out about this FREE ebook that gives some very handy ideas for organizing yourself so you can take advantage of those cool extra ideas that you'd like to implement in your homeschool. Clickety-click!