Home Spun comic strip #804

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Home Spun comic strip #803

It's important to me that my children have all of the experiences they want and to try different activities as they grow. A schedule can fill quickly when you have three children, especially if any of their interests require more than one class per week. Even harder is the issue of when those classes happen. If they all fall on one day, it can be exhausting.

Chase and Marina both took ballet when they were seven and ten. They were just far enough apart in age that they were in separate one hour classes, first one class, then the other. I didn't think this would be a problem. I was saving time since I would not need to travel between classes. I could hang out in the waiting area for the two hours and work on subjects with one child while the other was in class. I did not anticipate the energy of then toddler Sierra, who would need to be followed so she wouldn't dismantle the dance shop. I also didn't think about the distraction of other mothers in the waiting room. It was a close, bustling, noisy place to try to set up a child for a lesson. By the time the second class ended, I was completely depleted of energy. When recital time came, I would spend extra time there and at the performance space for rehearsals. Let's not forget that performance always happened in May, already a busy month for me with all of their birthdays.

And have I learned the lesson of over-scheduling? Yes and no. I know my own limits, but with one child in college, I no longer have complete control over the schedule. Marina is finishing up her Associate's Degree this spring and summer. Aside from birthdays and Mothers' Day, we have already added her award ceremony and graduation to our schedule. She is driving now, but it doesn't change how many cars we have to work with, or the fact that she is still nervous about trying to drive solo. (I'm hoping continued practice will make her more confident.) Chase and Sierra are taking classes that won't end until the first week of May. I feel guilty that I don't do as much with my youngest as I did with her siblings, but I have to weigh that against my own limits and my responsibility to myself. I remind myself that a tired sick mom with a nervous breakdown would not be good for my family.

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If you enjoy my comics, the first collection, No School Today? is available from these sellers:

CreateSpace
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble

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Home Spun comic strip #802

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you enjoy my comics, the first collection, No School Today? is available from these sellers:

CreateSpace
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Home Spun comic strip #801

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you enjoy my comics, the first collection, No School Today? is available from these sellers:

CreateSpace
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Home Spun comic strip #800

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If you enjoy my comics, the first collection, No School Today? is available from these sellers:

CreateSpace
Amazon.com
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But it's a Good Stress

Back when my older two children were little, I had my own business as a party entertainer. I enjoyed what I did for the most part. I've always loved being around kids, even when they are hopped up on sugar. I was able to see some impressive parties, too. It always amazed me how people would pull out all the stops for a children's party. And since I was so conscious of my own family's financial restraints, I did what I could to make my juggling shows affordable for any family who asked.

The funny thing is, it was always the big parties where I would run into trouble. I was not a good manager to myself. A friend of mine told me I didn't charge enough, and that I wouldn't be taken seriously because of that. He was right. I had instances where my fee was cut because I didn't perform for a full hour, or worse, I was blamed for a bad party and was not paid at all. This was hard for me, because I poured my heart into each show I did and I really did enjoy the good parties. The pressure of trying to collect the money was my tipping point. I decided to stop doing parties. I didn't need the anxiety.

I don't regret having tried performing. I was a shy kid, performing helped me learn to deal with that. It's important to weigh the pros and cons of what you do, and to revisit that list every now and then to see if anything has changed. This helped me with homeschooling as well. There have been times when I wondered if the hassles were worth it to have my kids home. It's important to keep revisiting your reasons for home education, your methods, and your family's well being.

Our family will get into a rut from time to time. Tempers flare (usually mine) when things aren't going smoothly or when I worry about required testing and reporting. It's good to be open to revising your methods if they aren't working. I've said it before: every child is different. You need to be willing to tweak your program if a child is simply not getting it. Sacrificing family harmony is not worth doing things the way you want them done. I don't regret using a classical education with Marina, but I'm glad I relaxed my methods with Chase and opted to unschool Sierra. Sometimes you need to choose your battles.

I couldn't make it work to perform. It's a stressful life, one that works best if you don't have a family and have no qualms about collecting fees. I can make homeschooling work. It's its own form of performance, not without its own stresses, but the rewards are so much greater.

Home Spun comic strip #799

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If you enjoy my comics, the first collection, No School Today? is available from these sellers:

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Amazon.com
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Home Spun comic strip #798

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If you enjoy my comics, the first collection, No School Today? is available from these sellers:

CreateSpace
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Productive Complaining

We live in a society that likes to complain. Not that I'm complaining, this is just an observation. I complain, too, especially when it comes to things I have no control over.

"The important thing is not to stop questioning." ~Albert Einstein

Or do I? If I have learned anything from homeschooling my kids, it is that complaining should be productive. Complaints should be coupled with creative solutions. Complaining about my weight does not help me lose weight, so I exercise and try to make intelligent choices when I eat. When I complained that neither Marina nor I understood her math book, I began the process of finding a new math text. When Chase had no desire to read, Marina and I scoured the library shelves for books that would hold his interest. When Sierra fought me to teach her anything, I backed off and discovered she was capable of learning without formal lessons. 

 "The first step towards amendment is the recognition of error." ~Seneca

Sticking with a system that isn't working and complaining about it is not productive. Lately, the paper has been full of articles regarding testing, such as educators who change scores and fears about lower scores as Common Core tests begin in our state. Parents, teachers, and community leaders complain that we need education reform, but what usually happens is we try to do more of the same thing. We add hours to the school year. We add more tests. This is not reform. This has been tried already. The only thing that changed is how much emphasis we put on quantity over quality and it has taught our children that they must pass at any cost, even if that means cheating. The end justifies the means.

 "Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training." ~Anna Freud

I have a great amount of hope for the resiliency of our youth. I remember my own generation being downplayed and dismissed as disrespectful, unkempt, and loud. There always seems to be friction between the older generation and the next. It is hard to trust, and so we try to control and complain. Perhaps the good that comes from the lack of true education reform is that more parents will take responsibility for their children's education. Maybe the children  themselves will show their elders that they are capable of learning on their own with the resources they have literally at their fingertips.

 "Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them." ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

All quotes were found in the book At Knit's End: Meditations for Women who Knit Too Much by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. Not that I knit even a little bit. Marina read quotes to me from it.

Virtual Sculpting

I know I've been a bit lax with my comics lately. The reason is simply that we have had a bit too much living going on lately for me to find the time to write about it! Spring is in the air, and that means I'm being drawn out of my hibernation and back into my garden and the parks. Sierra and I started going to park days again with other homeschoolers, and last week we had our first nature class of spring, where she got to dissect an owl pellet. (My family has been kidding me all week because I keep telling friends and family that we were going to do owl dissection. The word "pellet" kept slipping out of the description!)

I do have something to show you today. Chase took some screen shots of the work he's been doing. Click on the photo for a larger image.

► One of the first creatures he made was the Demented Monkey Thingamabobbin. Remember that these pictures only give one view of the character. In order to "sculpt" it, it has to be turned and viewed from each angle. That can be frustrating when you think you are doing well with one side and then turn it to find that another side is deformed and wonky.


 ◄ This is one of my favorites, a dinosaur cowboy he called Steve the Gunnasaurus.

 Kainda is a Yordle. It's a character he made up for the League of Legends universe. He spent a lot of time finding just the right name for the character. Kainda is an African name meaning hunter's daughter. He wrote an entire background for her that relates to the game. These two pictures show the character and then the skeleton he created for her.▼



The yellow darts in the second picture are inverse kinematics. They help the skeleton and the model recognize a solid surface and stop it from sinking into the ground.