Tales From Another Planet

Once again Ferguson is blowing up my Facebook news feed, so I feel the need to mention the drama, because I agree that we can’t just sweep aside decades of inequality. However, I’m not sure people are focusing on the actual issues of this case, but instead are focused on what they perceive or “assume” happened. Yes, there are more shootings of black suspects than white, but the reason is not necessarily racism. The reason for these shootings is simply the fact that there are more black suspects. About 40% of the prison population is black, compared to about 14% of the total population. Obama himself notably interchanged two phrases in his speech. In two subsequent sentences he mentioned “some communities of color” and “low-income, high crime neighborhoods”. I’m not sure anyone else has noticed yet, but he used those phrases as synonyms. If even our “black” president believes that some areas of a city, country, or state are dangerous because of the mentality of some of the residen...

The following is my basic homeschool plan for Kindergarten. We plan on starting Kindergarten in January, even though my son won't quite be 4.5 because he is already doing most of this. We will start 1st grade whenever I feel he's "ready" (which might be 1-2 years, if necessary). 1st grade will look different because there will be slightly more "required". My basic philosophy is that kids will learn what/when they want to learn, and they do tend to learn somewhat naturally. On the other hand, they also have to be shown/taught certain subjects to enable them to learn more efficiently and reach their full potential. Therefore, I have certain "required" subjects in "Kindergarten" and everything else I am either classifying as "optional" (in other words it does not have to be done on a certain day, but I would like to get to it at least a few times a month) or "fun" (not required at all, but still educational). For Kinder...

Confession: I'm a stay at home mom who doesn't stay home. I'm a part-time working mom with 3 jobs (1 at home, 1 outside the home, and 1 a mix of both). I tend to work about 10-20 hours a week at all 3 jobs. I also drive my son to preschool two days a week, and attend a Mom's group or social event at least once a week on average. I'm also a wife. There is no way to "get it all done". However, I feel that staying at home or partly staying at home is the absolute best thing I can do for my kids at this point in their development. I've recently made the decision to homeschool, though, so now I'm even more terrified that I will be "staying home" forever. I work at my jobs because I love them, not because of the money. The majority of my hours, I earn about $8 an hour on average. However, I get the benefits of feeling significant, getting out of the house, and helping people (more than just my kids). At home, I face the isolation, stigma, a...

Youngest children may be spoiled, but in some ways they do get the short end of the stick. For example, my youngest child (known as J for this story) will be 2 years old this March, and I'm just now getting around to putting his birth story on "paper". The interesting thing is, it's the most amazing and miraculous birth story so far (of my two children). The first part of the "miracle" is actually difficult to explain. I consider it a part of J's birth story, despite the fact that it was prior to his conception. We actually found out in January 2012 that we were expecting and started seeing a nurse-midwife since I was unhappy with my treatment at the multi-doctor practice I saw for our first child. Our first appointment at this new practice was supposed to be for our 12-week appointment and took place in March of 2012. Unfortunately, there was no heartbeat. An ultrasound eventually showed that a missed miscarriage happened. Sometime around the 5th or 6...

I'm torn between two houses. There's the "imaginary" house in my head - move in condition, plenty of room for a possibly growing family, low maintenance, convenient to shopping, work and school, in a good school district. Then there's the house I currently live in. All of the above except the move-in condition and extra room. We used to call our apartment our 800 square feet of heaven. Now we've upgraded to 1100, but added two little boys to the family. We actually moved into this house when I was 8.5 months pregnant. It's 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths. It has adequate closet space, a huge backyard, and is in a good school district. The problem is the size, and the clutter. I know I could get rid of the clutter and it would feel so much bigger, but that takes time. I know we could put the two boys in one room if we needed to, but my husband did not enjoy sharing a room with his brother, so he would rather have another bedroom if we add to the family. My proble...

I don’t claim to be a parenting expert. My children are still in the middle of their “discipline years” and I think sometimes the wisdom we find while we’re still going through the struggle can be more effective than the “experts” advice 10 years after they’ve moved on to the next stage. I’m not looking to replace expert advice; I just want to record my thoughts for this time period of raising my children. First, what are the Discipline Years? Most experts agree that children ages 18 months-5 years old are in the “discipline years”. I’m not focusing on the “baby years” where you simply need to meet your child’s basic human needs for love, attention, food, warmth, comfort. You can go to all the parenting websites you want to determine whether you should co-sleep or cry-it-out, and I’m not jumping on either bandwagon. Most parents don’t struggle too much mentally with those years – that time period seems to be more of a physical battle. After the night-time feedings, and millions o...