Tales From Another Planet

If you're not a homeschooler, you may have heard of different types of co-ops and wonder what they have to do with homeschooling. If you are a homeschooler you most likely already have or will at some point make a decision either for or against joining a co-op. We are first year homeschoolers, with only a kindergarten and preschooler, and I am already learning a ton about co-ops after joining our first co-op this year. First, what is a co-op? Technically, a co-op is a group of people working together

There was an article in the newspaper featuring an extremely flawed survey comparing the relative "happiness" of various generations. Since I'm technically in the slightly more unhappy Millennial generation (although towards the older end which identify more with Generation X) it got me thinking. Mostly about how the basic premise of the survey is flawed.

At one, or multiple points in time, every human being comes to a crisis point. There's at least one point in our lives, where we realize that we can't handle what we thought we could, or that what we thought we believed in was misguided. The main difference in terms of personal growth, is whether our crisis point frame of mind becomes our normal frame of mind in the future, or whether we let the busyness and entertainment of modern life help us forget our problems. It can be a big problem

After relaxing for awhile with Christine, Karen finally worked up the nerve to call the detective. She dialed the number, expecting to get an answering machine of some kind, or even expecting it to just be the main phone line for the police station. She was somewhat surprised when the detective himself answered the phone. “Hey, this is Pat. What’s up?” “Umm, I’m looking for Detective Patrick Smith?” Karen hated when she sounded like a child on the phone. She tried to be more professional, “I’m returning your phone call regarding the Miles Tanner case.” “Eh, alright. Hold on a second.” In the background, Karen heard his talking with a woman, she wondered

There have been a couple of instances when I've been around other parents (or caregivers) and their children and the parent or caregiver has stated something to the effect of, "He isn't normally like this, he must be showing off." or "I'm sure you think we just don't discipline, but we're really trying." I've been told I have a rather standoffish look sometimes, and I do have a big fat J in my personality, but I truly don't use it against people anymore. I've learned, since being a parent, that we aren't the main person responsible for our child's behavior. Yes, parents are extremely important, and discipline is extremely important (if used properly). However, controlling a child's behavior hasn't been in vogue since the Victorian times when children should be "seen and not heard" and even then, the parents didn't take responsibility for that. So, why do we feel that our ability to parent our childr...

First, I don't see anything wrong with a preschool, as long as it's used for what the original intention was, which is a break in the day for Mom to have some time either to herself or with another child. It also does give children who may not otherwise have social interaction a chance to learn to be around other kids their own age. Second, whether you are schooling your preschooler at home or comparing group preschool, you probably have questions about what to look for to educate your child properly. I will give you my ratio for every hour of "school" so you can compare apples to apples. 15% - outdoor time 15% - music time 15% - art and sensory play (not just coloring) 10% - good read-aloud books 10% - talk about numbers, shapes, colors, etc. 10% - food related (snack, lunch, cooking) 10-20% - active fun games or free play 0-10% - group learning Obviously, the longer a school day gets, the more flexible these numbers will be as it will be difficult for t...

While I was running up to my front door to grab something I forgot the other day, I overheard a conversation from a couple visiting one of my neighbors. They weren't my neighbors, but I'm assuming a set of grandparents. They were arguing vehemently, and the woman was saying, "I don't really spend that much" and several variations of that. It got me thinking about how much spending is "too much". Here are a few tips to find out if you're spending too much. You hide purchases from your spouse. This is a big challenge, especially for many women who end up hiding shopping bags in their trunk, or adding all their purchases to one bag to hide it from their husband. I can tell you, he will find out eventually, and it's better to be upfront and honest about your struggle rather than hiding it from him as long as possible. The problem will only get worse. You lie about your spending. This goes along with # 1. Any lies regarding money are exponential...

I see a lot of people who are worried about their kids (or themselves) trying to make friends. I'm reminded of the differences between boys and girls. At this age, with my oldest only 5 years old, I'm very happy that he's a boy. We were at a new playground over the weekend, and D was attempting to play with some girls about his own age. One of them got really mad and said, "We're not playing with you". He had no idea what they were talking about, so he looked a little confused for a few minutes Fortunately, not much later, a little boy his age wandered over. D said, "Hey!" and they proceeded to chase each other in circles and play hide and seek and generally get sweaty and dirty over the next hour. There was very little conversation or imaginative play going on with the boys, but they had a blast and burned off a ton of energy. At a young elementary age, most boys are pretty open to new relationships. Older elementary boys may exclude the girls, ...

Since I am out of town for a few days, I'm interrupting our normally scheduled chapter of Contemporaries with something a little different. This is a small introduction to a piece I had been working on last year about a woman who has a condition which causes here to hyper-focus on her senses, but seem a bit off in the real world.             I am awake at 6:01 AM. I feel the weak morning sun gently warming my left arm. My right ear is pressed against a firm, silky pillow. I listen to my heartbeat echo slowly, one-an-two-an-three. At 6:03 AM my eyes slowly open. I blink three times, feeling the softness of my lashes brush my skin and the stiffness of sleep in my movements.             I smile as I glimpse the familiar mint green wall. I have repainted it several times, but always the same lightest green to wake up to in the morning. The semi-sheer curtains allow the warmt...

So, this has been a productive week of homeschool, other than a few minor hiccups. The first hiccup being that we only did two days of school at home. We had our co-op on Tuesday, today is scheduled as a field trip day (although it was organized through Facebook and I haven't had any updates, so hopefully it is still on track). Tomorrow we are off for family reasons. I was thinking it would be a difficult week, especially with the very busy weekend we had. I was pleasantly surprised.

Early this morning, I heard the plaintive cries of my 2.5 year old. "Mommy, I throwed up!" Fearing the worst, since he had complained of a stomach ache just before bed, I rushed in. I sniffed the air, there was no telltale smell of disaster. I felt the bed sheets next to his pillow, they were dry. I looked into his half-closed eyes and he smiled at me. "Tissue?" So, I went to the bathroom for a tissue, still disbelieving my own luck, and still wondering what the tissue was supposed to be for, since his nose was clean and dry. "Thank you," he says, then points to the side of his cheek. Apparently, drool counts as "throw up" to a 2 year old. Mom, the vanquisher of invisible throw up. As moms, we have great power. We can make shadows disappear with the flick of a light switch. We can heal booboos with fluttery kisses and silly faces. We can baby proof the worst situation with our magical arms of steel, holding our precious cargo above the wr...

I don't often do "reveal" mystery shops, because they can be awkward sometimes, but I signed up for one awhile back, trying to expand my resume. The pay wasn't great, but it turned out to be a very interesting experience for unexpected reasons. During the "reveal", I was telling the person in charge that they, and everyone working there that day, would receive a $20 gift card because they passed the mystery shop. Her response was, "I thought they were lying." I'm not sure if she thought her employer was lying about the fact that there was a good change to earn a gift card if they did the right thing, or if she didn't believe that the company actually sent mystery shoppers out to make sure they were doing their jobs. I would have expected her to be excited about winning, but she seemed more like she was in disbelief that I was a real person and physically came to the store

With some of the blog posts getting longer, I decided to truncate some of my more recent posts while on the main page, to help clean up the design and make it more readable. Let me know if you like or dislike the new format by commenting on this post. In other news, I have wondered lately if it is suddenly no longer rude to be on your phone in certain situations (such as a child's birthday party). I understand wanting to take a picture with your phone, but the texting or scrolling, and the earbuds in listening to a movie  seems a little rude to me. It made me start wondering if all this technology has made us lose our sense of "being". It was beautiful weather outside this weekend,

The drive back to Charlotte passed relatively smoothly. Karen spent some time making a list of things to do and questions to ask when she arrived home. Justin was a fast driver, but Karen rarely got carsick. Riding through the mountains while writing notes proved a bit much for her, however, and she took a turn driving on the twisting mountain roads. As she parked in front of Justin and Christine’s parents’ house, Justin made a final comment on the Kentucky trip. “I know that you weren’t expecting the meeting to go exactly the way it did, and some of what they said has made you think again about the situation. But how would you have reacted if someone you didn’t even know came up and started asking questions about Christine after surprising you with the news she was dead? Maybe at least wait a few days before calling them again.” “Well, obviously Christine isn’t dead, so it’s hard to imagine, but I will try to put it in perspective. You’re smarter than you look Justin.” Karen ...

I read a blog post from someone else recently that said the biggest secret of homeschool is that it's hard. We're not quite at the "hard" part yet for homeschool, because honestly Kindergarten doesn't require all that much. But, I can see already that discipline is a very tricky tightrope to walk in homeschool. I saw a post on Facebook from someone whose daughter wanted to go out and play at 3pm, but since they start school late because she goes to bed late and sleeps in, she still has school work to get done. In my opinion, there are two obvious options, and probably more secondary options for this situation. if she works better in the evening, I would let her do "homework" after supper (which is probably what the other kids are doing). If she works better with motivation, I would tell her that she can go outside to play when she gets her work done for the day, and set clear expectations for what that work is. The tricky thing, is that, as homes...

In my opinion, there are two reasons that should be considered legitimate sick days. You either feel too sick to do your job properly, or you don't want to get other people sick. I usually only use the second reason, but yesterday I was very tempted to use the first. I'm pretty sure it's allergies (my husband and I were just talking about the fact that we haven't had allergies as bad since moving back to North Carolina from the allergy capital of the country (Louisville, KY). So, of course, we were reminded that it probably isn't a lack of allergies, but rather a different allergy season here. So, I don't feel "sick", but my ears and throat and nose are giving me a "run" for my money (pun intended). Let me tell you just how miserable it is to go to co-op for 4 hours, deal with kids who are too wired up from co-op to take their needed nap (because they were up early) and/or are woken from their nap by their older brother trying to climb ba...

As I was checking out at Target, trying to get an almost free Starbucks Iced Coffee (combining a 40% off Cartwheel and a $1.00 Ibotta) the lady in front of me purchased almost $150 worth of "stuff". I'm not even sure what most of it was, but it didn't look like anything necessary. She mentioned to the cashier that she liked to stop by every time she passed a Target store this time of year to look for pumpkin flavored something or other. She only found one this time, but still managed to spend well over $100. At the same time, back at the "ranch", we were attempting to put together a free bunk bed for the kids. It made me think about what free could do for you. Odds are you fall into one of two camps, the people who buy tons of "stuff" or the people who could do with a little "free" from your friends. Here's the thing, though, whichever camp you fall into, both parties benefit from a little free in their life. The people that have st...

The Internet can be a scary place nowadays. It's becoming both commonplace and embarrassing to admit when we have an Internet addiction. I've been working on my sugar addiction first, and I have an easily addictive personality. I also "have" to be on the computer for several of my jobs, often during times when I'm just sitting around waiting for a tutoring student. So, when those times happen, I can often get sucked into the maelstrom of Facebook feeds rather than working on my blog or continuing to write my story. So, what do I do about it? This one is a bit trickier, because, as mentioned, I often do "need" to be on the computer for my work, so I can't exactly go cold turkey. Also, the Internet has some amazing places to visit (Facebook groups that have tons of people using the same curriculum I am and sharing their awesome ideas, buy/sell/trade groups, because obviously I need to buy next year's curriculum today, and blogs!). My solution f...

Karen sat on the front porch, discussing the news with Justin. “Do you think his father is still alive?” She asked. “Something else to ask the old man, I guess. Hopefully you didn’t kill him off yet.” Karen elbowed him in the arm. “Whatever. You are such a child. How are those college applications coming along?” “Whatever.” He muttered back. “I’m no dummy, I just haven’t figured out what to do with my life yet.” “Me either.” Karen shrugged. “Sometimes it’s not what you do with your job, but what you do with everything else that matters. Of course, I haven’t done much of that either. I’m officially in my late twenties now, and I wanted to be married and have kids, or be out saving the world in some poverty stricken area.” “Really? I never would have guessed you were the do-gooder type. I thought you were just a know-it-all.” “What’s that supposed to mean? I care about a lot of people, especially kids.” “Yeah, but you never do anything about it. You’re always too busy. Chr...

This is my list of field trip opportunities for homeschool. This is not an extensive list. Some of these may be done every week (library) and others may need to be done through a group. I wanted to post it in case anyone is having trouble coming up with "socialization" activities for their kids. Most of these are local to our area (within about 30 minutes) although I have included some that are 2-3 hours away as they will make great short-term family vacations.

It's been a busy week. Yesterday was full of tons of new people and talking (and playing for the kids). I was exhausted, and thought that my kids would be as well. Unfortunately, I forget that my oldest child is about as big of an extrovert as you can get. He was so wired up, that while he managed to go to bed and get to sleep at about 10pm, he was up at 3:30 and again at 6:45 when the garbage trucks came. It's amazing how some people are so energized by new faces and others are so overwhelmed. I generally consider myself somewhat in between an introvert and an extrovert, so I wasn't expecting to be quite so exhausted yesterday. However, the sheer volume of new faces and activity left me physically exhausted. I felt like I bad parent, but I really couldn't deal with my oldest this morning until after I had my coffee (double strength). I thought about my oldest child some while we were on vacation and running errands around town.

While we were driving back from the beach, we passed a billboard that was written by the advertising company. It said, "Put your 7 words here" and listed a phone number to call. It got me thinking, because the sign itself didn't have 7 words, so why did they mention that specific number? I'm not an advertising expert, but I would guess that they've done some studies and come up with 7 as the best number of words that are still large enough that someone could easily read in the time they drive by the sign on the road. So, it got me to thinking, if I could only pick 7 words, what would they be? I can't even come up with 7 words that would describe my current job situation, so this seems an impossible task. But, it's a challenge I'm willing to take on. How about you? What are your 7 words?