Ordinary Time

Three quotations from two very different sources to start us off. "Allowing horses opportunities for decision-making -- such as choosing a route on a ride or approaching a novel object at their own pace -- stimulates dopaminergic circuits involved in reward, motivation, and curiosity. These include pathways connecting the ventral regmental area to the nucleus accumbens, systems that support approach behavior and promote cognitive engagement. Structured choices, introduced in controlled settings, help horses learn that they can influence their environment, building flexibility and trust. These moments of agency are not just training tools; they are exercises in shaping the brain. They reinforce circuits that allow horses to remain curious under pressure, rather than shutting down or reacting defensively." (p. 144, Horse Brain Science: The Neuroscience of Ethical Horsemanship by Dr. Stephen Peters) "From a neuroscience perspective, psychological robustness comes not from o...

This morning L., Y., and G. headed off to school. (Actually G. started yesterday.) L. and G. are Josh school seniors doing dual enrollment and Y. is officially a college freshman. She's going to do this year at the community college and has plans to transfer later on.  So this is G. and L.:s last first day of school picture. (Which is amusing because they're first one was last year.) It also marks my last year of being a homeschooling parent. This will be my 31st year, though I think that's stretching things a bit because really the two being "homeschooled" are taking college classes and doing their own individual learning. My part in all of this is incredibly minor.  The only real difference for Y. from last year is that she is taking a heavier load, but still continuing with Japanese tutoring. The way we homeschool, they'd is a rather blurry line between high school and college. I'll spare you my actual thoughts about typical high school right now, thoug...

Schools are starting back (even though it's still summer to my way of thinking) which means there are a lot of people asking about how to start homeschooling. I just counted and this year will be my 31st (and final) homeschooling year. I have a lot of opinions and a lot of experience with which to back up those opinions.  1. Homeschooling is not traditional school and trying to make it look like traditional school is a quick path to frustration, burnout, and general insanity. 2. You can homeschool successfully with a library card. Full stop. 3. The vast majority of online schools, programs, and curriculum publishers don't really care much about your child, just your dollars, and they're willing to use fear to sell their product.  4. Homeschooling is not a program to enroll in. We call that public school.  5. Elementary aged children (and probably older) should not be learning online. It is not developmentally appropriate and could actually do harm.  6. Actual homesch...

I was informed by the Internet that today is National Book Lovers Day. This seems as though it is a special day I should mark. Because I believe that loving books starts early in life, I will celebrate the occasion by giving my list of books that I think every parent should read to their child(ren). (Considering the current demographic of my readers these days, I should probably also add grandchildren.) Am I being a bit bossy? Yes, probably. But these are really good books, are well worth the effort, and shouldn't be missed. So, in no particular order: 1. Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Mine. Give your child the gift of the originals and not some Disneyfied version. Though in full disclosure the old animated version Disney made was an enduring favorite of mine. Mainly, I think, because of the books opening and the story and characters literally coming to life. Still, the originals are exceptional, don't let your child miss them.  2. Five Children and It by...

I came across an old post about our then most recent Harris Loan Program item we had borrowed. ( It was a taxidermied fox which sat in our front hall for several weeks .) It made me remember how much we loved checking out cool things from the Field Museum.  It also made me realize I don't hear newer homeschoolers talk about the program. This may be because we live further away from the museum, but I could imagine me (who doesn't really like to drive a lot) making the effort to go into the city because it is a cool program.  So, if you are a current homeschooling (or educator in a traditional school), the Harris Loan Program is designed to support educators. They have hundreds of artifacts or learning boxes that you can check out for free and take home for three weeks. We brought home a variety of animals as well as boxes that focused on music, math, and various other anthropological topics. They were all interesting and a fantastic hands-on learning opportunity. It is definit...

I've fielded a lot of comments regarding our family and our educational choices over the past thirty years of homeschooling. Well, actually, while I have fielded some comments, as in so many other areas, I tend not to get nearly as many as other people. The comments and questions have changed a bit over the years. Long ago they were about legalities and how would a homeschooled child be able to function in the "real" world. Recently, I spend more time saying what kind of homeschooler I am not to differentiate myself from the Christian Nationalist types of homeschoolers. And trust me when I say I have my own long list of questions for them.  All this to say, I'm a bit thrown off when I have someone comment to me that "studies show" that homeschoolers don't succeed in college. That only 20% will actually graduate who begin. Clearly I must know an awful lot of homeschooling freaks who defy the trend. The comment did not make me happy as you might have guess...

You know that I am always going on and on about the importance of reading to your children. I am 100% certain that this one thing alone builds a scaffolding for later learning that cannot be replicated in other ways. Still, I am always happy to come across articles and research supporting the benefits of reading out loud to children. In this particular article, the research suggests that it also supports social skills .  What I found interesting was the fact that there were benefits whether or not parents stopped to ask questions about the content. I'm not sure if these questions were to confirm comprehension or ask leading (or perhaps not leading) questions regarding the plot. It still confirmed my suspicion that children are capable of gaining a great amount of benefit just from listening. I think sometimes parents make things too complicated when really they just need to read the story.  Another study I would love to see done involved reading to older children... even high ...

It seems there is a new homeschooling group around that people need to be aware of.... even if you are not a homeschooler. And that would be you need to know about it and not in a good way. I'm not going to link to it. If you want to do your own research, Google can find it for you. And I'm all about doing your own research.  So this particular group is The Homeschool Freedom Directory. It wants to gather a list of businesses and professionals who are willing to sign their pledge to get on their list. Which you then pay a fee for them to do direct marketing to their audience. The website uses phrases such as "connecting homeschoolers with businesses who support their values" and "wanting to bring the homeschool community together and make it stronger."  There seemed to be a few code words in there, so I looked at the pledge. First, it is very faith based. Clue number one that these weren't my people. And if you haven't been around the blog for very l...

If you've read here for any length of time, you are aware that reading to our children is extremely important to us. We start when they're babies and continue often though high school. J. still reads to Y. every night (her choice). Between reading out loud for school, reading at tea time, and reading at bedtime, we probably averaged well over an hour a day of books read out loud through the elementary and middle school years.  There are so many positive benefits to reading out loud to your children: Increased vocabulary  Increased sense of how written English sounds Increased ability to follow oral speech Increased ability to follow complex sentence structure Understanding of the idea of story and story structure Connection between parent and child Exposure to stories a child might not be accessible if the child has to read the stories themselves  Exposure to different ideas and concepts Focus I'm probably missing some benefits from that list. There is pretty much nothing...

A reader posted a comment on yesterday's post asking about what my children read in high school and was there any overlap in what they liked. I'm always up for answering questions because it means I don't need to figure out what to write. Thank you to the reader who posed the question.  I've decided that this is a more difficult question to answer than I initially thought. It's been over a decade since my oldests were in high school, so trying to remember what they read is challenging. Plus, most of them read voraciously so keeping up also proves challenging.  I tend not to assign reading at this age unless it is directly to do with what someone is learning about. I would say nearly all their reading was or is their choice. They also tend to read widely. More than a few times a book would occur to me and I would think, "It would probably be good if [insert current high schooler's name] read it." So I would go in search of said child and asked if they h...

In a rare moment, I decided to go with the more SEO friendly title. I could also have called this post Becoming an Autodidactic. My third choice was Grown-ups Homeschooling Themselves and Not Realizing It. So many options.  But I should back up. This morning I was searching for a podcast to listen to while I cleaned the barn to take my mind off of the continued extremely cold weather. The podcast I had been listening to had volume issues, so turned out not to be a good fit for the barn. On a whim I searched, "psychology of crafting" to see if I could find something that would hold my interest in eleven degree weather. The first option was for The Modern Mrs. Darcy's podcast, What Should I Read Next? I do wonder at algorithms sometimes because at first glance this had nothing to do with my search, and then I noticed the first word of the episode title. It was crafting. A very tenuous connection to my way of thinking. The whole title was Crafting Your Personal Curriculum. ...

With the end of fall semester, my college attending children are now all home in the late afternoon on the same days. We haven't managed our read aloud all fall because someone was always missing. Today we sat down to our story at teatime for the first time in months. I'd had an unexpectedly busy day so it was a nice break.  We are now 26 pages away from the end of A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. Since it's a very long book, with dozens of characters, we needed to do a bit of a story review before diving in. Thank goodness for family trees in the beginning of the book to help us refresh our memories as to what the character's names are. Our goal is to have it finished by Christmas. When we do finish it, I'll have to look back to see when we started it to see how long it took us to read 1349 pages. 

All this semester L. has been participating in Fermilab's Saturday morning physics program for high school students. (D. did this as well, but he took it in the winter of 2020 so never got to finish it because the world had shut down. He might still be a little bitter about it.) Each week they had a lecture and then a tour of part of Fermilab. They also had off site classes at University of Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry, and Northwestern University.  Today was the graduation ceremony for the participants.  Wilson Hall at Fermilab  L. really enjoyed the whole program. She would have also received a perfect attendance certificate, but had opted to take one Saturday off to go to the protest. Priorities, you know. 

I've mentioned before that I feel I am in an in-between time right now with children having switched to learning via dual enrollment and my role becoming rather miniscule. Earlier this week as I was working in my studio, I looked around me at the hundreds of books that we used for homeschooling and stored in my studio and realized that I could close that aspect of my life. While the memories are all very good memories, the sheer weight of it all was becoming a bit much. I didn't want to be surrounded by it all all the time anymore. Plus, I could use the space.  On Friday I began the process of moving books off of shelves, made a huge mess in the middle of my studio, became overwhelmed, and left it. At that moment I didn't really know if I could physically or emotionally tackle such a daunting task. J. offered to help and we came up with a game plan which involved tackling every bookcase on the second floor, both in the studio and out. By the end of the day, we had sorted an...

Today was pickle day. G. and I made ten quarts of dill pickles and five pints of bread and butter pickles. Plus, they all sealed! We still had some cucumbers left, so at some point I'll make and can some sweet relish. I did save some brine from the dill pickles if there are still some cucumbers left after that. I used nearly three gallons of white vinegar today.  I also juiced another 24 cups of choke berries. I think I have one more batch to juice and then I can make jelly. Fascinating times over here, but it keeps me sane because I can't really focus on all the bad stuff.  And for those who read to the end even when all I wrote about is endless canning, a brief update on how the community college classes are going for everyone. The shirt answer is they are going well for everyone. What has been interesting is all three have come home saying they are the only ones who answer questions in class. (They are all in different classes.) I'm fact, Y. came home and announced her m...

Yes, you read that correctly. I am sharing a photo of G. and L. before they head off to school.  School being the community college where J. works. And this was yesterday, I didn't get a picture of Y. this morning, but it wasn't her first ever day of school because she took classes last year. Technically it was L.'s first ever in-person day of school because she took an online Introduction to Archeology class over the summer. But you get the idea.  They are all taking dual enrollment classes which give them both high school and college credit. This is what D. did his last two years of high school as well. Needless to say, with these three being the youngests life is going to look a lot different at home this school year. Those with classes go to school with J. first thing in the morning, stay all day, then come home with him at the end of his work day. There are a lot fewer people around during the day here at home.  The other significant change is that after years, we wo...

We always do some sort of museum trip to kick off our school year. Usually this happens on the day after Labor Day, which, I think, is when school should start. This year is a bit different. A homeschool mom arranged a group price to see the exhibit that's in the area which had an original print of The Great Wave, so I jumped at the chance. Today was our day to go see it. Because we were with a group, we also had one of the museum directors give us an introduction to what we were going to see.  The actual name of the exhibit is Hokusai and Ukiyo-e: The Floating World at the Mcininch Art Center at the Collage of DuPage. This was a very well done exhibit. The first gallery has the history of the artist and the art form, another gallery had a lot of various prints and other Japanese art. This was where The Great Wave is exhibited. There was a street scene recreating early 1800's Edo (Tokyo) that you could walk through. A third gallery held an immersive manga exhibit because Hokus...

I don't often feel old. I'm sure having six children still at home with my youngests being sixteen has something to do with it. Many of my friends who are my age have been empty nesters for a decade or so now. When I stop to think about it, it makes me realize how far outside the norm we are.  But sixteen is pretty darn close to being at an age when children start going their own way. With homeschooling, I am pretty much done with the heavy lifting years. G. and L. will be juniors this coming school year, but they will be moving more towards dual enrollment at the college where J. works. My role has become a maker of suggestions and a finder of resources. At this point, everyone has taken charge of their educations. But technically we still homeschool, so I stay in the various groups. It pays off because next month we got discounted tickets to see a special art exhibit in the area, but that is really one of the few reasons I stay. The other reason is that I do have 28 years of ...

Over the weekend I did something to the muscles over my right hip and could barely move for several days. Monday was definitely the worse, with yesterday being a little bit better, but that was probably because I didn't really try to do all that much. Today there is still a little twinge, but I'm functional again. Yesterday, when I was doing all that much except sitting uncomfortably, I binge read Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. Yes, I'm a bit late to the party since it was published in 2017, but I rarely pick up super popular books at the time they were popular. I don't actually know why I put it on my library reserve list, but I think I came across a synopsis and it sounded interesting. I ended up really enjoying the book. I really liked the character of Eleanor, including her disdain for texting shortcuts. If you don't know the book, the character of Eleanor is the story of a person with significant past trauma including being in care for mu...

I have been advertising quite a lot for the different programs I offer at Bittersweet Farm LLC. One of those is Pony Phonics, where a child would play games (with the ponies), practice reading (with the ponies), create stories (about the ponies if they like), and do a lot of other types of hands-on reading readiness and support. After teaching children for decades, I have quite a few effective activities that I used with my own children, and which helped them become excellent readers.  I was thinking today while cleaning stalls (it's an excellent time to think, by the way) about why I think this type of learning is so helpful. I decided it was the sheer physicality of all of these hands-on experiences. Our brains are wired to move through space and to remember the things we do while moving through space. It's why the concept of memory palaces is so effective. It combines movement with ideas.  Sometimes I listen to a recorded book while I'm cleaning stalls. Even months late...