Happy President's Day!

We have enjoyed a fabulous President's day weekend.
The kids and I started off the festivities with a free hot dog from the Dodge dealer and a visit to Cabela's. It was kind of an impromptu field trip as all we were planning when we left the house was to get the van washed.

We checked out the animals and tested a few tents. Fun Stuff.

When we got home, Uncle Jeremy called and asked if our house was the place to be. I said, "Of course!" He asked if he could bring a pretty girl over for dinner and a movie. I said, "Sure, how much time are you going to give me?" He said, "30 minutes."
We tidied up the house, made carmel popcorn, fixed up some pork chops and rice, and had a party. Jeremy and Shannon were treated to a fiddle concert, dinner, and a movie. I do best with last minute parties - they don't give me time to chicken out and cancel.

Saturday, we decided it was spring so we had a "Welcome Spring Party." The girls and I pruned 8 of the trees. Then the boys built a fire in the fire pit and we roasted hot dogs. It was a little chilly, but fun nonetheless.




Sunday, after church we made cookies and Robyn and I went for a walk to deliver them to some of the neighbors. It was a beautiful day for a walk.

Monday, Randy had the day off!! We all went to gymnastics and the kids loved that Dad got to watch them be tricky. After gymnastics, I dejunked my bathroom drawer - Happy Days! Randy made sure Caden didn't choke to death or fall off the stairs or.....
After lunch, I was going to finish pruning the rest of the fruit trees, but Randy had a better idea. He took us to the park. We hiked all around the hills and then played at the playground. What a beautiful day!




You don't think Caden will be scarred for life from having to wear girl snowpants, do you?

We rounded off the evening by all practicing our gymnastics skills in the living room. There is nothing like cartwheels, donkey kicks, and head stands to settle everyone down for sleep. :) I tell you, I have one talented husband. This chick digs a guy with skills. Too bad I didn't get pictures of that.

This family's nature deficit disorder has once again been successfully treated and I love the resulting pink cheeks on what used to be my paleface son.

Pan Sauce!

I have arrived! I can finally make pan sauce without out stressing out. Hooray for me and hooray for Alton Brown and Pioneer Woman and hooray for Jill who inspires me.

(photography by Colin - He wanted me to have a picture of it for my blog)

Why I blog about Homeschooling

This week I was asked by someone that I dearly love but don't get to see often why I talk about homeschooling so much. Well, Please, Consider the Following:
1: The title of this blog. It is House of Learning - where I blog about learning. Yes, this is primarily a homeschool blog.
2: We don't "DO" school. I can't only think about homeschooling between the hours of 8:00 - 3:30. We learn 24/7.
3: It's my blog and I'll say what I want to.

As far as general conversation goes, I don't talk about homeschooling much.
Here is a Nifty Experiment you can do at home, at church, at the store..... Pay attention to how often school comes up. Notice how many times conversation turns to preschool, school, teachers, school buses, schedules related to school or school breaks, problems related to school, homework, grades (both k-12 or A-F)... Notice how often your children are asked questions such as "What grade are you in?" Notice how many times you think of something school related yourself.
Judging from how many times school comes up, it must be considered polite conversation to talk about school.
Unless, of course, you don't do school.

Miracle Cure

My nature deficit disorder has been treated sufficiently today - we went to the zoo.

The kids and I were sitting at the breakfast table talking about how wonderful it was to have a blank calendar square today (it's been a busy week) and I glanced at the thermometer on the patio that said 40 degrees. I said, "is it Thursday?" and Colin said, "Yes." So I said, "Lets go to the zoo." (Thursday is half price day. Wahoo!) I called Randy so he could talk me out of it and he checked the weather and said it was going to rain. So I said, "You're right we should stay home and fold laundry." Then I got off the phone and all the kids put their boots on and said, "Let's go to the zoo."

We knew that the weather man had said 60% chance of rain, but, because we watched Bill Nye on Tuesday on the way to fiddle lessons and learned about probability, we knew that meant we had a 40% chance that it wouldn't rain. We decided to take our chances. We stuffed my coat pockets with string cheese and granola bars and left. We called Randy on the cell in the car to tell him we were going to the zoo. He said, "I thought you would."

We took a chance and we won - NO RAIN! It was absolutely beautiful! Of course, I forgot the camera so I can't share with everyone. You are all invited up to go to the zoo with us anytime that you get tired of your snow. We do have about 6 inches of snow but at 42 degrees it is melting fast.

The best part of the zoo today was the babies. There was a 6 month old snow leopard that wanted to play with Colin. He was so funny. We called him Leroy. :) He would hid behind his rocks and the come charging out and crash into the glass where Colin was standing. Then he would lick the glass and rub his head against it like he wanted us to pet him. Then Colin would run to the other end of the glass and the leopard would chase him. They ran back and forth, back and forth.. Finally the little (I use that term very loosely) leopard got worn out and he flopped on to his back for a rest. After a little rest, he was back at it. It was so fun. The guy that takes care of the cats for the zoo came over the first time (we went back to visit the leopard five times) we were looking at him. He played with the little leopard through the glass a minute and then watched him play with Colin while he talked to me. The cat guy told me that he was just a baby only six months old and seemed to really like our zoo. Then he taught me about the cats. It was very interesting. He said that snow leopards have really long tails so they could balance as they are leaping through the air. The Amur leopard's tail is much shorter and skinnier. And Snow Leopard have bigger paws and they walk on more of their paws so they don't sink into the snow. Our zoo got the baby because our male got old and died. Our zoo is part of the species survival plan and takes endangered animals and tries to create more babies to help the species survive. We have a 15 year old female snow leopard but she probably won't last more than another 3 years (average life span of a snow leopard in captivity is 16- 18 years) and when she dies we will get another young female to perpetuate the species with little Leroy.

The other baby is a 9 month old gibbon. Oh my goodness, she was SO cute! She played and played swinging from branch to branch and then dropping into the net. If it hadn't been so hot in the gibbon house we would have stayed for hours.

We got to watch the zoo keeper feed the penguins too. That was cool. But not as cool as the babies.

Anyway, we had a lovely time. We stayed for three and a half hours. By the time we left, we were soaked through from tromping in the snow and we have pink cheeks from the sunshine. A little vitamin D was just what the doctor ordered!

Nature Deficit Disorder

I really need to go climb a mountain with my Daddy!  I wish we were closer.

Gracie is already to pack up and move to be closer to "Grandma Murfy's" house.  I'm with her today.  

like Mary

Someday I will learn to be like Mary and "keep these things and ponder them in (my) heart. Hopefully, I learn sooner than later. I do talk to much and I am sorry if I offend.

One of my friends forwarded a link to this post to me. I think I will keep a copy with me always. :)

The Bitter Homeschooler’s Wish List

By Hannah Russell-Davis

November 9, 2007

Tags: homeschool, humor, lifestyle design.

There are predictable reactions when people find out we homeschool our kids. So, when I ran across this rant in Secular Homeschooling Magazine, I had to laugh…hard…and share it with you all. Consider yourself warned. We homeschoolers can be a scrappy bunch.

1. Please stop asking us if it’s legal. If it is — and it is — it’s insulting to imply that we’re criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?

2. Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you’re talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we’ve got a decent grasp of both concepts.

3. Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.

4. Don’t assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.

5. If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.

6. Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You’re probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you’ve ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.

7. We don’t look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they’re in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we’re doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.

8. Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.

9. Stop assuming that if we’re religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.

10. We didn’t go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.

11. Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn’t have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don’t need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can’t teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there’s a reason I’m so reluctant to send my child to school.

12. If my kid’s only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he’d learn in school, please understand that you’re calling me an idiot. Don’t act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.

13. Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We’re the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it’s crowded and icky.

14. Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we’re into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don’t have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.

15. Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don’t get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I’m one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else.

16. Don’t ask my kid if she wouldn’t rather go to school unless you don’t mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn’t rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.

17. Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it’s some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you’re horrified. One of these days, I won’t bother disagreeing with you any more.

18. If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you’re allowed to ask how we’ll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can’t, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn’t possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.

19. Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child’s teacher as well as her parent. I don’t see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.

20. Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he’s homeschooled. It’s not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.

21. Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she’s homeschooled.

22. Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids.

23. Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids.

24. Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won’t get because they don’t go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.

25. Here’s a thought: If you can’t say something nice about homeschooling, shut up!

Science

Science is one of our favorite subjects.  See here we are learning chemistry/marine biology. 

OK, really it was just clean out the fish tank day.  Amazing how much real learning takes place when you don't have to fake it.  

Homeschool perks

Being homeschoolers has lots of perks.  One of the perks is that you get serious discounts on really great gymnastics classes.  We took our first class today.  It was very fun.  

This afternoon we had our first jam session for the Gospel show that is coming up in March.  I love to hear all the kids playing together.  I tried to get pictures but they turned out really dark.  Homeschooling is good for music lessons too.  Our teacher is booked full for after school slots, but we got in because we can be there at 2:00.  I love our new teacher and all the group stuff we get to do really helps and makes playing fun.  

Of course the best perk is that we get to be together!

More studying

Can you see his tooth?  The other one popped just barely.  HAPPY DAYS!  Goodness I love my kids!

Other news.  I have been studying Rh disease this week.  It turns out that when one is first sensitized to Rh D+, one forms IgM antibodies.  IgM antibodies cannot cross the placenta!  What does that mean and why do I care?  Well I'll tell you.  

It means that as long as I take my vitamins, eat my veggies, and stick with the midwifery model of care, I could have a dozen kids if I wanted to!  Sorry, Ky I guess you can't have all my stuff just yet.  

The only way it is a problem is if I am again exposed to rh + blood. A second exposure will cause my body to produce  IgG antibodies (which can cross the placenta and attack baby's red blood cells).  

What could cause a second exposure?

Well, of course, trauma such as a car accident, but also such things as amnios, managed third stage labor, and, possibly, ultrasounds.  

Why midwifery?

Going to an OB with a pregnancy is like sending a kid to "check" to see if the Caden is awake. (Bang the door open, flip the light on, poke, poke, "Yep, Mom, he's awake!)

I love my midwives.  They take care of me and my baby.  I am a person, not a chart, and they listen to me.  They tailor their care to MY needs not the needs of their legal department.  If a problem arrises, we work together to figure it out and make the decisions together. 

God gave us our own agency, I like to use mine.  

PS No, I am not pregnant yet.  I'll keep you posted.  Don't hold your breath.

PPS I highly recommend the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control and Pregnancy Achievement by Toni Weschler, MPH.  Thanks for the tip, Jill!  Great book!

PSS Also Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth (spelling could be off there.)  This book will help you like your children enough to want to have more.  Again, Thanks for the tip, Jill.