Ramblings...

So here is my 100th post! I would do some sort of giveaway, but I have nothing to give *aside from my love*. So instead here is a website with fun things to do for the 100th day of school and here is a list of 100 things to do before you die. See how many items you can mark off of the list and enjoy doing the things you haven't done yet!

“The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any.”~ Fred Astaire

In our home manners are very important. Do we always have the best manners? No, of course not we aren’t prefect. Dinner time at our home is a cross between gross-out hour at a back alley comedy club, and a meal with Ms. Manners. I would prefer to knock down some of the back alley talk and increase the influence of Ms. Manners. Of course increasing Ms. Manners influence means not only showing but teaching manners. Now I want T.B.M. to learn more than the general stuff we have already taught them *please, thank you, excuse me, etc.*, but also things that may seem outdated *place setting, thank you notes, table manners, etc.*. Overall, etiquette or “the rules of acceptable behavior”.

Once I established that etiquette was something I wanted to work into our curriculum beginning with this upcoming 2011-2012 school year I had to figure out a plan of action. Aside from the general stuff we have already taught the boys The Spouse and I are noobs to the etiquette game. So I went in search of a program to help teach not only the boys but myself at the same time. So far I have narrowed my choices down to The Etiquette Factory and Homemade Manners.

I’m leaning heavily towards The Etiquette Factory since they give a more detailed description of each program along with pictures. I also find the price reasonable considering all that comes in the program. The only problem, like with anything we order, is getting it here. That dreaded APO label always creates some hoops that need to be jumped through.

Despite that I think The Etiquette Factory is the way we are going to go. I’m sure it will be an interesting experience when we start implementing it into our schedule.


So much to plan! I’m really looking forward to our 2011-2012 school year. Tons of learning and fun in store.

We are into our third week of break, and it has been extremely refreshing. Of course what I am learning about my “weird” homeschoolers, is that no matter if we are breaking or not you can’t stop their desire for knowledge. This afternoon while I was putting away laundry General Disarray was downstairs going through our school closet. By the time I had returned downstairs he was happily working on a Kumon Subtraction workbook. He worked up until it was time to get ready for karate, and then started back once he finished his dinner. We didn’t pull him away from it until bedtime at which point he says “don’t move my book because I’m going to work on it in the morning.”. It amazes me how you can create an educational rich environment and children will gravitate to whatever strikes their fancy.


It does a mother’s heart good.

Not only were T.B.M. able to learn about respecting nature, we also discussed camouflage when we came across some lizards on our hike. We talked about adaptations, evolution, and when General Disarray mentioned how lizards would turn blue or green if they were around something blue or green I asked him what color would the lizards need to be where we were. He then went on to determine that the lizards would have to be brown *which they were* since the ground was brown, and if they had been in the grassy hill area near us they would have been green. I pressed as to why he had determined this, and he went on to state that they would need to hide in order to protect themselves, they could only do that if they matched the area around them. Which is the whole point of camouflage and we didn’t need a book to learn that! Woohoo!

Aside from the unscripted learning there is the family bonding component that really makes homeschooling great for us. Due to work commitments The Spouse hasn’t had a solid block of time off of work since 2009. This was the best time for him to finally get the time that has been building up. Since we school at home there was no question that if he got the time off we were going to take it and enjoy it. We make our schedule and when we can add in quality family time we do it. It’s an advantage we wouldn’t have any other way. I can’t picture life without this advantage, T.B.M. get this amazing benefit of rare moments learning and growing with their father. Their time with him is so precious, and we are able to increase the time they have with him because they are schooled at home.

There is nothing more beautiful then hearing the laughs of your children while they run free with their hero. While homeschooling isn’t always easy, it has brought more to our lives then we ever anticipated. And for that I am truly grateful.

Copyright(c)2011 Rayven Holmes

BrainyFeet has a great post on why the Joneses can suck it! Amazing read. Go forth and confront your conformity head on.

A few people have asked me about my shorthand on this blog so I figured I should dedicate a post to the section of our blog entitled roll call. This should help clear up any issues now or in the future. If you look just above the cute little apple with today’s date on it, you will see the word Pages and then *currently* two listings *these will eventually increase*. If you click the Roll Call page it will direct you to a list of all the players on this here blog.

This list will be updated as needed, to either include new friends or family members who are relevant to a post. If you are ever in doubt click there. I try to avoid any and all military lingo so if you see any acronyms or funny names they are aliases for people we know. At which point just click on the Roll Call button and learn a little bit about the person you are reading about, and most importantly what all those initials mean.

Today we enjoyed a great early afternoon bowling/lunch date with some of our M.O.M.s. Yes, we took the dysfunction outside of our home *gasp*! While bowling a friend and I started chatting about the issue of influence. It was nice to talk this out with someone who understands where I am coming from on this issue. To back track a bit, the F.O.D has been on me about enrolling General Disarray into public school this upcoming school year. Why?

Well socialization…of course! He can completely see homeschooling being valid on an academic front, but social time, that seems to trump the educational value that he can see in homeschooling. That *social time being more important than the educational component* annoys me in and of itself. This aside for me the issue of social time extends to more than just chatting with people their own age. For me it boils down to what kind of interactions are they having and the kind of influences these interactions are having on T.B.M.

There are plenty of post out there on the interwebs that discuss the insanity of the socialization issue, and how children aren’t encouraged to have social time in schools. All of us who attended school can list numerous times when we were punished for talking too much, or passing notes, etc. For me when I look at what I have personally seen in schools, not just in my own schooling but during my field experience as well, I don’t see the socializing that takes place as valuable. Then there is the behavior I’ve noticed when kids are let free from school, the built up energy that explodes on sidewalks, playgrounds, and backyards.

These situations create social interactions that I don’t deem healthy for T.B.M. I prefer their social interactions to encourage/uplift them as individuals, reaffirm our family’s values, and most importantly be fun. I feel we can provide these all important interactions far better than a school system can.

I also feel that The Spouse and I can have a far greater *more positive* influence on our children if they spend the bulk of these formative years with us. Of course they won’t spend every waking hour with us, but we don’t feel they should spend eight to ten hours a day five days a week under the influence of others at such an important junction in their young lives. While they would come home to us and interact with us, these interactions would pale in comparison to what they ingested during the school day.

It’s like my friend said this afternoon “It’s about feeling confident in knowing our children are ready…”. Ready to understand the weight of their choices and to realize that certain people aren’t meant to be followed. We want them to grow in an environment where they are free to be themselves and not feel forced into their peers ideas of what and how someone should be.

For us homeschooling is more than academically superior, but it is also emotionally and socially superior. We are not only able to provide T.B.M. with tailored educations to fit their learning styles and academic levels, but we are also able to provide them with quality interactions that enrich their lives. For us that is far more important than the superficial interactions of a classroom.