Thinking and Schooling.

Much better bloggers than I am have already covered the crazy coming down from PhD in Parenting's recent post that boiled down to "Homeschoolers should teach what I want them to, and if they don't, they shouldn't be allowed to homeschool."  They've covered the ethnocentrism, the slippery slope and the philosophical issues.  Obviously, considering my teeny synopsis, I'm not a big fan of the post.

This is, however, an offshoot.  Nothing too public, nothing to be linked to five hundred friends and back again.  Simply my own thoughts, particularly as relates to my own situation.  I feel, very strongly, the desire to teach LP at home.  Starting as soon as possible.  Now a whole load of people would be screaming at me here - babies don't NEED to homeschool!  Babies have a different job! - whatever like that.  But these are the folks assuming I mean to teach my son writing and spelling and math and science on higher orders.  What I'm talking about is the desire to teach my son his letters.  His numbers, 0-9.  His colors.  Seasons, days, months.  Skeeve and I were both reading at a very early age.  We both still love to read, and are the kind of people who could easily spend an entire weekend curled up on the same couch, saying about 50 words to each other per day, reading our own books.  It's important to us that LP learn to read.

I've given some thought to pre-reading skills, and also pre-writing skills.  We're tracing circles together right now.  We talk about circles, what is a circle, why is it a circle, you've traced that circle in red, this one in brown. We don't shoot for perfection.  If he traces a circle and it's not right on the line, I don't care.  I want him to be exposed to the concepts and use them at an appropriate level.  I want to get to the point that he is able to read, to write, to color, without my input.  But we have to start somewhere.  And if I just run on the "he's just a baby!" philosophy, I'll have one of those kids who heads off to his fifth year of life... talking and walking and kicking a ball, but not knowing red from blue, or how to trace, or how many is four.  I'm not keen on that idea.  I would much rather put in ten to twenty minutes a day now, learning things like circle, blue, two, and summer than have my bright boy left out because I didn't figure there was a point to his learning anything until he was much older.  Is this what people advocate?  No. Or, at least, not intentionally.  No, my son does not need a 'math' text.  Not as such.  But if I don't sit down and think about what I want him to learn, and how that ties in with other things, then it isn't going to get done at all.

This isn't a function of other people, or of how I think it needs to be done on a broad scale.  This is just an assessment of who I am, how I operate, and how I can best help my son without forcing him too early or leaving it go until too late.  Does LP need home "school"?  No.  He needs the opportunity to live and learn and learn the things little kids should know.  But at the same point, with no organizational structure, I'm lost.  I have no idea what he should be doing, what he can be doing, and what we need to do in order to do other things later.  Do I say I homeschool him?  Sometimes.  Do I think it's the same thing that parents of kids who are "school-aged" do on a daily basis?  I'm not a moron.  I know the difference is significant and not only academically.  However, this area... people send their kiddies off to preschool at 1.  It's glorified daycare, but the bus comes in the morning, the toddlers get in, and they come back in the evening with a backpack and the parents call it preschool.  So I "defensively" homeschool.  Much like their just-turned-one kids are having "school," so shall we.  But I get odd looks saying that I don't send him away to school.  So, it's a balancing act.  Right now, he plays, he "reads" his books, he draws.  Together we read more books, we trace, we talk, we play.  But I need to do something more formal.  Not because he needs a more formal structure, but because I need something to ensure I actually have my act together BEFORE I need to.  It's all well and good for me to be scrambling and getting things ready when LP is about to turn 2.  But I don't want that for when he's about to turn 5, 6, 7+.  And so.  If I get things in place now, make a schedule, work on what I want him to learn, and essentially re-teach myself how to effectively teach, then when it becomes important, I've already got it down, and changing from more play to more learning is the only shift I have to make - and not a shift from a slapdash learning/playing hybrid into something that needs lesson planning, scheduling, timing, field trips, records, attendance...  I'm sure we get the picture.

Either way, I'm getting a "curriculum."  It's coming via mail.  It's a single book, focusing on what kids should learn by the time they're five.  It's not real home-school, but it's something to get ME started on the right path, so that when LP needs me to be an effective teacher, I'm not falling all over my feet trying to sort out if I'd planned school for today or laundry.

A book.

I want a book.

One specific book.

One specific, homeschooling philosophy book.

I have the book for Waldorf.  I have the book for Montessori.  I want the book for Classical.

I want The Well-Trained Mind.

If I shop online, I can find it in Canada for about $31.  If I go to Chapters (our local B&N type bookstore), I can find it on the shelf for $45.  If I go to the ONLY education store in town, I find nothing.

It is available in the library, though it's checked out until kingdom come.  I also don't have a library card, and am TERRIBLE with library books.

I want to get it on ebook so I can drop it in my iPod and read it while I wait for Skeeve to get out of work, while it's lights out for LP, but I'm not tired... so I can read it anywhere and not have to lug a big book around.

The ebook version saves approximately $1.  So screw that, I like print books, and convenience alone isn't enough to move me to an ebook.

So my options are, essentially, spend $45 or don't get the book.  Great.  Just great.  I don't typically HAVE $50 lying around, especially not now.  Needless to say, I'm ticked.  In Canada, it's $45 for the PAPERBACK.  In the US, it's $30 for the hardcover.  Considering the value of the respective dollars, I'm getting horrifyingly ripped off ($1US=$1.03CAD, therefore $30US=$30.90CAD, so I'm getting ripped off by at least $14 ) and that's just comparing hardcover to paperback.  I shudder to think hardcover to hardcover.

There is likely nothing I can do about it, but I sure do feel the need to grouse about it.

More musing.

A proper rundown on diet:

LP is about 21 months old.  He is still nursing.

We have been dairy free for seven months.  We tried to introduce goat cheese, but that turned out to be a mistake.  While the effects of goat cheese on both Skeeve and LP were milder than cow milk/cheese, they were still there, though primarily gastrointestinal, with some mild focus issues.  Someday down the road, we'll try sheep milk cheese.  When I'm feeling brave.

In the meantime, I have a happy, well adjusted, milestone-meeting, charming, sweet, ham of a son.

We have vegan margarine in the house to make dairy-free chocolate chip cookies.  Vegan cheese to make a mock macaroni and cheese.  We cook with coconut milk, we make our own bread, and we try to stick close to home for meals lest we find hidden dairy in restaurants.

I, personally, have found that there are three big things that are in *everything.*  Soy, wheat, and (you guessed it!) dairy.  If you want something sure to be dairy free, your best bet is to make it at home.  Dairy turns up in the oddest places - including medications, caramel coloring, and in applesauce.  We wind up making an awful lot of things for ourselves.  Enough that I'm still cursing my not getting a stick blender (for things like making my own applesauce!) when I had the chance and the extra money.


And on crafts:

I still make diapers for LP.  And soakers.  I've also taken to repurposing.  If Skeeve or I have clothes that we've either worn out, or put holes in, I can usually find enough fabric to turn them into clothes for LP.  I've been turning our old jeans into jeans with Great Big Frog-Storing Pockets for LP.  I've been turning Skeeve's old button down shirts into mandarin collared shirts for LP.  All our old t-shirts become his as well.

I've taken to making as much of our food as I can.  To that end, I'm also putting in a garden this year.  We're going to try for beans and tomatoes, maybe bell peppers.  I'm planning, when the weather gets nice and the farmers are out, to buy tons and tons of peaches, strawberries, and cherries and turn some into jams and get some canned to put up for wintertime when there are no good strawberries or cherries or peaches - particularly not local.  I'm very excited, and hopeful that this will all work out well.

Again with the hiatus...

That's it.  I'm not saying I'm going to try to post more often anymore.  Every time I do that, it winds up being way too many months between posts.  Sheesh.

In The Land of Might and Magic, things have been... interesting.

In December, we took the Little Prince to see an allergist.  I fell down the basement stairs.  My grandfather fell down some outside patio stairs:

I had a sore hip for about three weeks, and still have some soreness in the area.  Nearly six months later.  Wow.

My grandfather broke his wrist and hip.  Because of this, and the fact that he turned 91 this past year, he never left the hospital.

LP was determined to have No Allergies.  When I asked why it was that he had these reactions (including hives, for crying out loud!) if he had no issue with dairy, I was told that not only did he have no allergies, but he should immediately be given approximately 12 vaccines, and I was to reintroduce dairy ASAP.  I took my son from the office and didn't look back.  We will try a new allergist in the summer, possibly in the fall.  In the meantime, we did NOT vaccinate LP, and we did NOT reintroduce dairy.  Neither of those things were in LP's best interest.

After this, things started going pear-shaped around here.  When my grandfather passed away, we were not able to leave the country for his funeral.  Some of Skeeve's family decided this would be a great time to abuse me.

At LP's first birthday party, he spent much of the time having his toys (old and new alike) taken from him, and being hit.  At Thanksgiving, the same was the case.  At American Thanksgiving, the same was the case.  At Christmas, we added shoving to the mix.  At a January party, we kept all those things and added LP being pulled down the basement stairs to land on his face.  Skeeve and I decided that while the child doing the hitting, shoving, and pulling was only a year older, it really didn't matter.  Until the hitting, pushing, and pulling could be resolved, LP would not be near this child.  Not because the child was bad, or because we didn't like the parents.  But because it was causing LP harm (including scrapes and bruises), and he was starting to hit as well.  Apparently, putting our son's safety first was a "mistake."  I am currently a pariah.  I likely will continue to be so.  The current theory being floated is that I'm "making" Skeeve avoid people, and I'm "forbidding" him to talk to them.  Really, the truth of it is that one person in particular took it upon themselves to abuse me so much that neither Skeeve nor I want anything to do with them.  Ever.  As in, for the rest of our lives kind of ever.  We have not seen most of the related people since mid-January.  I'm realizing that this was an amazingly healthy decision.  Not only was the instigator in this fight trying to put their convenience over the safety of a child, but they had spent years subtly tearing me down.  I'm rebuilding.  At least I'm resilient.

However!

We are moving on to bigger and better things.  Our preschool plans have been scrapped.  Waldorf, while I love the idea of child-led learning, was not a good fit for us at all.  I've been reading a Montessori book, but it seems to be boring me to tears.  Next up, reading a starting book for classical education, and probably heading that route.  I wanted to have all this set up already, so I knew what I wanted to do, had plans in place to get into some sort of vague routine, and... Not so much.  So now I wait and see about getting the book I want to try next, and the curriculum materials from there.  It seems like a lot of stuff a lot early, but I want to try to at least get into some semblance of routine.  I keep trying that, and it keeps not taking.  I keep hoping that something will take and we'll be able to get things into place soon.

In the meantime, we're playing the reading game.  It is, at its core, whole language reading.  LP has now had two successful days reading "mommy" and I'm hopeful that means it will stick.  If it does, we move on to "daddy," and then identifying which is daddy and which is mommy, and so on down the line.  I'd like to work on letters, numbers and do more work on colors, but I'm not sure when we'll get to that.  Right now, it's all there, and just very casual.  We'll see what we get, I suppose.  I'm just apparently fantastically bad at schedules.  Someday.

LP is learning now to talk more.  He has about 40 words he uses regularly, in addition to a bunch of signs.  He runs, he claps, he draws (though mostly scribbles!), he chatters and plays.  He can fit all 12 pieces into his shape sorter without much frustration, and he stacks Mega Blocks into one long block and one roof block to make a car, or a mouse (click-click!).  He sits on the floor, holds books right side up, and flips through the pages.  He dances, he tries to sing, and he naps somewhat regularly.  It's a whole new ball game every day here.

This summer, we're hopeful.  There is a lot we want to do, and all of it is currently not do-able.  We're hoping to take LP camping, and have a birthday party by Hammie and Grampa's house, and, in the best case scenario, we're hoping to move near Hammie and Grampa as well.  I suppose we'll just have to see what comes our way.