7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 9)

1. This will likely get a post unto itself at some point, but if you smell dog mess, even if you can't see it, NEVER assume that it's a dog toot. You WILL step in it. With BOTH feet. On the 100% wool authentic ORIENTAL RUG.

2. I'm always surprised by the anti-Catholic hatred that is spewed around the time of papal visits. In this case, our Pope is in the UK now. Their newspaper comment sections are filled with absolute disgust for this man, and for our faith in general. I honestly can't comprehend the hatred of the Church and one of her servants.

3. My brother-in-law just clued us in to Arrested Development, which we're able to watch on our streaming Netflix. It's soooo funny! It's been a nice kids-are-in-bed-and-we-can-snuggle show to watch. Since it only lasts about 22 minutes, we can watch one or two easily without staying up too late.

4. This probably should have been #1, but... LAUREN AND HER HUSBAND HAVE A BABY! Welcome, Abigail Chiara! We all love you, precious girl! Please continue to pray for this new family and the birth family.

5. Cloth diapering has, thus far, gone pretty well. H was soaking last night, though, at a 1 am feeding. I'm not sure what happened. The thing I have to remind myself when I get discouraged by leaks, is that they used to happen with disposable diapers, too. They've rarely happened with cloth diapers at night when I have a hemp insert in there with the regular insert, though, so I really have no idea what went wrong... it didn't even seem very soaked in the diaper itself! Maybe I didn't do a good job adjusting it just right???

6. While I would rather have been outside with my family under more pleasant circumstances, I had a great time last night on the driveway, washing the Oriental rug (see #1). I pressure-washed the driveway and garage, laid the rug on the driveway, shampooed the rug with Woolite and rinsed it, then laid it on the clean garage floor to dry. M finished building the gate for our fence (he's so handy, that husband of mine! He built an entire fence himself for our huge yard... 2/3 of an acre!), C skipped up and down the driveway, and H sat in his highchair and ate. It was fun to all be outside together, even if it meant the kids were up later than I would have liked.

7. I foresee a busy, outdoor weekend as we try to restore order to our backyard after havoc wreaked by the torrential rain and the broken water main (oh yes... adding insult to injury) that re-flooded our backyard. On a happy note, my tomatoes are finally turning red, and I even have a few new (very small) green ones on the bush. I may have enough for all of us to eat 1 pizza. Drat those deer!

Homeschooling Discernment Series: Academics and Catholic curricula, Part One

As a former Catholic school English teacher, I am definitely interested in the academic success of homeschooled students, in addition to recognizing the other benefits that homeschooling offers to children (doing fractions while in pajamas and baking muffins, anyone? And definitely no gangs in the household, unless my kids ally themselves with the cat and dogs...).

Thus, a 2004 article published in The Journal of College Admission that discussed how well homeschooled students did in college definitely caught my attention. In it, the author, a college recruiter/admissions officer, was pleasantly surprised to discover the success of these students both on standardized testing and on actual college campuses. He says that

Research showed that our homeschooled students had above-average SAT and ACT scores (1210 and 29 respectively). They also performed better academically. They had a combined cumulative grade point average of 3.47, compared to the 2.91 shared by the general student population. Through semi-structured interviews, I found they were also doing well socially.

These students were well prepared for college by their homeschooling experience. 

Sounds pretty nice, huh?!

CBS's Moneywatch.com also ran an article this summer entitled "Can Homeschoolers Do Well in College?" The verdict? Yes, they can! (I apologize for the slight reference to... you know... Bob the Builder... and that other guy) And take a look at these two statistics-- I found them the most interesting and inspiring, given that one could argue that the homeschooling advantage would fade away once the student completed his or her first year of college.

The GPA advantage was still present when homeschoolers were college seniors. Their average GPA was 3.46 versus 3.16 for other seniors. 

Homeschool students graduated from college at a higher rate (66.7%) than their peers (57.5%).

These academic statistics appear to support the idea that parents may be  the best teachers of their children, at least from an academic standpoint.

On a different topic, I've started looking into some Catholic homeschool programs. The ones I've found so far, in alphabetical order, include:

Some Catholic homeschool programs, in alphabetical order:

Angelicum Academy

Catholic Heritage

Kolbe Academy

Little Saints Catholic Preschool

Mater Amabilis

Mother of Divine Grace School

Our Lady of the Rosary School

Our Lady of Victory School

Regina Coeli Academy

Seton Home Study School

St. Thomas Aquinas Academy 

I've made a few notes on some of the programs, and will hopefully find time for the remainder of them for the next Wednesday or two.
 
Mater Amabilis- Per their website, Mater Amabilis is "a Charlotte Mason style curriculum for Catholics in the 21st century." The curriculum is free, so long as it is being used for personal use and not for profit. I see two HUGE upsides to this site: 1) for those who are concerned about tuition costs for homeschooling, this is potentially a saving grace and 2) it is a great resource for parents who want to pull ideas from a variety of sources, or test out different curricula. The program appears to be still in development, so I don't quite see it being used as a full-time "school."

One thing I love about homeschooling is how efficient it is, time-wise, when compared with public/private schools: the intro page for Mater Amabilis says that Levels 1 and 2 (K-5) only take up to 2 1/2 hours per day, using a 36-week schooling plan!

Our Lady of the Rosary School- I should have taken the Home Economics elective offered through this school... I could have made a chasuble in addition to the blue dress! The program requires parents to return all books and lesson plans at the end of the school year, or until the youngest child has used them. I understand their logic in attempting to keep costs down, but I'm not a fan of not keeping the books and lesson plans, in principle.

Pre-K- $99
Kindergarten- $225
Grades 1-12- $529

There is also a $20/child cash discount, and a $20/child (2 kids) discount, $40/child (3 kids) discount, and $60/child (4+ kids) discount for families with students grades 1-12.

On top of this is the cost of the curriculum (prices vary based upon whether or not you already have the books and whether or not you want the grading service).

Our Lady of Victory School

It is, by their assertion, the oldest Catholic homestudy program in the United States. It only supports the Latin Tridentine Mass. The school is accredited by the National Association of Private Catholic & Independent Schools. I need to look more into this one, and check out their fees.

Seton Home Study School- Seton is fully-accredited by SACS. I LOVE the sample lesson plans on this site-- they've helped me to understand how exactly homeschooling works as a practical matter. For instance, check out the lesson plans for Kindergarten P.E. and 1st grade Math. These aren't scary at all! I can visualize myself doing these things with C in the next few years and not going crazy. And, as I peeked ahead to future grades, I can see how feasible it is to do work with younger children (the Kindergarten P.E. stuff, for instance) while the older children are reading or doing Math work. Then, the younger children can do their coloring of numbers or whatever their Math lesson of the day is while I would work with the older children. On a slight negative note, I'm wondering about the whole Evolution Hoax CD that 9th graders buy... on a personal level, I've never had an issue with evolution coexisting peacefully with the creation story and consider them complimentary, not contradictory. I'm under the impression that Catholicism has no issue with this, either. Help, anyone??

Seton's website has a handy calculator to help estimate costs-- though we only have two children now, I know the basic timeline we're hoping for with a future child(ren) and can thus calculate a bit further into the future. Not including the $30 new family fee, the breakdown looks like this:
$200 Kindergarten
$490* per child, grades 1-12

*There is a $50 price break for 2 children, a $100 price break for 3 children, and other price breaks for more children (I didn't keep doing the math)

Students can also enroll in one or more academic courses without actually being fully enrolled in the Seton program. I'm not entirely sure exactly how this works, but it sounds like a nice option for those who want to pick and choose various curricula.

And have I mentioned how much I love the word curricula? I think it looks like Dracula, which amuses me to no end.

On another note (given that it's my note, it is likely off-key), C's Mother's Day Out program (ok, they're calling it a "preschool" now, but I use it as an MDO... I'm supposed to be finishing my thesis during the 9 hours of "free time" I have each week, but having a crawling infant has sidetracked that even further) uses the WEE Learn program. At first, I saw the $129 price tag for the 3 year old curriculum and thought, "No WAY am I paying that for a book!" Then I realized that 1 month of MDO tuition covers the book. Hmm. Basically, I'm using the MDO program as a sitter for C, though, so I'll justify it for at least a few more months. :-) It sure was great when I was pregnant with H because I scheduled my million appointments for one of the two MDO days each week. Anyway, my point is that I could just purchase the WEE Learn curriculum guide and do it at home, and perhaps with another local family or two! I LOVE the home(pre)schooling co-op that The Domestic Notebook does. It's such a great idea! (Seriously... is it possible for me to go an entire week without mentioning how much I love this site?)

SERIOUSLY????

 Frazer Harrison/Getty 

If this woman is "plus-sized," then I am a whale. Just take me down to San Antonio and give me my own Sea World show, please. I think I'd like that, so long as you keep my water clean and my fish fresh.

 Me (and apparently one of my children)

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 8)

1. My beautiful, rock-lined, crushed granite walkways? Now they are not-so-beautiful, rock-lined, crushed granite washed-aways. Nearly 9 inches of rain in 2 days has frustrated my backyard beautification efforts nearly as much as those pesky deer did.

2. Not fun: a sick 2 1/2 year old. REALLY not fun: a sick 30-something mother of two. I thought it was bad when C got sick, but trying to keep an infant healthy AND get healthy myself AND take care of a sick toddler is proving tricky. It may be time for me to visit the doctor... I need to make sure I'm going at this with my guns fully-loaded. The sinus infection (or whatever it is) is sapping my energy to a frightening degree, and I need every bit of energy I can get to keep up with my turbo-crawler.

3. Speaking of guns... I don't know how long it's been since I shot a BB gun, but taking out innocent aluminum cans is fun!

4. I've learned that I can't keep up with blogging everyday, if I ever want to say anything of any significance. I need to figure out how to schedule time for blogging and then get OFF the Internet.

5. On my bookshelf: Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More than Peers. It's about how, since WWII, kids have been socialized by their peers and how this situation is only getting worse. I'm only at the beginning of the book, but find myself agreeing with the authors. One thing that saddens me, though, is how much I can see how I was very peer-oriented, to the detriment of my family life with my parents. Sorry, Mom and Dad!

6. Quote of the week: "Education makes me sick, Mommy." Seriously? Runner-up quote of the week: "I need ice cream for breakfast. It makes my nose feel better." I'm with you there, kid. (And no, she didn't get it for breakfast)

7. FINALLY little H will eat foods that have real texture to them. I've been concerned that I'd still be blending/mashing/grinding his food clear through college.

Winner Winner (Make your own) Chicken Dinner

And the winner of the cookbook giveaway, chosen by the highly scientific bathtub-foam-numbers method, is...

Number 5!

Marilyn from Nolan says that she is so proud of your cooking skills, and would definitely like to be entered into your cookbook drawing. Me, do something nice? Naah. Never. Not my style. I will just continue to torture 165 APIII Juniors at Mansfield High. Love keeping up with you Lisa! 

That's YOU, Marilyn! Congrats! I'll mail you your cookbook once the flash flooding here stops...

And remember-- those of you (the other five...) who didn't win the cookbook, it's available online!

Homeschooling Discernment Series: Fully-reversible schooling... and homeschool classrooms to die for!

** This post is shorter than I'd planned for this week-- we went out of town for the long weekend and then I spent the next night staying up with a very sad (and sick?) toddler and teething infant, so the editing that needed to get done of my full post wasn't happening last night. Here's the abbreviated version:

I touched on this idea last week, but one thing that eases my mind about homeschooling is that no matter what decision we make in the next few years, we can always, and easily, reverse the decision.

Example 1: Should we opt for homeschooling our daughter for Kindergarten and first grade, and then discover that it's not for us (or for her), we could send her to the local public school for second grade, and do likewise with my son, who would be entering Kindergarten.

Example 2: Same as Example 1, but with the modification of homeschooling our son for a few years (if we felt it was best for him) while our daughter went to public school (I'd include Catholic/private as an option here, but the distance to one from our home really precludes the idea), and seeing how that worked.

Example 3: Same as Example 1, but with the modification of reverting back to homeschooling once more if we were concerned with what our daughter was/wasn't learning or to what she was being exposed.

Homeschooling moms-- have you gone back-and-forth at all? Had different schooling plans for different children? Know families that have?

EDITED TO ADD: Perhpas the concept of homeschooling being fully-reversible is no surprise to many people, but for someone like me, who was worried that it was an all-or-nothing thing, it's reassuring to realize that, at any point, we can change our minds and change the way we educate our children. That's a selling point for my somewhat-hesitant husband.

As an added bonus, here are a few homeschool classrooms that have piqued my interest...

The Domestic Notebook- I love, love, LOVE how practical this room is, and I particularly like the emphasis on the table and chairs-- learning is literally the central focus in this room! The Notetaker has done a fantastic job (really, though, I can't think of a single post of hers where I don't think she's done a fantastic job at whatever she's done...) at integrating the three stages of childhood she's dealing with: a preschooler (the table, flashcards, and books), a toddler (puzzles, chalk, and letters), and an infant (an ottoman for nursing!). In the back of my mind I question how to balance multiple children and homeschooling, and this room answers that question!

A Holy Experience- The maps. Ahhh. The maps make me swoon like the heroine of a 17th-century British novel. And don't even get me started on the bookshelves and wooden caddy. They push me over the edge. Every time I look at this room, I want to be this woman's child/student. 

Less of Me~More of Him- This is what I picture when I think of the phrase "homeschool classroom," at least in the early years. It's colorful, and arranged roughly like a preschool classroom would be.

Granted, we have no "free" rooms in the house at the moment, should I want to mimic any of these. I think it may be time to think about adding on...

One last note: I used to think there was something odd about homeschooling, like the kids would be missing most of their teeth and the mothers would wear prairie dresses to the grocery store. Clearly, I was wayyyyyy off base. But then I came across a blog that kind of confirmed my fears. So, in order to proceed, I'm having to force that blog out of my mind. I even cleared my history so I wouldn't stumble upon it again unless it was purely accidental. Extreme, no?

Homeschooling Discernment Series: Fears and questions

Lisa's Top Homeschooling Fears:

1) I won't be able to cut it. Not in an academic-sense, but in terms of my personality. I'm afraid I'll get lazy, fall behind, ruin my children's lives, etc. I can have my house cleaned (nearly) perfectly and then, just two days later, have it look like a tornado hit. I can procrastinate with the best of them and I'm fearful that not only would I pass on poor time-management skills to my children, but they would never have a chance to learn better ones from other teachers.

This, however, didn't worry me when I taught high school. I knew what had to be done in terms of assignments and deadlines, and I did it. Also, whether or not I teach the kids their regular schooling at home or not, it's still up to me and M to help them to be more organized, conscientious people. Plus, would a job outside the home PLUS a family really make me get in gear? I doubt it. This is another area I see that I need to improve in now, before C reaches Kindergarten age... I need to prove to myself that I can organize our lives better and create more peace at home.

* Any other non-Type-A moms out there with thoughts on this? If I were Type-A, this would be a no-brainer, in terms of whether or not I could keep our home and school lives organized.

2) I won't be able to cut it. This time from an academic perspective. What about dissection? And is dissection even necessary? Who decides what's necessary? Would I be able to teach my children everything they need to know to live successful lives (I know I'm talking about success as defined by "the world," but let's face facts-- my children will have to function in the world. And likely every single person reading this post went to a "regular" school, as in not-at-home. So, what do we really know about what kids "need" to learn?).

Again, I never doubted my abilities as a teacher. I learned about many things when I was teaching some topics/books for the first time, and if my plans didn't work the first time (or two or three...), I adapted them.  I tutor for the SAT, ACT, and GRE on the side now, and don't have any hesitation about doing Geometry, Algebra, or any Writing/Reading, so what is it that I'm really fearing? Failing my kids somehow? Sending them off to college only to find out they know NOTHING useful?

* What do our children need to learn? And is dissection one of those things? :-)

3) How will we pay for college? The plan when M and I married was that I would teach high school English again, or possibly lecture at a junior college, once our youngest child started school. In truth, it's what I really wanted-- I loved teaching high school English and I really enjoyed teaching a University composition course. I looked forward to the day that, with all of my children off to school, I would jump back into teaching and still have shorter hours and summertime off, to be there for my kids. I know every family has its own plan for college savings, but if we continue forward with the intent of paying for our children's tuition so they aren't required to have a job in college or build up debt (we were fortunate enough to have no debt from school, thanks to our parents and scholarships), would I be putting too much of a financial burden on my husband if I potentially want to "change the game plan" and stay at home?

College is still 16 years away. If I expanded my tutoring and taught more test prep classes, "lost income" might not even be an issue. We need to pray more about this issue, and I need not to get so caught up in the whole homeschooling "plan" that I lose M's perspective on things. I need to trust him to help lead this discussion more than I have thus far, as I've tried to sway him to my viewpoint.

* I know finances are a tricky issue to discuss, but I'd LOVE to hear your thoughts on college expenses and changing course from early-marriage plans to now.

4) I'm just lining up to jump off the bridge. Also known as, I'm doing it because everybody else is doing it. I had never considered homeschooling until it seemed to be popping up in conversation (and on blogs) everywhere. Am I wanting to do this because it's "the" thing to do? Am I more afraid of homeschooling or of not homeschooling when it seems like everyone else I know is either doing it, thinking of doing it, or has a close friend/family member who's doing it?

This was one of my reasons for doing this discernment series (or perhaps more aptly named "Discovery Series," since we have 3 years before my daughter will enter Kindergarten if we don't homeschool, so I really just want to get some facts). I need to discern the motives behind my thing about this, and pray to TRULY know what is best for my family; this means not only what is best for my children (present and future), but also what is best for my husband and myself. And, everyone who does homeschool points out that it can be a year-to-year and child-to-child decision that is fully-reversible, in both directions.

*What's causing this upswing in the number of homeschooling families? Do you think the trend will continue, or will the next generation think we were insane to even contemplate this?

5) You get one shot with raising each child-- what if I make a mistake? And what even qualifies as a "mistake?"

That's all I've got there. It's too big of a fear to really put it in words right now. It's that fear that creeps in my head during nighttime feedings and prevents me from falling back to sleep. 

*Does anyone else have this fear? Does everyone else have this fear? How do you control it?

6) So many curricula, so many options. I've been looking at the Mother of Divine Grace School and the Kolbe Academy, in particular. There are so many more to choose from, and they will get their own post later. But... what I keep seeing/hearing is that homeschooling parents draw from a variety of sources, then pick and choose what works for them. But how do you know which sources to choose? And this then goes back to my fear of not teaching everything my kids need to know.

I am definitely over-thinking this... even I recognize that. To go back to my own teaching experience, I didn't just teach what was in a book, or exactly what another teacher was teaching at the time to a similar class of students. And not once have I ever worried that I wasn't teaching the kids exactly what they needed to know, when they needed to know it. I taught in a way that suited me best, using sources I personally enjoyed or felt would be valuable, and in a manner that allowed my students to really learn. In addition to teaching "regular" sophomore English, I also taught a more remedial sophomore course for students who needed help catching up to their peers and I taught a sophomore Honors class. Some texts were the same; some were different. It depended on what each class could handle at the particular time. I need to trust my own judgment and not be afraid to ask for help. 

*If you are currently homeschooling, what curricula do you use? Have you tried different programs? Any thoughts?

7) I loved school. My daughter loves MDO. Would I be depriving my children by teaching them at home? Can you deprive a child of life experiences by keeping them out of a traditional social setting? And what exactly makes up life experiences or a life anyway? Make that "Life," with a capital "L." I'm talking about Life in terms of what we talk about when we talk about "experiencing Life." Is Prom a necessary experience? My husband attended an all-boys middle school and high school. Was he deprived of experiencing Life? I was a cheerleader in high school and loved the feeling of cheering for my school. Will my kids miss out on that school-ownership? C came home yesterday from her first day of Mother's Day Out and was going on and on about her "kids," meaning her new friends in class. I like that she was able to do something apart from me and have some ownership of her day-- how could I incorporate a similar experience into homeschooling? Can I even do that?

My new best friend (ask her-- she'll confirm it), Jen from Conversion Diary, has some great ideas about using homeschooling in conjunction with something resembling a MDO program. Once her life slows down a bit, I think she'll be able to write some more about it on this blog, so I'll just mention it and drop that for now. And I want to find out more about homeschooling groups in our area and talk to homeschooling moms and kids to see how they balance this-- being at home but still being a part of something that is NOT home. I played softball for several years on non-school teams and participated in Girl Scouts through high school, mainly in non-school troops, so I know that a traditional school setting isn't necessary for making memories or friends or just getting involved. I need to do a lot more research here, though.

*Are there any experiences that you think kids need to have? Should have? Homeschooling moms-- help! How do you figure this out? What do your kids think about this issue?

Well, that's all I have for now! More next Wednesday and in the weeks to come! Don't forget-- today is the LAST day for the COOKBOOK GIVEAWAY! And given the fact that NO ONE has taken advantage of the multiple chances to win (check out number of times you can comment and enter- SIX separate chances!), the probability that someone who uses all of the options will win is quite high.