The healing journey of a widowed, unschooling badass in Delaware.
Our weekly park group was messy today. Only our core families showed up, but the kids were happy to have all of Iron Hill Park to themselves.
Sausages, hot dogs, and marshmallows on the fire were an added bonus.
Although they ran hard, my sons went on to attend trumpet and jiu-jitsu lessons later in the afternoon.
We had a successful day catching up on weekend messages, booking clients, and creating art…until a snag.
Now, instead of blogging, I’m tracking down an email bug that has our main communication medium frozen.
For now, enjoy the initial peony additions (double line cleanup to come) Kristen worked on today:
I have been running into more negative opinions on home education lately.
This lifestyle has been too good to us and I feel a responsibility to take apart uneducated attacks on homeschooling.
Following is a social media attack and my response (I get a little hot).
“Specialized instruction or accomodations”? This is the super power of home education. Schools are based on homogenized patterns. Parents in a home education environment spend all of their efforts on specializing the learning environment for their children.
Socialization:
I co-created an in-person homeschool group in 2020. We welcomed families of all educational stripes. Many of those were schooled and had been abandoned by not just school, but every institution. Their social lives were destroyed and no one cared. We created a social community that has grown to over 1,000 local families. We have met every week for four years and many other groups, clubs, field trips, and extracurricular activities have been born out of ours.
Our families create voluntary bonds, our children are not forced to “socialize” with each other nine months out of the year. School unnaturally silos children into narrow age groups. No where in life does this happen. Our children socialize across generations, including more time to spend with grandparents (my boys have learned about London during the Blitzkrieg from eyewitnesses).
Mental health? What’s the suicide rate doing in schools? My boys just had a government schooled friend, a fucking child, kill himself. That system needs to be dissected and examined for all the medications being pushed by mediocre teachers and nurses.
You are clearly uneducated on how children learn. I did not “teach” my first son how to read after first grade. I never taught my second son. The younger is now 13 years old and burns through books. Curricula are an invention of a system that ignores individuality. Children have curious minds. All one needs to do is pay close attention and feed that curiosity.
Your vitriol betrays an ignorance concerning home education. School has taught you to mock what you don’t understand: if it isn’t on the test, it isn’t important. Your teachers failed you.
American corporate media is the greatest supporter of the American Empire. It pushes every war and never questions, “Are we the bad guys?”
Omar Suleiman reports on events in Palestine that are being ignored by major news outlets in this important interview:
I used to be an alcoholic. I could stay up all night drinking at a party, with a partner, or solo if I really didn’t want to deal with my own humanity.
Part of the problem was my natural energy. I was capable of holding together an apparently functional life because I could drink all night and still show up, at least physically.
Not drinking was the easy part. Finding homes for that seemingly useless drive wasn’t all that difficult either. My life is filled with people and activities and I’m passionate about being my best.
I still wrestle with compulsion. I can get obsessed, but I’m learning to direct it.
Yesterday was the last day for me to build our ship for Kalmar Nyckel’s Lego Shipbuilding Day. My sons had contributed their expertise in minifigures and One Piece lore, but I had a lot of boat to finish.
I stayed up until past 2am to get the Going Merry ready and it paid off. We won 1st place in the 16+ division against some impressively large ships.
That strange energy carried me through a busy day and I’m looking forward to a well-earned sleep.
Westen is almost 15 and tries to play it cool around Lego, but he is still creating some very cool builds.
My Going Merry is coming along and I want to give credit to another builder who created a main sail that I leaned on for inspiration.
Build_MOC has a very nice ebay store where you can find his Going Merry and much more.
My Going Merry build is going slowly, unlike the rate at which the Kalmar Nyckel’s Lego Brick Shipbuilding Day is approaching.
They posted this pic of Isaac (in red) and I’m excited to see how all our builds do in competition.
We’re fortunate to have Gerald Chavis instructing Isaac on the trumpet.
In addition to his wonderful tutelage, Gerald leads multiple live music endeavors and takes the spotlight in solo performances.
Tonight we had the pleasure of sitting in on the Clifford Brown Festival Orchestra’s rehearsal. For a moment, we had the auditorium to ourselves.
It’s important to my educational approach to expose my sons to the possible futures, to show them what can be possible if they dedicate their lives to growth.