my 80th post! my 150th rant

A friend posted a link to my daughter's blog on her facebook page and one of her "friends" contacted her to say that she feels sorry for the girl. That her parents are crazy. That the girl can't spell and has terrible grammar, and a few other choice comments. 

At first I was angered that she could judge my daughter that way. My daughter's language skills are excellent for someone her age! Then I was tempted to go and correct all the spelling mistakes on her blog, until I remembered that it is HER blog, and if she wants help she will ask me. 

Then it occurred to me that this woman has probably never MET a child who is un-schooled! And in fact, upon discussion with my friend, I discovered that she has little or NO contact with ANY children who are the same age as my daughter, so what cause would she have to involve herself with their literacy skill set?

How odd that someone with no knowledge of home learning, or of children in general feels so strongly about this! The fact is that my daughter WAS in school while the foundations of her reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation were learned. So in all honesty, that speaks more about the lack of success that institutionalised learning is having on children. My daughter was one of the top students in English. Her skills are better than some of the ADULTS who were schooled that she encounters on her reptile and frog forums!

All I can say to this woman, and the others who doubt the process of natural learning, is that they should walk a year in my shoes. In the last year my daughter has gone from a shy, self conscious child who was getting in trouble at school, and arguing violently at home, to a relaxed, confident (as confident as a healthy 11yr old anyway) who happily pursues her own interests without hiding them as she had to do at school. Frogs are uncool at school, hideous bratz dolls on the other hand are encouraged - and so is pointless consumerism, sexism, racism, and pack mentality.

You see, it's all well and good for school to SAY that they don't tolerate the less savoury behaviour of their students, but the reality is that they are largely UNAWARE of what happens in the playground - and many times in the classroom right underneath the teacher's nose! My daughter is still telling me stories of bullying, racism, homophobia, sexism, and overtly sexual conversations, and antisocial behaviour, from her days at school. She most certainly didn't tell me these things when she was at school participating in them!

I say to the parents who think they have good, close relationships with their schooled children "you do not know what goes on in the playground - you should be afraid, VERY afraid". If you Do think you know what goes on, take your self back to the playground when you were a child, and consider how much of your antics were duly reported over the diner table each evening. I know I didn't discuss taking time off school to smoke bongs in the abandoned  morgue at the hospital near the school. I know I didn't discuss some of the nasty catty behaviour that I was both the recipient of, and the giver of. It's not just at high-school nasty stuff happens. Don't fool yourself into thinking your child is too young or innocent to sling sexual ugliness around, or homophobic insults. 

As an un-schooled child my daughter's days were at first filled with time wasting activities. TV watching, internet games, arguing with me, refusing to participate in household activities, and finding interesting things boring - as a matter of honour. As she has de-schooled, she has grown into a really likable, interesting, smart, funny, articulate, young woman! Some of these changes may or may not have occurred in the prison system, but they would have been as a result of peer defined self analysis, not because she was free to be herself. 

So maybe I will, and maybe I won't ask my Stylish if she'd like some help to spell check her blog. And maybe she will and maybe she won't accept that help. But regardless of that, I will not EVER send her back to a school, unless she begs me. And even then, I will allow her to follow her own direction and leave school again if she chooses to. As I trust myself to instinctively know what is best for me, I also trust my children. I hope that by un-schooling them, the youngest will never grow to doubt his intuitive quest for health and happiness, and that the subconscious ability to do so comes back to roost in my daughter's life until she is a very old woman.  

solar system link

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/solar_system.htm

That's a great link to a website with plenty of info, and a moving diagram of the solar system, showing how the planets all orbit around the sun! 

discussions of orbit over sultanas for lunch

Today Spikee asked me where the sun went to bed. I explained how we orbit around the sun to him while he ate sultanas and corn biscuits.

He wiggled his fingers at me, pretending to be the suns rays. I pretended to be the earth, and turned around discussing how I could or couldn't see the sun. Of course that was such fun that I ended up doing it about three hundred times!

Then he asked me where the sun had gone today, it's a very grey cloudy day here. So Stylish pretended to be the clouds and writhed around in his face while I pretended to be the earth, unable to see the sun!

Spikee was impressed enough to warrant some further research later, to show him some pictures of the solar system, the sun, the moon, and our measly planet Earth.

Summer taking over Spring

We've had some insanely hot weather for Spring, days nearing 40C and it's only Spring. Admittedly it's nearly Summer, but we seem to have bypassed Spring, which is a shame because I love the in-between seasons! Extreme weather is no friend of mine.

We have spent the week watering the garden constantly, and covering the more delicate of the seedlings over with umbrellas during the heat of the afternoon sun. The pet rats started behaving strangely this afternoon so we had to move them outside and spray them with cold water. They soon perked up and wandered about chomping on grass and other goodies.

Stylish has been busily decorating the indoor cage for the rats with hand sewn hammocks, and various things for them to climb on and rest in, they are loving life! And she learns so much from her little projects. Needle craft is such a useful skill, as is caring for pets, and providing all their sustenance, which she does with vigour!  

Her pet frog is starting to call for a mate. I think he should be re-named Pavarotti, but .... what would I know. Their names are Hansel and Gretel. She hopes they will breed and that she can sell them for billions of dollars. Owing to the fact that the two she has cost her $50 of her hard earned pocket money, I think it's possible that she can make something off their breeding habits. 

Spikee has developed a sudden interest in writing so I bought him a wipe clean numbers book and he is happily tracing the numbers (well, scribbling on them anyway). He amazed us all with his ability to circle certain things and draw lines between things that are connected - like a lamb and a ewe, a foal and a mare. He rather impressively understood their relationship of mother and child, which I was interested to see. Sometimes we forget how many things small minds can absorb in their daily existences. Who ever compared them to sponges was onto something. 

Watching the children learn by simply living reminds me each day that the natural learning process works! I know that I struggle with de-schooling myself, more than the children struggle with it, especially Spikee because he has never been institutionalised. I really wonder about how literacy develops without a structured system being imposed on the children, but from discussions that I've had with other parents .... it just does! How could a child grow to adult hood without learning to read in our culture? Our culture relies so heavily on reading and writing skills, that it would be impossible!  Having grown up with an English teacher as a mother, this is really departing from my own early belief system though, and that's why I often have questions or niggling worries. However in a recent discussion on a forum I frequent a member told me that an illiterate adult can learn to read, or learn the skills which make reading possible, in just 30 hours. With Stylish being fully able to read by the time she was pulled out of the institution, I never witnessed the amazing ability to self learn that so many natural learning families have experienced. I guess I just have to resign myself to a bit of waiting now that I have that information on board!

A day at the park!

We travelled to the not local natural learning group today. Believe me when I tell you that it takes dedication to get there on public transport with two children, a picnic and a pram in tote! That's why I want to get my license. The park is terrific, but getting there is beyond a joke. I'm absolutely worn out now, the kids are too. The spent all day running around like mad things, going on the giant slide, splashing around in the wading pool, walking on the beach, playing in the sandpit, and with other children as well as climbing up and down stuff.  I'm tired just thinking about it! It was well in the 30's today so it was HOT HOT HOT, add that to the insane public transport journey and .... I'm going to bed. I just have to convince Spikee to have a story and booby now.

pics!

Another busy weekend!

This has been a busy week end! We did plenty of gardening as a family, and Stylish finished making the cover for her frog tank. We also put a lay-by on a heap of camping equipment for our upcoming xmas camping holiday! We are now the proud owners of a camp kitchen and a table with built in chairs. 

The frog tank looks amazing now! Stylish put so much hard work into it, and it really paid off. For some reason or another the lid that the tank came with (she bought it with pocket money, off ebay) was no good so she needed to make one. She did lots of research - google is her friend - and worked out that with some wood and some fly screen she could make a more suitable lid. It was an exercise in many areas .... but it was a PRACTICAL exercise in them, and she enjoyed it because she wanted to do it. The measuring is maths, the budgeting was maths, the whole process was artistic, it is a science lesson to care for frogs .... I could go on, but I will spare you.

After a trip to the local hardware shop to buy two planks of wood and a metre of fly screen, she set about measuring the tank, cutting the wood to size, nailing the planks together, and then attaching the fly screen. She was a bit disappointed with the finished product but I think it's great! She is unhappy because it is a tight fit over the tank, but it's not TOO tight at all! And it slides on tightly enough to keep the little froggies in!

The garden is going really well. We transplanted all our mustard and rocket seedlings yesterday. They're now in a big, was-unused, black recycling box, surrounded by organic sugar cane mulch. They seem to have transplanted really well. The only problem we had was the sun was too hot for them the last few days, so we put Spikee's umbrella over them and they were doing fine ...until our CAT SAT ON THEM!!! Suffice it to say he will NOT sit on them again because I have put bbq skewers all the way through the box. I suspect it will be an uncomfortable resting place now!

We also turned our compost heap into a new garden bed, planted rock-melon, corn, and pea seedlings in it, covered it in mulch and news paper and tied blue wool all around the patch to keep Spikee off it. We have started a new compost heap at the back of the garden and will aim to have it in use as a garden in the next month, as our current seeds sprout and get to a good size to go out into the wilds of the garden where there are snails, cats and children everywhere!

I feel like I spend my whole life saving water from our washing machine and carrying it out to the garden beds. We have an elaborate system of plastic juice bottles, and buckets, that I catch the water in, then I tip it into the watering cans and lug it out. It's a time consuming process, but I know that I've saved hundreds of litres of water simply by using our grey water on the garden beds.

garden pics

strawberries!

life goes on ...

This week has been a really productive gardening week. We've planted lots of seeds, and lots of our seedlings are sprouting enthusiastically. Two trays of seedlings (rocket, mustard, and bok-choy) will all need to be planted out either this week end or next. I'm pleased to say that some of our crop specifically designed for fussy eaters has started growing. These include rock melon, watermelon, strawberry, and corn.

Stylish has been busily organising life around reptiles and frogs. She recently obtained her amphibian 1 license, and bought (using her own pocket money that she saved) two dwarf tree frogs. She intends to use them for breeding purposes and hopes to earn millions. She's very enterprising, in an 11yr old kinda way! Her next goal is her reptile license, and a blue tongue or a bearded dragon, but we'll wait until we get home from our xmas fishing/camping trip to start worrying about that.

the evidence

murdering point beach
Basil, the wild green tree frog - a BIG THRILL!Looking for frogs
Crocodile farm - don't ask me why that photo uploaded with weird light!?

Dream world, feeding kangaroos

I'm mad! 36 hours on a train with two kids ....

Our trip home from Cairns was remarkable! We had a 36hr train ride from Cairns to Brisbane, and another 15hrs from Brisbane to Sydney. I particularly enjoyed - and so did the kids - the stint to Brisbane. 

The journey must be at least 1000k. We were lucky enough to have a sleeping carriage to spread out in, with our own beds and a bathroom complete with a shower. On the train there was a dining carriage, and a carriage for entertainment and snack food as well. The kids thought that eating dinner at a table on a train was an extremely special event - they weren't wrong, but their excitement was very cute.

When it came time for bed Spikee was unable to sleep because he was so excited about having his own bed and a ladder up to it. He climbed up and down the ladder, insisted on having his photograph taken repeatedly, requested to brush his teeth a few times (you don't' often do that on a train), squealed about having hot chocolate from the cafe carriage, and then repeated the process. he eventually fell asleep beside me on my bed, at the bottom of the ladder. 

Stylish found the lights on the beds, the movies (in the cafe carriage) and the CONSTANT MOVEMENT to be the best thing. I enjoyed it all! Especially watching the kids lapping it up, and watching the landscape change from incredibly dense rainforest to yellow, dry bush land and paddocks.

It was an amazing trip. The trains made it even more so. Lots of people laughed at me for embarking on a 36hr train ride with two kids but I knew it would be great! Those who prefer plains are missing a hell of a lot!

not neglecting our blog - no really!

We're currently in far North Queensland!

We decided we had to escape winters clutches and as such, have headed pretty much all the way up Australia! We have succeeded, it's Summer here, although the locals say it's cold. 

We're spending our days doing touristy stuff, like going to Cairns Tropical Zoo, Hartley's crocodile farm, and Dream World as we went through Brisbane. Spikee has been loving all the crocodiles, and so have I! I think Stylish is impressed too but she maintains her uber cool heading for teenage disinterest level in public. Although she did accidentally crack a smile when they had their photo taken with a baby crocodile, and Spikee was mesmerised, and positively BEAMING in the photo!

At night the kids run rampage in the garden finding frogs, geckos and *shudder* cane toads. I always knew there were lots of cane toads but seeing them is really something else. They are as revolting as their pictures suggest, ugly, warty, and unfortunate looking creatures. Stylish is hell bent on seeing a green tree frog in the wild and the womyn we're staying with says that when it rains they climb on her windows, so we live in hope. I'd like to see one too, apparently they're huge!

A few more quiet days are coming up, we're going to go to the local beach tomorrow, but I hear you can't swim at this time of year coz there are sting rays in the water. And fresh water swimming is out of the question when you've seen some of the gigantic crocodiles we've seen the last few days. The purpose of our visit to the beach is to find fire wood so we can have a BBQ, but I' m not sure how Stylish will take the non swimming news.

de-schooled, or pretty darn near it!

Still no lists! 

I find myself unable to list all the ways my daughter has changed since leaving the institution. Our relationship is entirely different, and it's almost as if I have suddenly - over the course of nearl a year - acquired a new daughter! One of the interesting changes has been her interest in "girlyness" which has started to show lately. It's like she suddenly feels safe to be interested in the more socially conditioned interets of girls which she has always fought so hard to reject. For her recent 11th birthday she asked if she could get her ears pierced. She now has small purple stones in gold studs, and they're very pretty. Hearteningly though, she is not all consumed by her new "girlification", and the first set of earrings we bought her for when her ears have healed sufficiently, are small silver frog studs, they're very "her".

I keep meaning to take a photo of our gardening but just haven't gotten around to it. Suffice it to say the veggie garden is coming along ok. We've only killed the bok-choy so far, everything else is alive and well. 

We will go to the museum tomorrow. it is Stylish's Grandma's birthday, my mother, and although she's dead, I think she'd like to think of us going to the museum on her birthday. No doubt photos will follow so I must make sure to take some of the garden before updating! it's not a spectacular project, but it's satisfying nonetheless.

a busy home day

Today we're going to plant our seedlings in milk crate pots. They're outgrown their current baby pots. We have brussel sprouts, leeks, bok choy, and lettuces. We also have herbs, but they're alright where they are for the time being.

I found a 5 minute gardening book at vinnies, and so we're following the instructions in it. We'll layer news paper, mulch, and compost in the boxes and stick our baby plants in. 

This is all in keeping with our sustainable living projects, we're growing some of our own veg, and using compost and news papers to support the project. 

Stay tuned for pics of our gardening exploits.

our pantry science experiments!

We have been doing some simple science experiments lately. We tested alkaline and acids using purple cabbage water, bi-carb soda, and vinegar. It's like litmus paper, but more fun!

How to do it!

Boil some purple cabbage in a saucepan. Strain the water into a clear jar.

Add some bi-carb soda. This is an alkaline - or base, neutral - substance so it causes the purple water to change to pink.

Add some vinegar (make sure the container is over a bowl because the reaction of the bi-carb and vinegar can get exciting) and the water will change to blue! That's because vinegar is an acid!

We also made a compass using basic household equipment!

All you need is a round cork - the sort found in the top of jars, not bottles - a magnet, some sticky tape, and a needle, a bowl large enough to fit the cork in, and water.

What to do .....

Stroke the magnet in one direction down the needle for three to five minutes.

Use a small bit of sticky tape to stick it to the top of the cork.

Place the cork in the bowl of water and watch the needle spin until the end faces due north!

This shows the properties of magnetism and how they interact with the earth. it's pretty amazing if I do say so myself.

 

This is the quilt made from $5 second hand material.

Social Awareness strikes when you least expect it!

Stylish has FINALLY DEVELOPED SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS! It came out of the blue - or maybe not. I have been working on it for some time. She is now happy to buy second hand items, and is even starting to get into scouring second hand shops for useful items (either toys, clothes, or RAT paraphernalia - *snicker*)

She spent an hour googling mac donalds the other day and learning about their appalling farming habits, and their appalling FOOD, and how their farming and production impacts  the carbon footprint on our planet. I'd like to thank the museum trip for that actually. We went and saw that exhibition again and she read it all again and had a great time playing on the political game table where you balance a governments finances, popularity, and green policy all against each other and try to stay in power.

Her latest thing has been RAT WELFARE. She wanted a new pet rat and I said no because we have two already.  I said she could get one if she could find an animal shelter with one - anything to avoid arguing - and I figured it would be hard to do *chalked up as a bad decision*. She not only found rat welfare homes, but she found a rat, and we brought her home today. All our rats are currently settling in with each other. 

My father seems to be coming around to the idea of home school - and yet still struggling with it. He has been asking questions about HSC, and is willing to help us pay for a trip to Cairns for edumacational purposes, but today when he saw us with the rats he remarked "she could be at school, instead she's at home playing with rats". I ignored it coz I thought it was funny.

We have been attending a local homeschool group and Stylish has been having a wonderful time playing with other children who have freaky parents like me. Spikee has also been enjoying the local groups and there are some kids his age there for him to play with as well. The hardest bit of it is that it happens on our usual shopping day so I need to go shopping later, and then I'm dragging a finicky toddler about trying to shop. But I'm really enjoying the whole picnic in the park, let the kids run amok thing and so are the kids.

I have spoken to some other mothers at the group about what they have done for re registration purposes. It all sounds relatively easy when I hear it expressed in their terms, but I'm still having a mental block over it. All I need to do is make a scrap book with samples of her work in it. Sounds simple - no? . NO! I clearly find it very complicated or I'd bloody well DO IT and stop worrying about it! And something interesting that one of them told me is that she was due for re-rego last October and they haven't contacted her yet!? That hardly helps me with my bid to re register, if anything it makes me relaxed and ambivalent - oh well.

an update - lest May slip away without one

May has come and nearly gone and little has happened. Well lots has happened but most people think nothing has happened because we're not in a school! Stylish has been playing her internet game,Spikee has been doing puzzles, and I have been longing to sew MORE than I do.

I sewed a quilt cover from $5 second hand material bought from vinnies, and Spikee loves it. And Stylish is really starting to understand the whole sweat shop thing, and when we're opping - or Op Shopping - she is always reading labels and telling me that the people who made this item are exploited because they were in a factory in China! That's sucha  huge step for her, I'm so proud.

She is also starting to understand my refusal to purchase slave chocolate. AT this point she is moaning about it lots, and trying to cajole me into forgetting about it. For example, a muffin she wanted had a sliver of mars bar on top of it, and I said she had to get another one, so she did - but she protested.

We've had a couple of trips to the museum - on week ends! And it reminded me of one of the best reasons to homeschool ... venues like the museum are EMPTY on week ends! We're also heading for Queensland in July, and I'm going to book my trip some time next week! YAY!!!! Stylish is very keen on seeing green tree frogs while we're there.

a trip to the museum

We went to the Australian Museum for the day yesterday. They currently have an exhibition called "WHEN MAMMOTHS ROAMED" showing so we went to check it out. It was fantastic!!!! I'm really interested in pre-history stuff like that so I was in my element, and I think the kids accidentally enjoyed themselves too - possibly feeding off my enthusiasm. Naturally I took plenty of photos. Stylish really did absorb a lot

They had a mammoth with lots of windows over various parts of it, labeled. And underneath the sliding window it showed what that body part was used for. I must say that I found this part really interesting, and very timely! We've been talking lots about using the whole animal that you kill, rather than just eating the "nice" bits and throwing the rest away. And the mammoth exhibit really highlighted this to her.

Spikee loved the dine-dongs (AKA dinosaurs) and talked late into the night about the movie they have where a big dinosaur eats a little dinosaur. He also loved the play area for 0-5's with a fantastic wooden tree house and lots of little wooden animals and people. Owing to the fact that we visited on a weekday (one of the many advantages of homeschooling) the play area was deserted! So he had it all to himself. He really loved looking at the big mammoths in the exhibit too, so I took his photo with the little one, I also took a photo of the tree house.

The other exhibition we saw was a climate change one. I was looking at one part of it when I noticed that I had lost Stylish ... I found her READING EVERYTHING SHE COULD! She has NEVER read anything at the museum! She loves the drawers of insects and bugs in the Discovery room, and always pores over them reading their names and taking notes about them, but actually reading an exhibit is a first for her! She must have read every word IN it, and was really interested in it all. There was an interactive table with a game on it where you select a country, and are given various environmental problems for different areas (logging, agriculture, waste management etc) and multiple choices to make into policies. Then you get to see how it impacts on that country's financial situation, and the popularity of the government, as well as the environment. She spent ages doing that. it was very well done, and quite funny, but it really got her grey matter into gear!

new musical beginnings!

Stylish has begin learning to play the recorder! She is learning to play 'Mary had a little lamb'. This is somewhat hindered by the enthusiasm of Spikee! So today we bought him his own tambourine and maracas, but he still wants the recorder! I think we'll wait til next time he's asleep and we're both energetic and wide awake, then give it a real whack.