Craziness in California

So what else is new, right? Speaking as someone who was born and raised in southern California I would like to say that I am very glad we now live elsewhere. The recent court decision involving a parent's right to homeschool their children is just amazing to me - amazingly stupid.

This morning I saw a report about it on Fox News. I had heard about it before this morning, but one of the comments made by a woman with an organization to help protect children really shocked me. She said (I'm paraphrasing here) that judges need to have the ability to demand that children are put in either public or private schools if the children are in danger. She also mentioned that there are 500,000 children who have been identified as being "in danger" in homeschool situations. Who these children are, she didn't say. But after the report I realized that what she seemed to be saying inbetween the lines is that children who attend public or private schools are not in danger. I never realized that this was the case, but am so very happy to hear that children who attend public and private schools, and their families, apparently live in Shangrila!

Are there problems in some homeschool families? Yes. Are there problems in some public/private school families? Yes. Should these children be helped? Of course! But I have yet to hear anyone say that all children in public or private schools should be homeschooled when something terrible happens to a child - or because of a child - who is in public or private school. Remember Columbine? And if you really want to be realistic, there does seem to be more problems with children in public schools than with those who are homeschooled.

If you follow the logic that is apparently being used in California you might come to some interesting conclusions. Alcohol would be outlawed because of those who abuse it and subsequently injure others. Tobacco would be outlawed because of the harm done to the smoker and to those around them. In fact, we wouldn't really have to think at all as the government would think for us, telling us what we should and shouldn't do because we really can't figure that out for ourselves. Wait a minute! Maybe that's why they want all the children in public schools - so that they can be conditioned to have the government think for them. Hmmmm.... I just wonder.

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Learning to be Messy

It's funny. Sometimes I don't know who learns more in the course of a day - me or our son. Take this morning for instance. It was time for art and a review of the primary and secondary colors. I know that he knows those like the back of his hand, but I wanted him to get painting. You see, our son is one of those kids who never liked getting dirty.

I remember his first birthday. We gave him a cupcake, took off his shirt, and let him go for it. But he didn't. He poked at it, but never really got messy with it. He really has gotten better with getting messy. Now I'm the one who has to loosen up a bit.

I guess I was spoiled by his innate neatness. But now I know that it's really good for him to get messy so I have to let him. It's not like there's anything that can't be cleaned up - our son included. It's amazing what the Lord will use to teach us more about ourselves and to help us over our little hurdles so that we can be free - and be messy!

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Life!

I bet you thought I disappeared for good. Nope! Just been busy with life! It's really not hard to have happen - especially when you're homeschooling a gifted child.

One thing that I've come to see as a constant in our homeschooling journey (it's been about seven years now) is change. If you've read the history of our homeschool on the website you know what I mean. We've been through a number of schooling methods and curricula, all in an attempt to keep up with the ever changing needs of our highly gifted son. Just last week we made another one of those changes.

In talking with those who don't homeschool, they just don't understand why I go to the lengths I do when it comes to schooling our son. First of all I look at it as a privilege and not as the arduous task that they seem to think it is. Well, some days it does feel rather overwhelming, but that's okay. All I have to do is think about what our son would be facing if he were in public school. It wouldn't be pretty. Just thinking about it makes me thank the Lord that we have the honor of being able to teach our son at home.

So this is the second week of our newest schedule and things are actually going much better than I had hoped. Not that I thought things would be bad, but you never know exactly how "change" is going to be taken. This time, at least, it was embraced and for that I am very thankful. When I think about the fact that by law our son will need to be actively educated for the next nine years I take every success as a huge bit of encouragement and lock it away for later when things might get a little bumpy. But for now I'm just trying to enjoy each day that I have with our son as I watch him grow and learn. I really couldn't ask for anything more!

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