More benefits of homeschooling!

I love the ability to do things when the crowds aren't present. For example, our Thanksgiving travel always begins on Tuesday (suckers drive on Wednesday), and trips to Target are the best between 8am-10am on Tuedays and Wednesdays. I don't know, maybe I like feeling like we're beating the system. Maybe I just hate people.

It is in this spirit that I report a couple recent outings in our fair city. The other day the kids and I went to the top of the Carew Tower, the tallest building in Cincinnati -- at least until 2011.



I can't believe we've lived in Cincinnati for 7 years and hadn't done this yet. It was the best $3 I've ever spent. The best part? THREE other people up there with us. That and the lack of "haze." I hate that -- it's not "haze," it's pollution! If meteorologists would start calling it what it is, people might be a little more into doing something about it. I digress. The kids had a really good time spotting things and saying things like "Wow, you know Kentucky is close to us, but up here it seems a little too close!"

This is the view north looking toward Clifton.


Today we went to a Reds game. When we decided to homeschool about a year ago, one of the first things I thought was, "We can go to weekday day games." It was as fun as I hoped it would be. We filled our pockets with candy at CVS, bought $1 waters outside the park and had a good time on a beautiful day.


Calvin noticed there weren't many other kids, and then added, "We wouldn't be doing this if we went to regular school!" The Reds lost, but we didn't really care. It was still better than handwriting.

Hocking Hills

The kids and I camped for two nights at Hocking Hills. It's an incredibly beautiful place. And, once again, we were almost alone there. This is good, except for when predator-prey action goes on outside your tent. Then, the solitude is a little freaky. Eleanor and I (Calvin was asleep) wished that the dying animal would just die already.

Calvin had the quote of the trip, "Eleanor, is this better than handwriting?" (Handwriting is their least favorite "subject" in school.)

The US homeschool timeline

About a week ago Calvin overheard me talking to another adult about how there are more secular homeschoolers now, after many years of it mainly being a conservative Christian thing. A few days later, he asked Matt and me about who homeschooled first. As adults will do, we proceeded without asking what was on his mind. We explained Christian homeschoolers' ideas, which I'm sure we've talked about before, and the rise of secular homeschoolers. His response was to point out that African American families homeschooled before the Christian homeschoolers. Yes, that's true. And while we never said this to him, our homeschool year has presented information about slavery and Jim Crow that supports his conclusion.

The kids have said and done lots of things lately that make us sure about homeschooling next year. This is just one. Others--Calvin's love of reading, Eleanor service projects (there's a "Fund-o-rama" for Ronald McDonald House and The Public Library coming up), and how much they have learning this year about politics, the American Revolution, the Civil Rights Movement, our country (the Eastern half of it), and themselves. Of course, they've learned math, grammar, and other school things too!

It's not just one year home

We've decided to homeschool again.  I'm happy for the kids, because I think that this is really the best thing for their education.  It will be different next year, especially for me the left-out family member.   I'll miss being around to hear up-to-the-second the reports about projects and field trips and the news (from Eleanor). 

Next year, the kids will go to Leaves of Learning two days a week next year, taking lots of really cool classes on Wednesdays and Fridays.  Eleanor will get to live her dreams of being a journalist, being in the theater, taking dance and yoga, and cooking with science (there's a show about the science of cooking that she loves).  She'll also take creative writing and a cultural geography class that she was persuaded to take because it includes economics.  Calvin chose two math-type classes, a "horrible history" class, drama, creative thinking (again), and two literature classes.  When I was in college, I was always really excited when the new schedule came out and it was time to pick classes.  Imagining them was always the best part of the experience.  I'm vicariously having that fun again.

P.S.  We both woke up to the earthquake last night.  I thought it was the wind, to which Matt looked out the window and replied, "It's not windy."  He checked that the house alarm was on because he thought someone was banging on our house.  He also wondered whether the foundation of the house was finally giving up.  It was funny this morning to discover that it was an earthquake!

It's springtime!

Reds Parade...


Mt. Airy Forest in the creek...

Christ's teachings upset conservative government officials...

I find endless amusement in these headlines from our local paper.



And to fight the charges against him, Christ decided to invest in a very expensive, tailor-made suit...