Ok here we go:

1. What was your motivation for homeschooling? Was it based on religious reasons? Was is it based on curriculum - did you want more freedom in choosing what your children were being taught? Was it based on socializing - wanting to have more control in the people with whom your children came into contact with? Was it based on logistics - the nearest school being 20 miles away? What made you finally decide to go this route?

-I decided to homeschool for several reasons.  The first and foremost was because I work afternoon shift.  I really am not an early morning person, and I my work is 35 miles away, so I can’t do midnight d/t the long drive, so it’s afternoons for me.  If ds went to public school, then I’d never see him.  Also, I feel homeschool is a far superior education to public school.  I also like to have control over his “socialization”.  Next, my sister homeschools, and it looked like a lot of fun (and it is!)

2. Don’t hate me for asking this. How to you handle socialization? What steps do you take to make sure your children are around other children and adults? Are you active in a home school group? Do you spend a lot of time at church activities? Maybe you utilize the local Y for activities and they meet friends there?

-Public school is for education, not socialization.  Socialization is the responsibility of the family, and that starts at birth.  We have a grandma in the nsg home, so he is exposed to the elderly there.  We play baseball, and now joined swimming.  He has a whole neighborhood full of kids that he can play with when the weather is nice.  Plus we have lots of family in the area.  He goes to another homeschooler to be watched when I work, until my husband (who works days) gets home.  And let me tell you, this kid of mine can hold a conversation with ANYONE :) 

3. Do you use the public school system for any part of your child’s routine? Some children here come to the school for band or chorus, or maybe for science class. Do you send your child to the public school to take advantage of any of their programs?

-DS will be swimming for a non-school related swim team this fall/winter… and that is held at the local high school swimming pool.  After hours it is run as a public rec. center… so in a sense, yes, he’s at the PS pool, but not really.  Otherwise, I avoid PS like the plague.

4. Do your children begin and end school at the same time each day? Do they have a strict schedule, at least as far as waking up and reporting to the school area of your home? If not, when/how will you transition your children into following a more rigid schedule - awaking at the same time each day so that they can follow a routine outside of the home like for college and work?

-Nope.  We don’t follow a rigid schedule.  That’s part of the glory of homeschool!  As for the rigid schedule being “prep” for work later in life, I can say as a supervisor, there is absolutely no correlation between the two.   First off, many of the younger employees have little dedication to their place of employment.  Secondly, both young and older employees can have attendance issues… tardiness, playing the “system”, etc.  If this is the quality of employee we are guarenteed from the PS system, then something is wrong.  Other reasons why I think that considering the PS system as a trainer for real life is a fallicy are:  1.  In no other job (except PS teacher) do you get 3 months, every weekend and every holliday off every year.  2.  You enter college/work and are no longer in age-segregated peer groups.  You might be working and have to train someone twice your age.  That doesn’t happen in PS!  3.  Not all jobs are 9-5.   I work 2:30pm- 11pm.  Can’t say PS keeps those hours.  4.  Grade school is manditory by law, having a good job and keeping it is not.  

We do try to keep a morning routine.  It helps me more than anything…..

5. How many spelling bees has your child won? Oh, I’m kidding. We all know most of the recent national spelling bee winners have been home schooled children. I just wanted to throw a little funny in there?

-haha.  No, my son is not a strong speller.  It’s good we homeschool, because we can work at his pace, using techniques that help him the most, without inducing frustration and low self esteem by assigning D’s and F’s, when he can learn, it just takes longer… Just like there can only be so many Olympic champions, there can only be so many champion spellers.

6. Do you have a sense of humor? It’s probably a little late for me to ask that but…

-Yes, but most of my humor is not appropriate for this type of post.

7. Where do you find your curriculum? Do you shop for it and order it? Do you create your own?

-Gatta love Rainbow Resouce, their catalog is over 1200 pages, in small print.  We also (mostly) follow Susan Wise Bauer’s idea of the trivium.

8. Do you have any worries at all about teaching your teenagers the higher level math and sciences? I, for one, could not teach chemistry to my children but I could probably teach them calculus. Is this a concern for you?

-No, it’s not really a concern for me.  I’m refreshing my memory and learning along the way.  We can also utilize tutors if needed.  I did honors sciences, but never calculus.  Very hard subjects won’t spring up on me without my prior knowing… no surprises here.  Plus, we are only in 3rd grade right now!  I think I can teach that, I did pass, after all

9. What bothers you the most about the reputation home schoolers have? What things do you hate to hear people say about you for your choice? I really hope you don’t say that it’s my previous post.

-I really don’t know what the “reputation” of homeschoolers is.  I missed your previous post (probably good thing, if it wasn’t nice).  I think of homeschoolers and hard working, loving, free-minded parents come to mind.  Read John Taylor Gatto and maybe you’ll think differently of public school.  www.johntaylorgatto.com

10. Be honest, do you, at least in your mind sometimes, judge those of us who choose public school? Do you ever think we are making a bad choice for our children? Are you vocal about that disapproval?

-I’m not vocal about it.  I just am vocal when parents say about homeschool “I could never do that, aren’t you concerned about socialization??”  and “I really like sending my kid away and having the day all to my self “.   um…. so why DID you breed, anyway?  It also ticks me off when they complain about who little johnny is playing with at school, the bad attitudes he developed, etc…. and then question my ability to socialize my kid.  Well, if playing with, and morphing into, the riff-raff of public school is socialization, I think I’ll pass, thanks.

11. Is “home school” one word or two? I’ve seen it both ways. With spellcheck, it shows it as ONE word when used as a verb, but two words when used otherwise. Please enlighten me.

-It’s one word, but who’s a champion speller, anyways….

Help me to decide which waterfall picture I should enter into the local show next month.  I can only enter one picture.  Post a comment about which one I should show please!

  Photo number one

Photo number two

Thanks!

–Bold those you have tried.
–Strike through those you wouldn’t eat on a bet.
–Italicize any item you’ll never eat again.
–*Asterisk any items you’d be interested in trying but have not yet.
–!!!! anything you eat regularly (more than once a month-ish).

?Questionisk any items you’ve never heard of (there will be a lot of these!)

1. Venison
2. *Nettle tea
3.  Huevos Rancheros!!  Though we grew up calling them Dad’s eggs. (really?  That’s what I make, too!)
4. Steak Tartar   (I might eat this on a bet, but Tartar sound like what the dentist scrapes off my teeth)
5. Crocodile  (I think I tried this at the Taste of Chicago once, but it was a long time ago)
6. Black pudding ** (I don’t know what this is, but if Mikey won’t eat it…)
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp -  Too many bones, but I’ve seen the water that thing swims in around here.. eeeww…
9. Borscht ?*
10. Baba ghanouj ? recipe
11. Calamari— yummy
12. Pho ? 
13. PB&J sandwich !!
14. Aloo gobi ? recipe  (isn’t gobi a poisonous fish?)
15. *Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses ? .
17. Black truffle  ?
18. Fruit wine made with something other than grapes
19. *Steamed pork buns?— Guess I need more explanation
20. Pistachio ice cream -

21. Heirloom tomatoes !! Summer in the south north, need I say more
22. Fresh wild berries  - Ditto
23. Foie gras—- Sorry, goose liver doesn’t do it for me.
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese 
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet  Dad is a big fan of HOT, I am not a fan of dead taste buds (ditto sister)
27. Dulce de leche**
28. Oysters– no thank you though.  But I’d eat them for a bet.  I love money.
29. Baklava– yummy.  I work with many ethnic Dr’s.  This is the best when “authentic”
30. Bagna cauda???
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi ? recipe  I didn’t look at the recipe, but isn’t an Irish girl a “lassi”?
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float— yummy
36. Cognac with a fat cigar  –  I like money but not that much.
37. Clotted cream tea ?  I think I know that that is, but no thanks.  Maybe for money.
38. Vodka jelly*   I’d try it.
39. Gumbo
40. *Oxtail
41. *Curried goat 
42. Whole insects  Yuck.
43. Phaal ?
44. Goat’s milk**
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more**
46. Fugu ? No thanks
47. *Chicken tikka masala recipe
48. Eel — no thanks, unless you are paying me a lot.
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut  - I wish it was more than once a month (ditto)
50. Sea urchin — again, not unless you have the $$
51. *Prickly pear— depends on where the prickles are.
52. Umeboshi ? recipe- kinda
53. Abalone—  $$$
54. Paneer??
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal - I do live in the USA  (me too, but I hate big mac. Gimme a whopper any day.
56. Spaetzle* -

57. Dirty gin martini – Why would you drink that?  Was there crud on the glass?
58. Beer above 8 ABV
59. Poutine? a recipe -  I might have to read the recipe first

60. Carob chips - sounds like a bug though.

61. S’mores -
62. Sweetbreads*
63. Kaolin     I like money but I’m not that poor
64. Currywurst ? recipe

65. Durian ? explanation   duran duran?  Isn’t that a band?
66. Frogs Legs - I might try them again if they are made better… and not leftovers.

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake - darn near monthly in the summer

68. Haggis?
69. Fried plantain - Dh’s stepmom is from Puerto Rico and makes this
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette?
71. Gazpacho 
72. Caviar and blini?- Never tried it, and don’t plan to…. maybe for a bet though.

73. Louche absinthe?
74. Gjetost, or brunost ? recipe second recipe 

75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu ? explanation
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail  Sorry not enough need for this
79. Lapsang souchong??
80. Bellini ? recipe  (is this the same Blini as #72?)
81. Tom yum ? recipe
82. Eggs Benedict  had it on my honeymoon.  It was Yummy!
83. Pocky ?
84. *Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. *Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers -The auntie strikes again, but very good (ditto)
89. Horse*  Sorry, but I feel they are livestock
90. *Criollo chocolate - its chocolate right? link

91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab??  So what is a soft shell crab?  All the one’s I know were hard.
93. Rose harissa ? link
94. Catfish - Supermercado makes this really well.

95. Mole poblano -  cavet empor (spell?) the mexicans at work say mole is “hot”.  I know Poblanos aren’t that spicey, though. 

96. Bagel and lox?
97. *Lobster Thermidor  — I prefer crab, but I’d give it a try.
98. Polenta
99. *Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

BTW, don’t put (meme) into the title of your post, I’ve already rec’d 2 spam comments from this posting.

  Lesson number 1:  What not to do with an egg.  Never ever leave rotten eggs lying around.  Seems like a no brainer.  Did you ever play that little childhood game with your kid buddies, “what’s grosser than gross?”  Well, I’ve got one.  What’s grosser than a rotten egg?  How about a dead embryo egg, that you thought was cracked, left outside for the bugs to eat, but after a month it still hasn’t disintegrated.  SO you kick some dirt over it, and in the dirt is a rock, and when the rock hits it, the egg explodes with such force and sound that your child thinks you set off a fire cracker, and out spews this stuff that looks like hummus and smells like…. the grossest thing you’ve ever smelled all month??!  Yeah.  It’s that gross.  I win.

  Anyway… moving on… Lessons have taken a back seat lately as we try to pick over the garden and process what we can.  I think of it as “intensive home-ec”.  Really, it’s gatta be something like that.  I have at least a bushel of tomatoes that I hope won’t rot before Friday.  We sorted potatoes, picked our corn and processed what we could.  It really wasn’t a lot.  For what I planted, I should have had a wheel barrel over-flowing.  I need to do some research, but I think the pollination was poor.  Most of the ears are only half filled out.  Some are only 4 inches long.  Rare was the ear that was fully developed.  SO rare in fact that we were able to eat them all, in two sittings.  I’m a little disappointed.  But on the whole, this year has been a learning year.  I can only see us doing better.  I hope. 

  On a different note, I registered for a class at our local Junior College, to learn how to do digital photo manipulation.  We were to meet every Thursday evening from 6:30-9:15.  Unfortunetly, only approx. 3 signed up, so they canceled the course for the Fall semester.

  Dear son will be joining swim team this year.  Sign ups are on Saturday, practices start after the holiday.  They are 5 days a week, but for the littles, they don’t expect attendance to be every day.  But for what I have to fork out to join, he’s going to be there most of the time.  We are both excited.  He’s still in piano, too.  We’re planning a trip to the Field museum in Chicago.  He’s really excited about history all of a sudden, and seems to be retaining well.  He discussed with me all the things he wants to learn more about, and recalled quite a bit from our lessons covered this year so far.  I guess I must be doing something right.  He loves to listen to SOTW on cd.  He wants to bring the book along when we go.  In his own words “I don’t think they’ll like me walking around with my boom-box the whole time”.   *grins*  Now if only he was as passionate about learning his addition facts….

  I am looking forward to fall.  It’s my favorite season, believe it or not.  There’s just something cozy about it.  The air crisp, the leaves bright, the garden being tucked away for the rest of the year… Routines coming back.  There is just something nostalgic about fall.  It’s starting to feel a bit fall like outside.  Mornings here are cool and dewy.  Everything seems fresh and new, cleansed by the morning light.  Then by evening, everything is hot and tired again.  Go to sleep, repeat.  Currently we’ve had a dry spell.  Even the weeds are starting to droop.  But I can feel the season’s change coming.  It doesn’t feel like summer at all to me.  I know fall is still over a month away, but there is something relaxing with it’s nearing.  A certain sigh, comforting, like the warm blanket you snuggle into deeply in the early morning.  Windows open, breezes coming in, that crispness that makes you want to stay in bed.  ahhh….

  Having presented myself with 1 bushel of peaches, and being not so fond (or fast) at hand peeling, I decided to revisit the art of blanch-peeling them.  My previous experience with that method proved…. unfruitful at best.  The peels wouldn’t budge, and they had to be carved off with a paring knife.  After some trial and error, and much observing, I have finally discovered the secret to successful blanch-peeling. 

  First, you must start with peaches that are not firms.  They need to sit for 2 days, preferably about 4 (if starting with firms).  They needn’t be mushy, but you can tell when the peach is ready to give up it’s peel by feeling it.  If it “slips” a little when you push it with your fingers, it is ready.  If the peel sticks firmly in place, then forget it.  Usually I don’t purchase fruits and veggies that have the “slip” feeling.  Also, you don’t need to score the blossom end of the peach.  Several sources recommended doing so, but I found that if the peach was not ready to give up it’s skin, then you are not getting it off unless you use a knife.  On a peach that is ready, you don’t need to score anyway.

  Second, you set up your baths… boiling water, ice water, a bowl for scraps, and one or two bowls filled with water and a few squirts of lemon juice from a bottle.  Next you do only one peach at a time.  If you do several peaches in the boiling water bath, then the water stops boiling, and you want it to stay at a nice rolling boil.  Process for 1 minute, then move it to the ice bath, and boil another.  I recommend using a timer until you get a rhythm down.  Once the minute is up, move them along again, only this time, the chilled peach is ready to peel.  So each minute will be boil one -chill one -peel one (peel, cut in half along the “butt”, open, remove stone, place in bowl w/juice).  It takes less than a minute to slip the peels off one (only 25 seconds if it’s really loose).  If you should find one that’s a little less than cooperative, then set it aside.  Sometimes after the peach sits for a few minutes, it’ll be more cooperative.  You will still want to have the knife handy in case it still doesn’t want peeled.  I find that if they are small and full of blemishes, then they give more hassels than the softball size ones.  To peel, start at the stem end and pinch some skin with your fingers and pull down.  It’s not quite as easy as tomatoes, but still very easy.  I peeled half a bushel in less than an hour this way.

  One other lesson learned concerning peaches: the canning book says to let the jars cool IN the water bath with the fire off for about 5 minutes.  This is not a suggestion.  I learned the hard way this is a MUST.  I processed 6 quart jars, promptly removed them from the bath, and watched each one burst open.  Needless to say, 6 raw pack quarts becomes 3 hot pack quarts.  That was a day lost.  I spent all day Saturday learning and doing peaches.  It took a great deal of time to figure out the peeling process, through trial and error.  Then I took them all to my Dad’s to process, only to have them spew all over.   Then I (mostly) dropped one (losing about 8 slices or so).  I managed to save the jar, but I was very displeased with my actions.  So for all the hard work, I have only 3 quarts of peaches from that day’s work.  But they are nicely fitted into those jars, so they really are 3 quarts worth. 

  Today I did the other half bushel.  They are only halves, and I’m chilling some pie dough I just made, in prep for a pie.  I might go can the rest of these up.  I do have 5 or 6 quarts of sugar-pack peaches in the deep freezer, but DS is fond of the canned variety, so I’ll be doing those later.  Wish me luck!

  Sunday I spent digging potatoes.   I got a whole wheel-barrel nearly full.  The Yukon golds are good.  The Kennebec Reds can grow huge, which does have a bad side.  They are more likely to be impaled with the shovel when they grow that large.  I have to go seperate them still, so I guess we’ll be eating potato salad with dinner.  For a reference, I planted 3 rows of each, with 10-12 hills per row.  It was 10 lbs of seed potato.  I don’t think I did too bad for my first time planting potatoes.

did it work?

Ok it sorta did work.  I finally got a picture to load up onto this website.  Ok, so the pic is small (so small, you can’t tell it’s the one I edited in photoshop).  So I had to go back and change the file type for the saved pic.  I think I can upload now, since we had someone come work on our line to make our internet faster.  It’s not much faster, but the upload doesn’t time out anymore.  Well, one step closer.  

ok, here’s the edited image, enlarged/cut/pasted from my sister site.  Yay.  LMK what you think.  Be kind, it’s my first time :) 

(after viewing)  Ooops, too big!

let’s try this one.  I’ll get it right…. sooner or later.

I have CS3 that I’m trialing for 30 days free.  It’s not a very easy program to grasp in just 30 days.  I trialed Lightroom for 30 days as well, and it was sooo much easier to learn.  So far I’ve only produced one photo on CS3 that was worth saving.  Unfortunetly I’m not sure I can share it with you.  But here are two sooc shots I can share.  They are nice, too.

This is a rose that just called to me when I walked by.  I had been planning to mow.  Instead I found myself taking pictures. 

It was a starry night last night.  I had to play around quite a bit before I could get one worth keeping.  I wanted to take a picture of Jupiter, but I don’t have anything strong enough to do it.  So this is just an overhead shot.  Literally.  One wouldn’t think that shooting the night sky would be hard.  When we look up, we see this picture.  But as you know (but don’t think of) the world is in constant motion.  But your camera knows it.  If you don’t have the settings correct, the stars will be little white lines.  Pretty cool, but not what I wanted.  The Perseids are coming in a few days, maybe I’ll shoot those if the weather is cooperative.

I figured I’d write a bit on our daily show here at Life on Five. It’s so nice to be getting back on a routine. The stress seems to go up when there’s “nothing to do”…. haha.
8:30ish am- wake, feed cats, take morning meds, start a load of laundry.
9:00ish- feed DS, feed the dogs, check email, put laundry in dryer (usually DS does this)
9:30ish- DS to practice piano. I can sometimes start lessons this early, but not all the time.
10:00ish- I eat breakfast, then start lessons. Usually we do Math first, but lately DS has been doing cursive first. While ds finishes his worksheet (done at the end of the lesson) I fold the laundry. Might start another if behind. Do morning dishes, sometimes vacuum, quick tidy.
11:00 ish- no particular order after this. Either do science, spelling, or history next. Followed by English.
12:15- get lunch. Usually left overs or something quick, like a sandwich.
12:30- I shower if on a work day, or if we have to go somewhere. If not we do more lessons (whatever we didn’t cover earlier).

That’s pretty much our “schedule”. We will sometimes work until 1:30-2pm. After that there are no real plans. Get done what needs done. Sometimes I spend too much time surfing the ‘net. But TV use is almost nill for me. Friday evenings we have a few shows we like, but that’s about it for me. I used to watch the news, but I get what news I want online and don’t have to worry about DS seeing a commercial for Valtrex or Viagra.
I am working on getting into a better afternoon routine, but it’s so hard since many afternoons are spent at work for me. I need to make a new “To-Do” list, and use it as a guide. I did stay up and start an annual calendar for homestead necessities, like when to start the seeds, plant crops, spray fruit trees for what/when. It’s quite an undertaking to think of all the yearly necessities at once, esp. since this scale of homestead is newer to me. It’s easy to take care of 2 raised beds measuring 4×8 compaired to what I have now. Even those two got away from me back a few years ago. But on the other hand, I was better able to fertilize and water then, so the fruits of the (tomato) vine were more productive. By the time things got away, I was sick of messing with it.
One has to breathe in rhythm with nature to make it all work on a homestead.

  I am trying to decide on what photoshop program to buy.  I have to admit, so far Lightroom is proving to be the easier one to learn and use.  It is less than half the cost, but it does less neat things.  One review on CS3 that I’ve read at B&H photo said the learning curve is steep.  It’s not a curve, it’s a mountain.  I downloaded free trials of both programs.  I turned out some nice pics by the time my 30 day trial of Lightroom was over.  I have had CS3 for nearly 2 weeks and just finally figured out how to upload my pics.  Lightroom does it automatically for you.  The pics are on a little scrolling screen at the bottom of the monitor.  Soooo easy to choose your pics.  

  Wish me luck, now that I finally loaded the pics in CS3.  I might need some safety lines, this mountain is steep and huge!