Just a homeschooler - Not a know it all

Just a homeschooler - Not a know it all

Homeschoolers by nature, I think, are genuinely helpful people, enjoy helping others, enjoy giving advice, enjoy giving out pointers, and being there for others.  I know this to be true because of my blog, other homeschoolers blogs, and being apart of the homeschooling community for the last several years. It's great to have friends (even if they are just on facebook) to turn to for help, advice, tips, support, etc.  It's great knowing depending on the platform, group, or forum you can have access to 10, 20, 50, 100, 5,000 or even 20,000 plus other homeschoolers. Homeschoolers that might not share all your values, but they have one thing in common with you: They homeschool and love their children. Okay 2 things in common....

With all this access I see a disturbing trend:  Expecting these homeschooling friends, groups, forums, to be your ONE stop shop for EVERYTHING! Expecting these circles to essentially be your research department, your doctor, your gardening expert, your bug expert, your --- do I dare say --- your GOOGLE!

This is very frustrating! While homeschoolers are helpful, willing to help, they are not experts on every topic.  Need to know what type of bugs those are? Google, search a bug ID site, ask a local bug guy, go to the library get bug ID books. Need to know what type of apples that tree is and if they are edible? Go ask a local small business, family owned, apple orchard, seek out library books, seek help from a gardening or canning group.  Need help ID mushrooms.... well you get the point.

I'm just seeing a trend where to many people expect other homeschoolers do things that they should be able to do themselves.  -- Part of homeschooling is teaching your child how to research things, how to find information, know where to turn when you don't know the answers. While your peers might be helpful on giving you pointers on where to find information they should NOT be called upon for the answers for everything under the sun -- unless they are experts, it's their hobby, etc.

When I looked into homeschooling several years ago I read either in a book, blog, website or newspaper article -- okay maybe not a newspaper article -- that homeschoolers like to be helpful, but they don't want to be bothered with questions you can find yourself.  They rather you spend time trying to research it, find the answer yourself, and if you can't then ask for help.

When I first read it I thought it was referring to homeschooling laws, curriculum, schedules, routines, etc. Now, I think it means much more then that. It means stop relying on your homeschool circles to be your Google and stop asking them for  help for things that are better suited in other forums and quit "hiding" behind the label while it's for school there for it apply to homeschooling.

I've been in this game for a long while. I know that homeschooling is a lifestyle and under that premise anything under the sun is really apart of the homeschooling -- but use some common sense. You wouldn't go to the auto shop looking for a bug exterminator. You wouldn't go to drug store and ask to speak to the pharmacist about your car issues.  While I love all of  you and I'm glad to help when I can and will continue to do so: I'm just a homeschooler - Not a know it all!

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Wall book and running

I think my children have Facebook envy. Well at least my daughter does. She has decided to make wall book. She's hoping family will post messages on her wall book.

I posted a message on there this morning telling her to clean her room. You know what? She actually cleaned it! It looks very nice.

She wrote on her wall her excitement about giving cross country running a go. We found a local club to join. Well we actually found two. One is just for homeschoolers the other is for anyone.

We decided to go with the one that is open to anyone because my daughter is not sure if she want to compete at meets. If she just wants to run and be apart of the group then it is free for us. If she decides she wants to compete then it will cost us a little bit of money for an uniform and entry fees for the meets.

New Year, New Schedule, New Routines

Or at least that is the plan. I've been reading, my dear friend, Judy Dudich's book: I Surrender and have been participating in the discussion group on facebook.

Recently Judy mention, in the discussion, how she's been reconstructing her schedule and not doing "school" with a few of her children until the evening. This is because her family structure  is such that it's easier for her to give more attention to those children in the evening. With 10 children I'm sure that makes more sense.  In response several other moms mention they did similar things.

I may have only 2, but it gets difficult for me. Often Superstar is waiting for me to help him with one thing because I'm helping Web-Princess.  Web-Princess has to wait for me because I'm helping Superstar.  They get annoyed with each other and impatient. I'm jumping back and forth like a pinball and often feel bad because we get the bare minimum done. That's good, but I would like more. If only I could just focus on ONE.

Out of the two Web-Princess is the child that needs my help more because she's a struggling reader. I don't just want to focus on her I want to be there for Superstar. Jumping back and forth just isn't working. Some subjects go every fast others take longer. There is no way to really plan it well.

Judy's post, in the facebook group, was I light bulb moment for me! Why don't I just restructure our day and focus on just ONE child at the time.  I'm not a very good morning person. It's a bit of a struggle for me to get into the grove of things. Superstar like to start first thing in the day and seeing he often doesn't need my help as much I figure I would focus on him in the morning. I can still get other things done, but be available for him when he needs it. So I could not only be there for him but get some housework done.

Then after lunch it will be Web-princess time to start school. By lunch Superstar should be done if not soonner and I'll have the rest of the afternoon to work with Web-princess. I choose to put her in the afternoon because she does require a lot more of my help and in the afternoon we'll have more time.  Seeing it will be easier to work up to dinner if needed or pick it back up right after dinner and finish it up.

I don't foresee us going that late all the time but the possibility is there so I thought it was best to put her in the afternoon. The other bonus of putting her in the afternoon is that if Superstar gets done before lunch, whihc I see happening several days, I can start her early

I'm going to start this new schedule tomorrow and see how it goes!

Merry Christmas

Facebook and Networked Blogs

Catholic Christian Homeschooling now has a fan page on facebook. We have stepped up in the world! LOL! The primary purpose of the fan page is let people know when we have a new blog post here. I've also have set up networked blogs. That way the posting I make here will automatically be posted on our facebook fan page! :) Just thought you would like to know!

To facebook or not to facebook that is the question.

I've been thinking about facebook! As Judy shared with us this morning it's best to be who you are! If you love facebook then you love facebook. I being on the outside looking in have my doubts about facebook and well it's those doubts that keep me away.

I have been tweaking Catholic Christian Homeschooling and I'm happy thus far about my tweaks. Blogging for me is a passion. I love sharing with people, but I also love it when people share back. So I think the new tool bar at the bottom of the page will make it easier for my readers to share.

I have the option to add facebook features to the toolbar below, but I have NOT added them because I do not belong to facebook. So I thought it was best not to included the facebook options. Like Judy, I try to take responsibility for what is linked here, but I can't possibly control all links. So if you decided to click on a link here you are really doing so at your own risk. That's the way it is with any website or blog really.

So back to facebook. I've been seriously thinking about joining facebook. Not just because of the features in the new toolbar, but because of articles that I have read that have stated that facebook is better for networking and driving traffic to your site. Networking like Shawntele is not the primary reason for why I blog, but unlike Shawntele it does influence by blogging habit and what I may or may not share on my blog. So all of this had me rethinking my position on facebook.

That was until I read the news article, this morning, about a woman in TX that is suing facebook and blockbuster over privacy issues. You see every time this woman rented a movie from blockbuster it automatically showed up on facebook. It automatically shared her full name, location, and what movie she rented. She wasn't even given a chance to opt-out. It automatically share her transaction at blockbuster with the whole world on facebook. This was done because of the web-beacon that facebook uses.

At the heart of the suit is Facebook's controversial Beacon system, essentially a tracking flag that follows you across a network of sites and reports back to Facebook on your activity. For consumers, it's a way to share more information about your daily activity; for advertisers, it's a way to learn a great deal more about an individual. source: Fox News

Reading the article this morning reminded me why I'm so leery of facebook and why I'm choosing to stay away! If you love facebook and are happy with it so be it:  No worries here. You are free to use facebook. Just know that I will not be joining you. Twitter on the other hand....well we can just tweet the night away. LOL