in pursuit of wild things

The past ten days have been a little too crazy for me. A few days ago I shared an article on my Facebook page about the Common Core, specifically the history and literature standards. Well, someone didn’t like the article I shared (and even admitted to not opening it). That’s fine. We all have our own opinions. Our discussion was civil but we never discussed anything about the Common Core…just her distaste of adjectives for the Common Core by homeschoolers and the classical community. I was left with the feeling that because I choose to home educate I have no right to comment on anything related to public education. Those of us who homeschool or pay for private school should just shut-up and hand over our tax dollars. Exactly when did I surrender my status as a citizen of the United States?! Are only those who attend public school considered true American now? While this discussion was happening on Facebook, a former high school class mate messaged me to ask about homeschooling her children. She was frustrated with the public school system and needed help getting started researching homeschooling. What a crazy afternoon!

Over the weekend some family friends stopped by to talk to us about homeschooling! Wow!! I am really humbled that some families over the past several months have talked to me about homeschooling their children…but…I still feel like an amateur myself. I just feel like I do not have that much to offer anyone. If you ask me I will pass on any wisdom shared from veteran homeschooling families, handover piles of catalogues, encourage you to surround yourself with long time homeschooling moms, share my favorite homeschool blogs, and encourage you to join HSLDA.

The rest of the weekend was full of sledding and playing out in the snow. Monday morning, however, stopped my heart in my chest. Around 7:30 or so in the morning my doorbell rang. I’m still in my jammies, my hair is still knotted and I see a police officer at the door! I completely freaked out…why is he here? Who accused me of truancy? Is there a social worker with him? No, there was not a social worker with him and he wasn’t at our door because of home education. Turns out, our neighborhood and several others were hit by “bandits” (my daughter’s term). The very nice officer wanted me to check our vehicles to see if anything was missing (just some coins and the Mustang’s ash tray…really…who steals an ash tray?!) I find it sadly funny to feel relief the police officer was at my door because we were burglarized. I was so relieved that I burst out laughing in my living room floor after the officer left. Fear is powerful…overwhelming.

The rest of the week was nice. I let the kids go sledding and play in the snow so we are a bit behind in our school work this week. Our homeschool friends came over to sled in the yard and have hot chocolate. We do not get snow worth sledding in around here very often so I let the kids go out to play any time they wanted. Next week we will have temperatures in the sixties so the snow will be gone. I hope they will look back and remember this winter fondly.

Thursday we went to the local humane society to see about adopting a very lovely White Shepherd. I had already asked about meeting her on their Facebook page earlier in the week and they responded with the times they would be open. The kids were so excited and we just loved the sweet and excited dog very much. Then they let us know she was already adopted!!! Oldest was just broken-hearted and burst into sobbing tears…Littlest was crying too and Sparkles wanted to bring all of the animals home (especially the cats). I was (still am) mad and tried not to cry myself. Why let a family play with a dog and then tell us someone else adopted her?! I cancelled school for the rest of the day…due to broken hearts.

Today, we are off to a Valentine’s Day party with one of the local homeschool groups. We made 160 homemade Valentine’s (we made these) to give out and six dozen chocolate chip cookies. We are going to enjoy this party. We’ve had quite a week.

I hope next week’s wrap-up is rather dull and uneventful…