Education's Journey

It's been a couple months, and I know I've sent people here to watch our progress. Sorry, it's been quite crazy.
I now have 12 college credits, YEAH!!!!! I'm in the second week of my second English class. Its a tougher one. I'm totally sicked up for my next class, World Religions. I can't wait. I've sort of taken an unschooling approach to my faith. I've always just followed the church I attend, and believe whatever they tell me is true and factually. Sort of relying on others wisdom. Sure questions have raised in my mind, but I pushed them down telling myself this was Satan trying to get in and feed me lies.
I have learned many new things, and feel my faith has grown tremendously in the past 10 months or so. One thing I have felt really lead to share with fellow believers, is the hypocrisy in celebrating Easter. I will provide another entry specifically for this, but I wanted to get it off of my chest while I'm thinking about it. And maybe encourage any of my readers to go unschool yourself on the teachings you have held so dear for so many years. Maybe you could provide some links or added info on this particular topic. Don't hold anything back.
My kids have been doing great. My 7 year old is developing a preschool lesson plan, and is co-teaching with me one day a week. My, almost, 9 year old who struggled so hard with Language and writing, is excelling beyond belief in her Language co-op class. She chose to take this class, and she's getting straight A's(for completed work anyway, there's some lower grades for stuff she hasn't finished, but I don't keep track of that). My little five year old is learning to read, basically on his own. He asks me to spell things, and if certain letters are in a particular word. He's finding rhymes and words that start with the same sound in everyday conversation. It's great! He impressed Dad a couple weeks ago, when he popped off three business names. We were driving an he says, "That's Belle Tire, Hey there's CVS Pharmacy, and Is that Big Boy?" It was great. Sure he's recognizing the symbols, but he knows the words as well.
I've also started writing over at helium.com they pay writers and have a marketplace where publishers come to purchase articles for upcoming publications. My mom referred me, and she's made over $500 in a little over a month. I haven't sold any articles as of yet, but I'm fine tuning my skill. I'd love it if my readers would check out some of my articles and reply here on what you think about them. http://www.helium.com/users/392522
Well, I guess that's all for now. I'll be back soon. Blessings to all.

I recently watched the movie The Perfect Man with Hillary Duff. This is a movie about a teen-aged girl who moves around all the time because her mother runs from her trials. The girl blogs about her life; she shares her woes and her enlightenments. She ends up creating this perfect man for her mother, and weaves a tangled web of lies, just to cheer her mom up and hopefully end up staying in one place. Of course, this backfires on her, and she ends up having to tell her mom the truth. Her life gets a little too personal, so she talks her mom into moving again; only this time for her. Her mother ends up taking her place chatting online, and realizes what a horrible example she's set for her daughter. Mom then decides to stick it out for a change and help her daughter face her own demons.
This movie really hit home with me. If my mom and I got together to write a movie about our lives, we could have easily written this movie. The only difference is, these people figured it out before the daughter grew up, my mom and I are just now figuring it out.
I left home two days after my eighteenth birthday. Why? Because life got tough, I wanted to find the real me, I didn't want to face the "me" I was becoming, and I knew I was possibly pregnant and couldn't face my family and friends with the news. So, I ran away with a carnival. I came home 1 month before the baby was due, then left again 2 months after she was born. When my second child was born, I realized I couldn't keep running. So we moved to my sister's house in Minneapolis. It took a few months to get our own place, and get on our feet, but we did. When the bills got to hard to manage, we moved out of town, to a cheaper apartment.
This is where my gypsy instincts kicked in. We lived there for one year. In that years time we added another child to our dysfunctional family, my husband cheated on me, and we fell behind in bills again. We decided it would be best to move back to Michigan. So in the blink of an eye, I was traveling alone with my three, very young, children. My husband and I were trying to reconcile, but he thought it would be best to stay in Minnesota until he could get his job transferred. Well, three months later I realized that wasn't going to happen. He rarely called, and when he did we fought. He only sent money when I demanded it, and even then it wasn't even enough to pay the rent. And there was still no word on a transfer.
I told him I couldn't do it anymore. He should just stay in Minnesota, and let us start a new life with out him. He was hurt, but really didn't fight for me, so I moved on. Pretty quickly actually. Within two months I had a steady, live-in-boyfriend, and things seemed to be going well. When we got too far behind on our bills, my brother called from Pennsylvania. He had a job for KC and a house for us. Oh, did I mention, we were expecting another child? So within days we were packed and ready to go.
Pennsylvania was beautiful. The house was perched on the top of one of the highest mountains in the county. From our backyard, we could see the mountain lines of West Virginia. KC's job seemed to be going well, we had family, and started going back to church. Three months later, KC got hurt at work. Everything fell apart. He had to take a whole month off from work. Bills piled up. Stress mounted. Family tension rose. He went back to work, only to find out he was getting squeezed out of his position. We couldn't stay any longer, so over night, again, we moved back to Michigan. This time to his parents house.
It took us several months to get on our feet and find a place of our own.....Do you see the pattern? Over the next year KC and my relationship grew beyond my belief. I had never experienced a love so deep and true. Sure we had our problems, I wont lie and tell a fairytale story. We fought, and even thought about taking time off a couple times. But with each struggle, we grew closer; with each trial, we learned to communicate; with each hard time, we worked things out.
Two years ago this coming April, we bought a house together. I had finally planted roots!!! This gypsy found a place to call home. I thought my life of running was over, and I could finally settle and start looking into our future. At least, that was before I watched this movie. Towards the end, the mother was talking to her daughter, trying to help her see why they couldn't move again. She told her that each time you run from your problems, in essence you are running away from yourself.
I looked back over the last few years. Even when I wasn't physically running from my problems, I was still running from me at times. Each time we started to experience struggles in our home-schooling life, I thought of giving up and putting the kids into public school. Each time the bills started piling up, I thought of giving up being home with my kids, and returning to work. Each time KC and I had hard times, I thought of throwing in the towel. Sure I never acted on these, but sometimes it got pretty close.
Over the last few months, things have gotten really tough in a lot of areas. I started working, because I really didn't want to loose the house and it was our only option. I also went back to school. I'm taking all my classes online, so its not as big of a time investment as if I were going to a brick-and-mortar school. And, as I've already noted here, my family has been transitioning to the un-schooling way of life. I say things have gotten tough, but really they have been going rather smoothly. As with any transition, there are up times, as well as down times; I just tend to focus on the down times.
Last week, before I watched the movie, I was in the middle of a really down time. The kids had been bouncing off the walls for days, they had no focus and would not follow direction to save their lives. KC was out of the house working more than usual, and I was swamped with work and school. I was done! This un-schooling obviously wasn't working, my kids were drifting farther and farther away from me, and my sanity was going with them. I emailed my mom with my depression, and asked her if I was doing the right thing. If I should stick this all out and continue on the same path, or if I should re-evaluate and change directions again. Usually mom is supportive of the later. Remember our gypsy roots? But this time she responded with, "If you can find a place in the Bible where it says this life will be easy, show it to me, cuz I haven't found it yet." Well, of course, there is no such scripture. In all actuality you will find the exact opposite. A funny thing about this part of the story, is the day before this I had a bible study, in which we discussed the same concept. We talked about the story Jesus told his disciples about the wide road and the narrow road. We discussed the fact that the wide road is easy to find, and easy to travel, but it only leads to destruction. While the narrow road is cramped and often has many hills and rocks to climb, but it leads to salvation. The narrow road, while being the right road, is the harder one to follow.
I find it both funny and fascinating to see how God works. Little by little, this Gypsy's roots are growing deeper and deeper. Maybe one day I will look down at myself and see something besides a gypsy. What would that be?

Whenever anyone hears of our decision, they always ask this question. I have given knee-jerk, reaction answers. But to truly explain our decision, I have to go back 8 years and explain why we decided to homeschool in the first place.

My brothers and I grew up in an environment, that change rather frequently. Which caused us to change schools almost on a yearly basis. So I had the opportunity to witness and experience the "institution" of education in many different settings. My mother, however, remained consistent in her emphasis on education, and didn't rely on the schools to provide us with all the knowledge we would need for our lives. She thought outside the box, so to speak, when it came to learning. If she had known about unschooling, and had the courage and self-confidence, she would have raised us that way.

By the time my brothers reached middle school, she lost ALL faith in the system, and pulled them out, to teach them from home. I watched how much they grew in this short time. Sure, they were still teen aged, rebellious boys; but they grew in self-confidence, as well as improved many of their "schooly" attributes. I was a Junior in high school at that time, and decided to pull myself out of the system. Mom wasn't prepared to lead me in the direction I planned on going, so I basically taught myself what I thought I needed to know.

I never got a diploma, so at 21, I decided to get my GED. I walked into the testing center, never took any classes to brush up, and passed every test with what would be a B or better; within one week's time. At this time, I already had two young daughters, and I knew the system couldn't possibly offer them what I could.

To cement this in my mind, I watched my sister and all she went through, with her two children in the public school system. Just by being the mom I thought I should be, and loving my children they way I did, by the age of 3 1/2, my oldest daughter(Alexa) was reading, writing, adding and subtracting, and navigating herself on the computer and Internet. It was then, I decided I would not allow any institution to hold my children back from their full potential.

Over the next 4 years, gradually, I lost that initial instinct I had. As Alexa approached the age most kids start attending school, my mind became weighed down with overwhelming thoughts. I worried about how much time she spent "doing school", and the subjects she was learning, her grades, and where she stood alongside her peers. Her younger sister (Taylor) was also struggling in so many areas. "School time" became an overwhelming topic in our house, and was almost always accompanied with some sort of conflict. We also added two more children to our family in that time, and I started to re-evaluate why I began homeschooling in the first place.

During the spring of 2007, I decided to take our first ever summer break. We would do NOTHING that we thought to be "schooly". I decided to do this after reading, "Just Enough Light for The Step I'm On", by Stormie Omartian. In it, she wrote about goals and dreams, and surrendering EVERYTHING to God. While in the process of surrendering your hopes, plans, and dreams, she suggested you submit yourself to the guidance of our Lord. Also, that you stop pursuing those dreams during the time, and not focus on them at all.

So while I submitted myself, and my children to God's care and wisdom, we took a break from forced learning. Over the summer I noticed that little light coming from my kids. They often chose learning type things to do over play type things. They started to love life, each other, and learning. They chose to read, write, draw, and ask questions on a regular basis. I started to look around on the Internet, into different ways to homeschool, different teaching philosophies, and learning styles. I came across an article on unschooling. It sounded exactly like what I had done with Alexa.

Over the next couple of months, I joined a few online support groups. I asked all the questions I could think of, and really put myself(or rather ourselves) out there, for people to get to know us. It didn't take me long to hear God's small voice saying, "You're home, this is where you belong." So now we are in the process of deschooling. I plan on putting on here, a link list to all the wonderful places that have helped(or will help) us throughout our journey.

Our "unschooling" lives aren't that much different than they were before. I suppose the biggest difference is me spending time just being with my kids, talking to them, listening to them, answering and asking them questions, playing with them, and just plain enjoying them. Before our time was spent with me disciplining, scolding, lecturing, and enforcing them to do their assignments. Not to mention their complaining, and trying to get out of things. Our home is much more peaceful now, and I am more open to see all the growth my children experience everyday. I will share some these moments with you on another day(s).

This is the first time I've ever written a blog. With me starting school this past year, and all the changes our family has made regaurding school, I thought this would be as good a time as any to get my feet wet. My intentions here, are simply to put my thoughts elsewhere. Maybe someone out there will benefit from reading my thoughts, maybe not. It really doesn't matter all that much to me.
My children are all at wonderful unique stages in their journeys.
My oldest is only 8. Alexa has an understanding that learning takes place in every and all formats. She has dreams for her future, and knows there will be some tough things to learn in order to make those dreams become a reality. She also knows that she doesn't have to stop dreaming...ever, but she can change her goals at any time.
My second is 7. Taylor loves being a kid. We've had some trials to overcome, but with each one-we grew closer. She is coming to love herself for the person God has created her to be. She too, has dreams for her future, although they can easily change from day to day...and she knows that's ok.
My third will be 5 in a week and a half. Allen is 100% boy, and couldn't be happier being that. Sure he allows his sisters to convince him to do some pretty un-boyish things(painted toes once). But that just shows his love for his sisters. He dreams of being a man someday, and explores what it is that "men" do. He also knows he's not limited to these menly jobs, but can be anyone he wants to be.
My fourth(and littlest) is 3. Kassy loves being the "baby", although she doesn't want anyone outside the family to call her that. She enjoys her time with Dad...and mom too, and really doesn't like to share it. She dreams too, of becoming "big" some day. That big could mean severl different things, depending on the day. But it's fun to watch her dream anyway.
I, myself, have just begun the journey into adult education. I thought it was time for me to "do something", not that I have been sitting around on my duff for the past 8 years. I'm "doing" my school through a distance course. In 3 years I will have a Bachelor's in the Arts of Social Sciences with a concentration in elementary education. That means for me, a teaching degree, with the background of human development.
What do I plan on using this for you ask? Well, its a big dream, but it's my dream. I would like to open an after-during school program in my area. I'm working on opening a daycare right now. With this program in place, our community will finally have a place for home/public/private-schoolers to get together. Our homeschooling parents that have to work will have a daycare that meets their needs. Our public and private schoolers will have an after school program that meets their needs. In the end, my goal is to provide an environment for these kids to be able to form friendships and networks, that otherwise would not be possible.
So that's who we are, and where we're coming from at this point in our journey. Thank you for taking the time to find out. Check back periodically for updates on the kids, or my own goals and milestones along the way.