I love homeschooling. I’m a huge advocate of the lifestyle. But when you scope the landscape, there are some glaring problems. For one, it’s lily white in here. I’ve rarely met a black homeschooling family. I know they’re out there. There’s the National Black Home Educators, and Black Homeschoolers Magazine, and there are rumors that the number of black homeschoolers is growing rapidly. But there are no hard numbers, and even less anecdotal evidence in my personal experience. I threw out a query to a homeschool group on Facebook 21,100 strong. I was looking for black homeschooling families of…

Within every culture, you have subcultures, and the subculture of frugality is pervasive within the homeschooling community. This means that although I’m not the most parsimonious person I know, I’m very cheap. And big words make it sound much more attractive. There are a multitude of reasons why homeschoolers tend to live this way. Many families are single income. We have to make half the money go just as far – sometimes farther, because unlike the .94 national average, we tend to have more children. There are also philosophical reasons behind all the scrimping: homeschooling families tend …

Sometimes people have the impression that homeschooling can be a lonely road. But the “road less traveled” comes in particularly handy when you want a relaxing escape. Because we make our own school calendar, that means that when most of the salmon are swimming upstream, we’re lazily floating downriver with an umbrella in our drink. Every year we start school in early-to-mid-August. (The timing is dependent upon how annoying the children have grown over the summer.) Then, when most children are heading back to school in September, we’re leaving for a vacation with a month of school under our …

It’s no secret that I’m not a fashionista. I go about my life just waiting for Stacey and Clinton to jump out from behind a wall and ambush my fashion-sorry self. This is because I know my lack of trending savvy is a sore point with my mother and sister in particular. When this apple fell from the tree, she kept rolling. For me, dressing up is wearing the Aeropostale jeans from Goodwill instead of the Old Navy jeans from Goodwill. At least I have the good sense at Goodwill to look for Gap and Abercrombie, not buy overalls, and avoid mom jeans. I have that much going for me. My husband’s idea …

I’m a big fan of reality. I’m the last person you want in the room when watching a movie. I will go so far as scream at and correct Disney cartoons. “That would NEVER happen! Carpets can’t fly, and even if they could, that particular one is far too thin to hold two people!” It’s a curse or a gift, depending on the circumstance. I believe in homeschooling, it’s a great asset. My kids might not agree. They are privy – or subjected – to a constant stream of lectures concerning “real life.” I have a special scenario for each particular occasion. When my son asks me for help with work that he can …

We just celebrated my son’s birthday. When I say “just” I mean on Sunday. And when I say “birthday” I mean his tenth. He’s one of the 9/11 babies, born on that terrible day, his birthday forever a time of sad reflection. He seems to be adjusting well in spite of all this. 9/11 changed me deeply. I became a mother for the second time, and I did it in an absolute panic. Fortuitously, I went into labor at around 7 a.m. My husband and I drove over the Gold Star Bridge a little after 8 AM. By 8:46, when the first plane hit the tower, we were in our room – me in excruciating pain, my husband his …

Sept. 26, 1985, I was standing in my woodworking class, last period of the day at Ledyard Junior High School. An announcement came over the loudspeaker that caused an eruption of cheers from one end of the building to another: Hurricane Gloria was approaching, and we would not have school the next day. What no one knew was we would not have school for another week. Gloria was an experience I would not soon forget. I’m sure living on the beach creates a frightening scenario during a hurricane, but living in a forest of towering oaks is equally as hairy. My dad stayed home from work that day, …

This time of year holds such polarizing emotions for me. On the one hand, it’s thrilling to dive into new material and skills. On the other hand, I fully realize I’m heading into nine months of wall-to-wall activity with little down time. In a week, I will no longer be able to unload my children daily to the great outdoors. Yes, they’ll spend most afternoons out there, but that doesn’t make up for the frenetic pace of the morning hours. For many moms, September brings some down time. I’ll never know the feeling of walking my child to the bus stop and depositing them into the hands of another …

I hope the analogy of growing a garden to raising children hasn’t become too hackneyed, because I’m going to use it. Whereas homeschooling consumes my fall, winter and most of spring, my garden consumes my summer. Similar to when I was a newer mom, I’m a novice gardener and learn by trial and error. I no longer have books about discipline, pregnancy or brain development. These have been replaced with books about seeds, weeds and preserving the harvest, but I’ll be keeping these books far longer. As in, until I die. For the second time, I attempted to start seedlings indoors in early March, …

You know that annoying mom? The one who brings homemade granola for the after game snack? Or whole wheat cupcakes to a party? Or won’t let her kids drink your Kool Aid? Yeah, that’s me. So I’ll apologize for raining on your parade, but not genuinely. Because I’m not sorry. I’m fanatical about nutrition, and everyone in my world knows it. When I walk into a potluck holding a chocolate cake, my friends ask, “Does that have beets in it?” Before they bite into a muffin, they ask, “What’s really in here?” and I have to fess up that yes, I did add pureed cauliflower. My flourless chocolate torte is…

The air is alive with the smell of spent fireworks, watermelon rinds and drying bathing suits. Sometimes it seems that certain freedoms are as fleeting as these joys. Contrary to what some believe or want, homeschooling is still perfectly legal. There are those who would love to see this right removed, or at least highly regulated. I, of course, don’t believe this is necessary; in my experience, homeschoolers are one of the best self-regulated communities around. Some worry that homeschooling freedoms are abused by parents who withdraw their children from public school only to slack on their …

It was big news two weeks ago when yet another family of the December Griswold accident that killed four teen-agers submitted their intent to bring legal action against the town for “negligence and carelessness.” Some would argue that the fact these troubled young people had skipped school in the past was the school’s problem. And that’s a huge problem. I find it tiresome how schools seem to be blamed for everything. Well, schools, media, culture, Facebook, Lady Gaga, Abercrombie, McDonalds and China – everyone but the parents. We blame schools for attitude problems, teen pregnancy, weight …

Criticism is a hard pill to swallow. For many homeschoolers, it’s a steady diet they are forced to endure more often than your average citizen. My husband and I have been exceedingly blessed to have rarely encountered this unpalatable side dish, which accompanies any non-conforming lifestyle. As to why we’ve avoided much of this, I’m not entirely sure. I tend to carry myself in this one particular area with a great deal of confidence. Yes, folks, I can argue valiantly about the benefits of homeschooling. That alone, I’m sure, makes people think twice before second-guessing our choice. It also…

All men are created equal, but not all are blessed with equal opportunity. This is especially true and tragic in education. Not all schools are equal, and therefore not all students are equipped equally for the future. I see this as a major problem. Others see it as a social experiment. I have no problem with experiments when the subjects aren’t harmed in the process. But the United States education system is an experiment gone way wrong, and I’m suggesting the answer is choice. I suspect I’m not alone. I’m pretty sure the NAACP agrees with me. When I’m siding with the NAACP, it’s a day to be…

Life is full of ironies. For example, I have to force my children out of bed on school days, yet they conveniently wake up at 6 on weekends and in the summer. Or, when I was younger and had nothing to do, I would stay up until the wee hours of the morning, but now that there aren’t enough hours in the day, I’m crawling into bed before 10. Or that I used to teach public school, and none of my children will ever attend one. Life is funny that way. In the summer between teaching sixth and eighth grades, I was in South America on a missions trip with a homeschooling mom who was incredibly …

I firmly believe that everyone has a learning disability. Mine happens to be organization. I am severely challenged in this area, and it was not benefiting our homeschool. In fact, we almost imploded. Normal things that are obvious to normal people are not obvious to me. My oldest son – then 8 – would start his math at around 9 a.m. Instead of giving him a time limit and moving on, I let him work. And work. And work. It was not unusual to have him still laboring over a page of math while I was cooking dinner. Needless to say, this caused much tension and frustration. The day my husband found …

Testing is a really sore subject with me. I know that students throughout our great state had to endure the CAPT this week. So did the teachers for that matter. Testing is like a colonoscopy: no one on either end enjoys it, but we’re told it’s necessary. I have a different take on testing. I don’t think it’s necessary, and I don‘t care who thinks otherwise. I have some credentials in this department (that is, the Dept. of Hating Tests). I taught middle school in Southeast Texas for four years. They could rename that state “Testas,” because as a teacher there, pretty much all you do is teach …