Gabe. At 11 he's already a gentleman. I've lost him behind a held-open door thinking he's coming. A Wendy's double burger with cheese, mustard, pickles, and lettuce will make his day. He could easily stuff down a Wendy's triple, if he could just dislocate his jaw like a python. Gabe will share his last Swedish …
Category: Homeschool Life
Don’t Want to Forget: Garbage Sentences
"See, Mom." Gabe said as he handed me his grammar sentences, "They're not garbagy three-word sentences." "What's that?" I asked. "You know. Like you said before: 'garbagy three-word sentences.' These are definitely not that." I looked at his sentences. They were indeed lovely. Gabe writes sentences every day for several subjects: spelling (when he gets …
The Raw Homeschool Mom, My eBook
One of my goals last summer was to publish an eBook. I did it this summer-- better late than never. Were I not the perfectionist I am, it wouldn't have been all that monumental a task, but I am the queen of revisions. I read and re-read, suddenly hating this or that, spending hours and hours …
My Son: Into The Lion Habitat
Though most homeschool moms won't admit it, we have an unspoken code, a knowing nod, a fierce pride, and some definite do's and don'ts in the secret-circle. Homeschool moms share a marinesque kinship, forged through days of homeschool bootcamp, homeschool bleedout, homeschool hell-on-earth, homeschool soul-ripping, faith-stabbing, self-questioning, sanity-questioning homeschool days where we despaired of getting …
A 5000 Words Writing Assignment I Gave My Students
The assignment for my high school students: Be someone famous and create a diary entry from that person's point of view. Robin Williams' suicide is heavy on my heart. How could a man who brings so much laughter to the world kill himself? They say he left behind a daughter, grown. Her name is Zelda. Zelda, …
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From Your Mom: A Letter to Homeschool Students
Before we embark on another homeschool year, I want to clear up a couple of misunderstandings we had last year. Truth is, some school days I felt like a gladiator. You probably did too. Let's start fresh, and agree on the following... shall we? 1. Mom is not the enemy. Most homeschool students unconsciously operate …
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Smoking The Core
Did you know I'm a principal? It's true, according to the Ohio Department of Education. By way of explanation, there are two ways to legally home educate in Ohio. One of them is to become your own school, so to speak. We mavericks are called 08 schools: non-chartered, non-tax supported schools, which are granted autonomy …
Fountain of Growth: A Milkshake That’s as Good as it is Good4U
Our son, Luke, has shot up faster than Jack's beanstalk. That wouldn't be noteworthy, except Bob & I are short folk. So the soccer moms I know were thinking that perhaps we'd stumbled upon the fountain of growth... I mean, what else could account for such altitudinous stature? Surely not our gene pool. And no, …
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National Dictionary Day
I say this in love: Noah Webster was a total geek. He knew 26 languages. Not letters. Languages. Don’t you find it odd that he knew exactly the same number of languages as letters in the English alphabet? I wonder if it was a personal goal of his to know that many languages. When did …
Car Wars: Driving Through the Dark Side
Rated R for Rant. 7:05. Wake up and drive Katae to Berea Courthouse for her internship. Well, she drives there. I drink my joe. 8:30. Get home. Have 2nd cup of coffee and read Bible, eat breakfast, read emails, yell at kids. 10:00-11:00. Take boys to the orthodontist where we try to get school done. …
KL Griffiths 