The VP at the local elementary school was arrested (sp?) for using excessive force to paddle a 6yo student. He's still at work!!! The principle and supt. say it met the school guidelines for corporal punishment. In my mind a school shouldn't have corporal punishment. It's up to the parent to punish. I'm not an advocate of spanking but whatever discipline my child recieves had better be from me or his father and no one else.

Another article said the child did have ADD but caused no problems in the past. It said the child refused to sit down, write in his journal and colored on a chair with a crayon. The kid was 6, for goodness sake! Apparently the child's mother approved of the paddling. The other choices were being sent home or suspension. They are now suspending 6 year olds (???!!!)

Yet another reason I homeschool

// posted by Admin @ 1/29/2004 09:48:00 PM

I had a wonderful (read sarcastic) drive through downtown today and thought I was going to have an accident at a few points, but it wasn't until I was on my way home that it really happend. 2 cars were coming down the road, I was trying to turn left. I swear both cars were in the turning lane but no sooner did I turn than a truck almost hit me! We both slammed on brakes then I went on. Luckily no one was behind me at the time. I swear he was NOT in the straight lane, he was in the turning lane. Otherwise I wouldn't have gone.

Yesterday was pretty good. We get through math and have a fight, though. Why do we do that? And William still didn't want to write anything. I don't know how to get him to write something. Anything that needs to come out of his head just isn't working. He needs hints, he needs me to write the first sentence, and on and on.

Multiplication is going well. We got through the 4s yesterday. He said it's fun, he wants to keep going. The trick will be when we start mixing the problems up, and he can't add the number anymore. But that's where we're starting. I know he needs to memorize them and he will. We're just taking it slowly. I would like to keep reviewing and then be ready for division by mid February. He is also really enjoying the white board. He drew another picture of a grandfather clock on it.

Today is his slow day. He has a few things to read on his own while I'm at work and then he has to watch some science stuff I taped off Discovery Channel on the TiVo. I told him that he needs to watch that *before* Xena because it needs to be deleted today or other things won't record. I can say he's not watching cartoons 24/7 anymore since I have the TiVo recording and you can't watch live TV while it's taping but you can watch something you've taped. I am really enjoying it.

Okay, when you're looking for a job don't barge into the office and say "Got anything open right now?" and then start asking questions for your unemployment form. Really bad impression.

It's about time this station was fined! The news story is here.

Unfortunately it's not for the DJ I wish it was on. I've never heard this particular DJ but I've heard this one - MJ Morning Show - and I cannot believe the stuff he's allowed to put on the air. I won't repeat it here. He's not like Howard Stern - I'm sure we've heard about him - but he's close enough to the edge to not like him. And he's on the mornings on my favorite station, so I've decided to listen to a different station in the mornings and then my favorite in the afternoon. Or maybe I need to find some books on tape on listen to them instead.

Return of the King had better get best picture. I think many people feel that way. This was the absolutely best trilogy I have ever seen. The only movie I'd seen was the cartoon version of The Hobbit and I didn't like it, but please, Peter Jackson, make the prequel version! I will watch it. If you have the DVD of The Two Towers be sure to watch Sean Astin's short film that is there as well. This group really became a family during the time in New Zealand.

For those that say the movie is too violent, it's "fantasy" and fantasy doesn't have a place in Christianity I want to remind you that Tolkien was a Christian and this is a very good allegory, yes, even the movie. I plan to read the books with my son next year. He's 10 now and he's seen all the movies. Yes, parts of the movie was violent. The world is violent, Satan is violent, sin is violent. It's knowing how to fight that sin and Satan that we receive our reward.

Here are some sites I found regarding the books and the movies and how they relate to Christianity:

The Passion According to Tolkien
JRR Tolkien - Man Behind the Myth
Who is Tolkien?

When the movie ended I cried and everyone in the theater applauded. This was a week and a half after the opening and the theater was PACKED! See these movies, take at least your older kids, and remember that just because something is fantasy doesn't mean your child will run out and get involved in the occult. It's make believe, imagination, and that's something beautiful that God gave to all of us.

After I got home from work and my CLEP test - which I failed by one point : ( - William and I did some school stuff. First we started with telling time. I drew different clock faces and we practiced. He said he had a hard time with my grandmother's clock. It has no numbers, just birds. I told him that if he knew where the numbers were he could understand the birds stood for the different numbers. Then he asked about a grandfather clock and the clock tower at my college. He then drew pictures on the white board of both items. I thought that was neat : ) He said he can tell time better now and understands what I mean when I say "15 till" or "10 till".

After that we used the white board to try some skip counting and multiplication. I drew a number line from 0-10 and circled the 2s. Then we did some grouping up to 2x5. He already knows the 0 and 1 rules. I have some flash cards but they didn't work out for today. We also practiced a little with showing the cumulative?? property, how the same numbers the opposite way equal the same thing. We have a lot of multiplication work to do. I have some manipulatives on the way. I haven't been able to buy the entire Math U See, the rest will have to wait for February. I did get him the Jumpstart 2nd grade. He's actually in 3rd, but he's been playing first grade for so long I figured the 2nd grade would get into more difficult things as well. The First Grade CD goes into fractions, measurements, and addition with carrying. I understand the 2nd grade has a music program as well and introduces skip counting.

Then it was time for karate. After karate we ate dinner and watched some of the shows we TiVo'd while another movie was recording. I really love my new TiVo : )

I know it's midnight and I need to be in bed. Scott just left for work. We had to get my car jumpstarted. I left the lights on after getting home from work and didn't realize it until we had to leave for karate. I took Scott's car to karate class. He has my car and I'll take his in the morning.

Here is a link to the death test.

Mark your calendar or Palm V. You can expect to die on:

February 11, 2041
at the age of 69 years old.

On that date you will most likely die from:
Cancer (20%)
Suicide (18%)
Heart Attack (13%)
Homicide (11%)
Alien Abduction (11%)
Contagious Disease (8%)
Loneliness (6%)

Disclaimer: We, despite being proficient with the human anatomy, are not doctors. Keep that in mind before calling your lawyer as you're clutching your left arm moaning "Damn you, Spark, Damn YOU!" on February 11, 2041, as you slip silently into the night.

I'm happy to know that I'm not annoying : )


You're not annoying at all! In fact, you are
probably a beloved Internet personality,
stalked by scores upon scores of half-crazy
teenagers who worship you!


Yay!


How Annoying Are You In Your Online Diary?
brought to you by Quizilla

At this moment, what is your favorite...

1. ...song?
Not really sure. Anything from 1985 - 1989.

2. ...food?
Italian, especially anything Alfredo

3. ...tv show?
CSI:LV. Are there other TV shows on right now?

4. ...scent?
Allergic to perfume : ( I like roses, though.

5. ...quote?
Hebrews 11:6

We went to see Timeline last night at the dollar theater. I'll try not to do any spoilers if anyone wants to see it, but here are my observations.

The plot is a group of archaeologists go back in time to rescue their professor who has been trapped in the year 1357. His son is in the group of archaeologists as he is in love with one of them. They find out the company that has been funding his dig accidently discovered a wormhole that put them in this particular place. It's during the war between France and England.

Okay, I won't say anymore about the plot, I'll just skip to my "review". William mentioned he wanted to review restaurants so maybe I'll let him write one too if he wants to do movies.

IMO, the beginning was a bit rushed and some of the lines were a bit silly and really didn't need to be there. Once the group was in the past the action really started and didn't really stop. I heard in the book the group was gone for 2 weeks - the movie shortened it to 6 hours, which is why it was pretty rushed. There was some continuity stuff, like one character knowing something he couldn't have known since he wasn't there when it happened. It seemed like they tried really hard to explain everything. Part of the CGI at the beginning looked kind of bad, you could tell it was CGI in the background.

Okay, that's my review. I'll see if William wants to write one as well and post it later.

I have a new schedule with the schooling, I need to get it updated on our website.

With my new job I'm working half days MWF and full days T/Th. As a consequence of this Scott and William don't always do school if I'm not there. They run off to shop or do whatever. So we have decided that MWF will be fuller days and T/Th will be some independent stuff in the morning and the afternoon has to be productive free time. That can include watching the educational stuff I taped on TiVo, playing the computer games like JumpStart or Arthur, reading his free reading book, or any other project except watching Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon. I like those channels just fine, but he can't watch them all day. There are no cartoons allowed until after 2pm.

I told him if we didn't do this he would have to school on Saturday when I was home. He doesn't want to do that so he agreed to double up on days I was home in the afternoons.

For his free reading book he's reading a Wishbone copy of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. So far he's seen a play and a movie. After he's done with this book we're going to read the real story as a read aloud. I don't think I've ever read the real story myself. He wants to see the differences in the different versions of the story. This was all his idea, BTW : )

Saturday was party day. William's birthday was actually Monday but due to work schedules and such we had the party on Saturday. I think everyone had a good time. He saw friends he hasn't seen in a while and they all got to play outside. I'm glad the weather was good since it hasn't been since Saturday. One of the girls even helped my mom feed the horses later that afternoon. I'm glad she's able to see some good in some other homeschooled kids.

We had a Spongebob party. I burned a CD with some of the songs to use for the party, we played "Jellyfishing" which was catching balloons with nets, then the kids wanted to pop the balloons. Then we did a limbo with the broomstick and they had fun with that. After cake (Spongebob shaped chocolate cake), ice cream and presents they wanted to go back outside. They raced to the fence, played tag and played with the football thing William got as a gift.

William bought a Spiderman web blaster with his birthday money. He's been wanting one for over a year.

I cannot believe how tall he is and how some of the other kids that attended looked. Some he hadn't seen in a while since they attended the private school he used to attend. I can't believe that some of the kids are about his age as well and in 3 years we'll have teenagers!

One of the girls told her mom she loved William - as a friend - she clarified, but I know that she and William have had a crush on each other for a long time. He still says he doesn't like girls, just likes them as friends, but I know that will change soon enough. I don't know how I feel about that just yet.

Yesterdays work consisted of copywork (poetry), music (Tchiachovsky CD), and math (counting money). The counting money happened in the real world, counting change to cash in at the bank, figuring out what we could buy at McDonald's with $5 and still have money for a phone line coupler at the discount store, and was a $3 Yu-Gi-Oh card in Japanese really worth the money? I guess to William it was. Hey, it was his money and he was happy. I'm glad that counting money has finally clicked with him. He didn't even realize he was adding in his head : ) We also did an *algebra* problem. He knew he needed $1.00 and he had .60, so I asked him what + .60 = $1.00? We broke it down to 6+?=10? I had to guide him by asking him to take the answer and subtract what he already knew, and he got the answer of 4. Then he got it - .60 + .40 = $1.00, so he needed .40 more cents. He scrounged around his room and jeans pockets and came up with the money. I love it when things click this way : )

Now to post on a recent dinner out with Scott. Since my last dinner out at the *local unnamed place* has such bad service and wait time I have to report on another place that was excellent! And I will call it by name.

We went to Outback Steakhouse in Columbus, GA. We had been trying to go for a while but they are always packed. We figured it's a Thursday night, shouldn't be too bad. We did have a short wait of about 15 min. We got to the table and we had a fabulous waitress named Bessie. She wasn't a pest of herself, but we never ran out of tea, our food came out quickly and hot, she even took it to the back and put it in the to-go boxes and bagged it in the Outback Takeaway bags for us. And she got a good tip. Let that be a lesson - good service = good tip. Bad service = no tip or small tip.

I know I'll probably get creamed on that as waitstaff says a tip is supposed to be part of their salary. I'm not the one that decided they needed to be paid less than minimum wage. To me a tip should still stand for good service and that's that. I will tip a minimum if service is okay or mediocre, but I tip excellent if you go above and beyond. Absolutely bad service, like the local place, no tip.

And yes, I plan to contact Outback and tell them to keep this girl and have her train everyone else : )

If you've checked out my website you see that we are determined to get debt free. We have $7K to go, just a small school loan. What I hate is that Walmart and other retailers got together and sued Visa / Mastercard because they were being required to accept debit cards. Visa / Mastercard was charging more money from the merchants to accept the cards, probably because they aren't getting any of that 18% interest from me : ) Anyway, now a lot of places aren't accepting debit cards at all. If it's not that problem, the problem is the way the address verification is set up. Since I don't have a regular Visa / Mastercard they say they cannot verify my card as I don't have a *billing* address. I was under the impression that anything with the Mastercard / Visa logo should be accepted anywhere and that is getting to not be the case anymore. Anyone else that wants to stay out of debt and refuses to use credit cards need to let retailers know we are here and we want that debit card alternative.

The main people I'm having a problem with now are Dish Network and TiVo. I guess they don't want my business. But if I don't get the TiVo service I know have a paperweight (DVR) on my entertainment center that I cannot use. I guess it may be time to pitch a nice southern fit to TiVo and see if I can get them to offer other payment options. Anyone willing to join in?

Apparently I need to change the schedule to a 3 day a week schedule or maybe school on weekends as well since when Scott and William are home together nothing seems to get done. William did listen to Tchiachovsky yesterday, though, while they drove to Fairburn for Scott to buy work supplies.

William's analysis - he likes Nutcracker Suite better than Symphony 6. He was familiar with the story as some cartoons he watched did a small version of the ballet. I asked him what the music was like compared to Symphony 6. He said Nutcracker went from angry to happy to sad. I like that he got that with the emotions of the music. I asked him if he would like to see a video of the ballet and - get this! - he said he would rather get tickets to see it in person! Wow! So I guess next Christmas I'll be finding tickets to Nutcracker suite.

So far today he said he has copywork done and that's all. I told him work needed to be completed today or no park day.

From the site Friday Five

1. What does it say in the signature line of your emails?
Routon Family Homepage - Updated January 2004
http://webpages.charter.net/crouton
Routon Homeschool Blog - where school meets life
http://routonhomeschool.blogspot.com

2. Did you have a senior quote in your high school yearbook? What was it? If you haven't graduated yet, what would you like your quote to be?
Cannot remember, it's been 15 years. Probably "you're a really nice person and I wish you the best".

3. If you had vanity plates on your car, what would they read? If you already have them, what do they say?
If I had them, they would say PMS247

4. Have you received any gifts with messages engraved upon them? What did the inscription say?
No, I haven't, but I saw a really lovely silver jewelry box in Florida that I would like as a gift. The store was able to engrave it.

5. What would you like your epitaph to be?
"Wife, mother, teacher, scholar, and beautiful woman of God"

I don't know if this was really me in high school, but it's me now : )





Take the What High School
Stereotype Are You? quiz.

Anyone else following the Scott Peterson trial? I guess I am one that has convicted him on circumstancial evididence. Everything is just too strange and fits too well. It may have been an accident - maybe Lacy found out about his infedility and they had an argument, she fell and hit her head and he panicked. Only he knows for sure. But what man goes fishing on Christmas when his wife is 8 months pregnant? Nothing really makes sense in this case. I don't buy for a second that cult theory. That sounds like he's been reading the Fatal Vision / Fatal Justice story.

I also hope that this case will help the law regarding fetal deaths. Isn't it strange that a pregnant woman who wants to keep her child is said to have lost her child in an attack or accident, but if that woman wants an abortion then it's not a child? This law won't hurt Roe v. Wade (unfortunately), but it will make the punishment for violent acts against women and children become even more severe.

I found another neat positive parenting site. As I said before I never really set out with a plan for parenting. I just knew I didn't want to do a lot of the things my parents did with me and my brothers. Here is the site.

As William is 10 today I feel he's entering into that *tween* stage and I want to be sure to keep our good relationship so we still have that relationship when he reaches his teenage years. He keeps saying he doesn't want to be a teenager, he wants to stay young. He said teens talk bad to their parents, they sneak out, they lie and do the wrong things. I told him for one thing that not all teenagers do that and he can be a different teenager. He doesn't have to do any of those things. I know getting older can be scary and I hope I can help him with the changes. I try to remember what it was like. At least he won't have to go through the high school stuff I dealt with. Why is that supposed to build character? Is not trusting yourself and putting yourself down most of your life supposed to be helpful, because that is what the parenting model and school life ended up doing to me.

Okay, here is my gushy post : )

Ten years ago in Colorado Springs, CO, right around this time I was calling my midwife to let her know my contractions were about a minute apart. She was at the apartment around 8:30. By 1pm I had delivered my son. My first words to him were, "Hello, William." As I held him I counted his little fingers and toes and asked him to open his eyes so I could see their color. I knew I wanted him to have his Dad's deep brown eyes. He obliged me and they were exactly the color I knew they would be. That was a very long but happy day, but I remember it like it was yesterday.

Today he's still got those deep brown eyes, he enjoys playing Gameboy, watching cartoons and reading comic books, but all I have to do is close my eyes and he's that tiny baby that fell asleep on my chest that first day. William was a promise to me a long time ago, and on today, his birthday, I want to thank the Lord for keeping his promise despite my unworthiness and mistakes. For the next year I promise to understand more, listen better, educate the best I can, and discipline with love. Happy 10th birthday to William.

Okay, here is a post about homeschooling : ) I've had a problem getting into blogger for some reason so I had to run a lot of scans, I took Kazaa off the computer and now it's working correctly.

Last week wasn't completed in full but was okay. William listened to the Tchaickovsky symphony assigned and said he didn't like it. I thought it was very good. I'm trying to inject some culture into the family, something besides Rock 103, 80s music and the Simpsons. I'm sure it will grow on us.

William said he's thinking of being a police officer one day. Whatever he wants to do, I'll support it. I think he'll do well no matter what he decides to do, even though his interest is in science right now.

Nothing really exciting going on with our homeschooling, just going day to day. Today is Sunday so I'll be doing my planning for next week and gathering the information he'll need over the week. We're still working on multiplication and thanks to the AO online list I have a lot of ideas to try.

I found some websites too on the State of GA BOE site. They have full lesson plans!

Grade 4 Language Arts
Grade 4 Math

Check your state's BOE site and you may find some interesting information to use in your homeschool.

I really hate it when people make assumptions. We were borrowing a car from my parents while our cars were having repairs made. My mom asked me to take one of her dogs to the vet. My dh had the borrowed car and I had his car as his was finished and mine wasn't. I took the dog to the vet in his car. When my father found out that I was taking the dog to the vet he immediately jumped to the conclusion that I took her in his car. I called him last night to let him know that I used our car to take the dog and he should check with me before assuming something. My mom said he was mad at everyone yesterday and it was just something else for him to complain about, but he needs to get a grip. Whenever we borrow something it's returned with gas and clean and we've never done anything to it. I can imagine if I'd had an accident in the car. His first thought wouldn't be "Is my daughter okay", it would be "How's the car?"

He doesn't have to worry about us borrowing the car ever again. I'll just have to make other arrangements for work or we'll have to rent a car if the repairs will take a week or longer.

We went out to a local restauarant for dinner last night. It was my brother's birthday so almost my entire family was there. We got there just before 8pm - we got our dinner around 10. That wasn't the worst of it.

When you work with the public you may feel frustrated and you may get angry, but you do not verbalize those feelings. Our waitress' first words to us were, "Well, I guess I'm your waitress since no one else is coming over here." She also said that they were really busy and didn't expect to be. Hello! It's a Saturday night! Isn't that a usually busy night?

Then when we ordered she got my drink wrong and when we ordered our food she got our orders wrong. I ordered my hamburger steak and she said, "Now, do you want the gravy on that, because some people will tell me they didn't want the gravy when I bring it out but they didn't tell me that when they ordered." Now, I'm perfectly sure that happens, but if I didn't want the gravy I would have said no gravy.

She went back over orders and didn't mention William's cheese sticks. When I reminded her she assured me she had it down. Well, they didn't come, it was an hour, and then she said that the cook claimed it wasn't on the order sheet. When they did come they were so soggy he couldn't eat them.

Her entire attitude was "you're bothering me". The table in front of us was waiting even longer for their food and when they asked to see a manager she walked away after making a huffing noise.

For the most part we enjoyed being together and talking and William did well but he did start to lose patience. I don't think we'll be going to that restaurant again.

If you look over on the links section I'm trying to add a link to more homeschooling blogs. However, I'm having a hard time getting it to line up correctly. If anyone wants to check the source and tell me what needs to be changed let me know! The archives link is at the very bottom of the page now.

I have been outspoken about this law for a long time now and I still believe it needs to be changed. We have a chance! The bill is in the GA House Committee of Motor Vehicles. You can read the bill here.
You can see the house committee members here. I am writing to all of them. You can find out your local representative here. I urge you to write to your representative as well and let them know that you support this bill. You can read more about my feelings on this subject at my homepage. The link is on the right of the blog.

If we don't let our representatives know that citizens of Georgia disagree with this law, a law that has been allowed to continue since 1996, no one will ever do anything. We only have 40 days - we need to get moving!

Today was fine, slow at work, and I was getting some studying done for the Natural Science CLEP test I'm taking in a week and a half. They let me leave at 3:30 but I barely made it from the parking lot. Scott's tire was flat - off the rim. I have no idea what happened. I crossed a busy 4 lane - on a curve - to go back to the office and called my dad's wrecker service. They had someone on the way to get me by 4:15 and picked up at 5. The car is at the tire place.

This is just great. Now we have 2 cars that need tires, a water heater that won't stay hot, a stove that won't work and wiring that needs to be redone. I have housework I need to be doing but I'm taking a time out for a little while. I was so hungry I decided to eat supper before cleaning. Thank goodness for crockpots! Without a stove we've been using ours non-stop. Tonight it was taco meat simmering away, waiting on me.

On the homeschool front, I've been trying to get William a multiplication table but I can't find one like what I had when I was in school, so I'm doing my best to go over it with him. It's hard to teach multiplication. I was never "taught" the way the education sites have it spelled out, we just had to remember the times tables and recite them. I know that's not the best way to do it but I don't know another way. I need to go over what he did today, I don't think he finished the sheet.

5 more minutes to housework time, but I'm stopping at 8:45.

Today was so ... awesome in the only word I can come up with. I am psyched to actually be working so close to my field. Yes, I know I'm a secretary, but I know I will actually be learning what it's like to actually work in financial planning. The company specializes in financial planning for seniors so it's not exactly what I want to get into, but it's a start and I can learn a lot. The partners - there are only 2 people there - have been in this business for over 30 years.

On the homeschooling front William did well following his list. He did some things at MawMaw's house then finished with his dad this afternoon. I still need to gather some supplies for him, like a multiplication table, but otherwise he did well.

I'll be working 1/2 days Mon, Wed, & Fri so I'll be home to go over his work and do housework then, if I'm not still working for Mama. This week I'm working at the store on Wednesday afternoon.

I'm going to try and work on my template and see about getting some links on the side, see if I can get it to work. I feel like playing this evening.

William said to me last night when I asked him to bring me the KoolAid from the fridge, "I'm not your lackey, you know." Not slave, not maid, but lackey? I asked where he learned the word and he told me on the Fairly Odd Parents. I wish he'd mentioned a book instead, but I guess any type of vocabulary is good.

We also did some school today. William bought a Harry Potter staionery set at Dollar General and wanted to write letters. I got out the language book for him to reference and we went over how to address an envelope, write a greeting, a body and a closing. Then we went to the post office, bought a stamp and mailed the letter. He's writing one to his Granny and his Nana.

I start my job tomorrow and William will be doing some schooling at his great grandma's next door. I hope everything works out okay (fingers crossed).

I am not a psychic but there are some things I want to make predictions about as I think about these things pretty often.

First, Ross and Rachel will be together when Friends ends. Even if they break up later we don't have to know about it : )

Piper and Leo on Charmed will also be together by the time this season ends. Why they had to break up is beyond me.

Harry Potter will grow up, graduate Hogwarts, and will be offered the job of Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher. He will be the only one to stay in the position more than a year. Also, Sirius is alive, just in another dimension maybe. And Ron will marry Hermione.

Just a few thoughts rattling around in my head.

I had the strangest dream last night. You can read it here. Look for "driving without a car and more" posted by crouton. This is a great site, BTW, lots of dream definitions and people that can help discern dreams.

The first week of after holiday homeschooling went well. Here's hoping next week when I start my new job that it will continue to go as well. We're starting multiplication in math as well, so patience is required!

I've found myelf looking up some strange things at times online, including the history of forensic science. I thought I'd share a few of the links from my favorites list.

Freeware Palm - There is shareware for almost everything, and this is where I got some stuff for my palm pilot.

JimWorld Website Templates - This is a really cool site. I found out that websites in Word and Publisher all added extra HTML that made my site really huge and it used up a lot of room on my personal site's space. This offers some really good, basic templates and tutorials to show you how to re-work your site using HTML. It's easy, trust me : )

Free-Education online - This site links to other information sites to help learn various topics. I'm using it to study for CLEP tests for college.

Friends Episode Guide - I am a nut for Friends and this site lists summaries of each episode and some trivia.

Heather's Hiking Hiatus - This is part of the site of an unchsooled girl named Heather. She hiked from Key West to Virginia for charity and plans to do it again soon. There is a lot of information about Heather's home, unschooling through college, and other stuff.

Ambleside Online Curriculum - This is a free curriculum based on Charlotte Mason's methods.

Worldbook Scope and Sequence - This links to the 2nd grade scope and sequence but you can click to any other grade from the table on the left. This is good to check if you're trying to design your own curriculum or supplement something you already have.

Cartoon Network - This is my son's favorite site. There are lots of free games on here. Once they are loaded you can play them offline but you need to reconnect to change games.

While checking email today I came upon an interesting link to John Taylor Gatto's speech when he won the Teacher of the Year Award. It was posted on the natural child website. I found an article there on attachment parenting

I have never labled anything I really do as a parent, but this article spoke to me. When my husband and I decided to have a child I knew how I wanted him raised. I wanted him to know without a doubt he was loved. I wanted him to never fear me or his dad or want to leave home. These were the most important things to me, as they were always things I thought about when I lived at home. I moved out of my parent's home the day I graduated high school. I lived on my own, then with a friend, then with my grandparents, but I never returned to my parent's home to live for any amount of time. Even when my husband spent a month in Germany arranging for me to fly over I stayed with my grandparents. It's not that I don't love my parents - I do. I even worked with my mom for over a year and I will probably work there maybe once a week. But to this day I don't like being at my parent's home. I don't like the aruguing and bickering between my dad and brothers. I don't like the way my mom is treated or how she puts up with it. I supposed I should be happy that they are still married in this age of divorce, but there were many times I wished she would leave my dad. It was his anger that I was mostly scared of passing along to my child.

My son will be 10 soon. He knows he's loved. He would rather be at his home than any other place on earth. We go to dinners together, we see movies together, we read books together, we have school together, and we talk together. We are the three muskeeteers, my husband, son and I. I didn't really set out to parent this way. I just had those two things in my head. Everyone says "I'll never do this to my child!" and end up doing those things anyway. I have even found myself doing some of those things because I realized that my parents were not wrong about everything.

I didn't start college until I was 28 because of fear. I had been told I couldn't accomplish my dreams. My son will never hear that. This past semester I struggled over a paper for theater. When I got my grade my teacher wanted to use it as an example paper for future classes to read. The fact that this happened has now encouraged me to go for a minor in English. I really want to do creative writing but it's not offered. I want to publish a book one day. I may never tell my parents about it, even if I do, but then I may because for some reason I still want them to be proud of me.

I am very different than my family. I wasn't homeschooled. I was 26 before I heard my father say he loved me. Parent teacher nights and field days were a "problem" for them to attend. We were made to feel in the way. When my parents bought and remodeled a house we were told we couldn't go over because we were in the way. We were left home alone some nights until after 10 as my parents went to supper together. I was responsible for getting my younger brothers ready for school in the morning and doing housework when I got home. My writing wasn't encouraged and was at times frowned upon. I never felt as though I could accomplish anything. If it wasn't for the support from my husband and my son I doubt I would have ever entered college.

Anyway, I guess I now have a label for my parenting style. The main things I wanted my son to know he knows and will continue to know. I treat him as a person and we, as a family, are usually always together. This is how I like my life, as different as it may seem to some, including my family, but this is how I wish my family had been.

I got the dictations page on the website. You can see it at Narration Page.

The only one up now is on Pocahontas. We'll add more as time goes on. We may add one when we finish Harry Potter 4. I'll put it in the title bar, just in case no one wants a spoiler, and we'll try to be non-specific, at least in the posting.

Today is a family day. It's good to have Scott home during the day when we can all be together. He's helping William with his reading workbook now. We have some house stuff to do, then errands to run. William is getting read for a birthday! We're planning a Yu-Gi-Oh party and we're having a hard time finding the supplies. We have yellow / blue streamers and plates already. We just need the decorations now.

It's cold in the house so I'm having to warm my hands up after almost every sentence. Oh, the joys of living in an old house! Our heating system can't seem to keep up with the weather. I was hoping it would stay warm, but we seem to have fallen into a cold snap. I'm pretty cold natured and it's usually mild here, but I seem to be constantly freezing now.

As it's almost 11 I guess I need sign off and do some mom stuff now.

It's my last day working for my family. In some ways I'll miss it. A lot of this store was mine, I helped create it. However it's time to move on. If I want to work in financial planning I can't stay in retail all my life. My new job starts Monday.

We finished the Pocahontas history book today. I found some information online about her as well as a genealogy report and myths about her written by one of her descendents. William seemed to be interested in that. We'll see.

Scott is off tonight so it's family night. I plan to watch Smallville since I haven't watched all season due to college on Wednesday nights. Then we're going to watch Bulletproof Monk and if time I want to watch some of my CSI DVDs from Season 1. Whoever came up with the idea to put TV shows on VHS and DVD had a good idea.

I'll be posting William's dictation / narration about Pocahontas to our homeschool page soon. I'll post a link when done.

Life isn't fair... Who came up with that one? I agree with my neice, life should be fair. But just because she thinks so, or I think so, or someone else thinks so doesn't necessarily make it so. Life is full of disappointments and always will be. But isn't life wonderful? Isn't it grand to have sunrises and sunsets and people around you who love you? Isn't it wonderful to have friends and a child next to you, reading a book with a cat curled on your lap and a dog at your feet? There isn't a point in whining about why life isn't fair when there is so much goodness here to be joyful about.

Whenever my neice goes off on one of her rants I joke about her being on a soap opera one day. As exasperating as she can be I still love her and can't imagine a day or a week without seeing her or hearing one of her speeches. She will be an actress or maybe a politician : )

Who says life should be fair? I asked her. I do, she replied. Yes, it should be fair, I agree. But it's not, and I'm sorry, because there will be a lot of hurt and pain while growing up in the world. But it's a wonderful and glorius ride : )

If there is anything I could tell a beginning homeschooler it's this - don't plan so much. I love to plan. I love to make all these wonderful plans, but do they happen? Sometimes. More often than not they don't. I envisioned my son sitting at a desk, doing math problems with ease, reading the same books I read when I was his age and happily discussing his lessons and loving homeschooling. The truth was it was a very trying first few months. He was still decompressing from the private school he had attended. Everything was "Ms. Laurie didn't make us do that." It's better now since that is further behind him now, but it was a struggle to have him do his work, especially when I "planned" for him to read 15-20 pages in a book, do about 4 or 5 math pages and so on. Everything the school officials told me about him lagging behind the others was true. Not academically, but time wise. While everyone else finished their papers he was still sitting at the desk, pencil tapping on the forehead. He did the same to me.

Thankfully that doesn't happen as often anymore. Yes, there are still times we struggle, but we've both had to come to many compromises. Yes, math does have to be done daily, but not 4 pages worth, maybe not even the entire page. If he already knows the process and can do 5 problems why do 20? I know this flies in the logic of most school systems as they have the kids doing busy work daily. They may say it's for practice. Why not have him practice 5 problems, get the sequence needed, then use it in real life at the grocery store by adding up 2 or 3 purchases? That is real life.

So don't plan as much, don't worry about your child being behind. There will always be more books in the world than we can read or study. I never had a medieval history unit study, but somewhere I learned about King Arthur and so on, so your child won't wither away by not doing something. Don't worry if your child watches too much TV or plays too many games or reads too many books. Yes, this is something I got in trouble for - reading too many books. But even in my pleasure reading I learned a lot. I learned new vocabulary, I learned about new places, and I enjoyed myself. So don't worry about gaps in education or planning - we all have them and so will our kids, but in the long run everything will turn out alright.

Today was our first day back at homeschooling. It was interesting because my neice was at work today. They don't start school until tomorrow, it was a teacher's work day. So she got to see William doing school today. She also started reading William's Pocahontas book he's reading for history and she's almost through with it while it's hard to get William to read a few pages. She was surprised that he was finished so quickly. She also learned a few things. We talked about why the sky looks blue in the daytime but not at night and why the ocean looks green but tap water is white - well, technically, it's clear, I guess.

I'm going home from work, going to get shoes with William this evening and I have a tutoring job tonight. I'll post again later on : )

Hello everyone, and welcome to my new homeschool journal spot. I figured this would be easier than updating everything on the website in HTML, plus it saves space on my personal site. I'll be updating from here from now on.

For those new to our family, we are the Routon family and have been homeschooling since March of 2003. I started keeping a journal at my website from the very beginning as I had done websearches and could not find a lot of real useful beginner information. I wanted to know what homeschooling was really like : ) You can read the rest of the journal at http://webpages.charter.net/crouton/
Just go to the homeschooling page and find the journal. Journal 1 is the 2003 year from March - May and Journal 2 starts the summer of 2003 and goes until I started this blog : )

I'll make a priority to post weekly for anyone interested in our homeschooling. Thanks for reading!