Private Schooling on a Budget

I have begun the unthinkable. I am officially home-schooling my children. Actually, I'm not so much homeschooling as I am Private-schooling on a budget. No, I am not insane. Well, maybe a little, but my mother has always wanted me to teach and the only children I can really stand to be around day-after-day are my own. I'm college educated and I can't find a job that is both fulfilling and lucrative. So, while I don't make any money homeschooling, I do consider the $20,000 a year we are saving in private education to be a major benefit.

We are following E.D. Hirsch's "Core Knowledge" books and visiting the library for supplemental material. We are also using the foreign language link on the Library's website to learn Spanish for free and hope to add German and French in the future. My children are building relationships with the librarians as we see them weekly to turn-in, check-out, and place holds on books. My son is the shy one and he is now reading a book that he looked up on the computer, wrote down on a piece of paper, and requested it be put on hold with the librarian.

The kids are also enrolled part time in the local elementary school. Did you know that you could do that?? You can! You pay taxes—I hope—so the school is there for you to use. My children spend an hour every Monday participating in grade level art with their friends. FO FREE!

Anyway... I'm telling you this because once again my writing may be sporadic and school centered. I apologize. I may just be insane.

Casting Ballots

It always astonishes me that we can do something so unnecessary to voters, we can put fences on over-passes, we can keep people from sky-diving alone without earning a license first, we can make EVERY mattress manufacturer install a firewall--making mattresses un-flippable, and we can deny women the right to insurance coverage, but so much as suggest that we increase the regulation on assault rifles (because tens-of-thousands of people including children die every year) and suddenly people start screaming about constitutional rights. smh  We need more voters!!