VHC #2 how to deal with negative Comments

Tuesday 20th September, 2016

I had never really thought of comments made about homeschooling as negative. Everyone has an opinion and they have a right to that belief. They don't have a right to try and force that belief onto me. I don't have the right to try and force my belief on them either.

Some of the suggested negative comments have included, "is that legal?" "are you qualified to teach?" "what about socialization?". I don't view these as so much negative, as non-educated people making comments. People like to take the path of least resistance, follow the crowd and just accept what they have been told, rather than look into other options. I will always offer an answer in a polite way and the conversation moves on. Sometimes the answer is a quick "yes" or "no", others are longer and more in depth. Sometimes the topic remains the same and sometimes it is changed all together.

I volunteered on a phone service for our national home education association, that people could ring for help and advice and most were asking these same questions. So these questions are not always a negative attack on your lifestyle choice. Some have just never given it a thought  or even heard of it before.

My biggest hurdle for negative comments actually come from within my own head. Especially when I first started out. 

"What if I am screwing my kids up?"

 "Are they going to miss out on something that I can't offer?"

 "Are they going to resent me for this later on in life?"

 "Would they be better off in the education system with trained professionals?"

 "Who am I to be educating my children?"

 Finding other homeschoolers really helped with this. Chatting to others mums on homeschooling forums and reading blogs all help with changing my self talk. And that is what it takes. I had to catch myself out and change the self talk to the positive. 

"I am offering my children a safe environment to discover who they are with out the pressures that are found in schools."

 "They are getting other opportunities that they would not get if they were in the school system."

 "1 on 1 support is better than being in a classroom of 30 kids" 

"I am their mum and I love them, no one is going to love them more than me and have their best interest at heart." 

"I CAN DO THIS."

So whats my advice? Think positive. Be respectful. Don't take the comments to heart (I know easier said than done).  Be prepared to walk away from those that are just in it for a fight or want to push their own agenda's. You get to choose who you hang out with and who you rub shoulders with in person and on social media. I think our attitude is half the battle. "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." Proverbs 15:1.

Bec.

 

 

This response  is my part of the Virtual Homeschool Coop Channel Collaboration. You can find out more at  http://virtualhomeschoolcoop.com/ The goal of the Virtual Homeschool Coop is to build the homeschool community of knowledge with collaborations to give voice to all experiences in homeschooling.

VHC Introduction Time.

 Well this is us.....

 Bec and Miss E.

We have been homeschooling for 8 weeks, this time. I homeschooled all three of my children from Aug 2008 to Feb 2013, when they all went back (in Miss E's case for the first time) to school. Now the eldest is in her first year at Uni, my one and only boy is about to start his final year at the local High School, unless he finds a job, and then there is Miss E.

Miss E is 11 and in grade 5. She has now experienced what mainstream school is like and obviously nothing like what she saw on the "Full House" so has come home. To be fair she has been asking for the last 12 months, but we kept putting it off as I didn't want to be yo-yoing between homeschool and school. So I wanted to make sure she was certain.

I should look into making a mission statement, at the moment it seems like we are just winging our way through, trying to find what works for us. I do want Miss E to rekindle her love of learning and once that takes place it will be fun to see where it takes us.

Our approach is very and I mean VERY eclectic. I am using CLE for maths. Have just started LATL for english. Before we were using another spelling program and doing a lapbook from Hands of a child. The history book has been lost, so now we are visiting local areas and reading and notebooking. Miss E at the moment wants to become a lawyer, so we are looking at how the law system begun in Australia and how it works. So as the mood grabs us and interests grow we will find the resources we need I'm sure. Actually I'm quite sure that when looking at the others that join in with the VHC I shall see something and go "Hey that could be fun" "That's a great idea"

We live on a farm, but don't do the farming. We just rent the view. We are in New South Wales on the east coast of Australia about 1 hour from the Victorian Boarder. How I long to be back in Victoria where their registration is so much simpler. But being in NSW is ok, at least I get some sort of planning done for the registration process. As you can see its very wet at the moment. We have had higher than average rains of late. That water is normally all crop. But I'm enjoying the water frontage at the moment. We are coming into summer soon enough and it will be hot and dry again.

Last time I homeschooled,  blogging was a way of recording what we had done, and no doubt it will form a part of that again. It was also a way of looking into others homes to see what worked and what didn't. I'm grateful that a friend told me about the VHC, as now I wont have to do so many google searches. I can just go and look at all the link ups and hopefully make new friends along the way that understand the joys and trials of homeschooling.

 

This response  is my part of the Virtual Homeschool Coop Channel Collaboration. You can find out more at  http://virtualhomeschoolcoop.com/ The goal of the Virtual Homeschool Coop is to build the homeschool community of knowledge with collaborations to give voice to all experiences in homeschooling.

VHC Assignment 1 - Structure or Relaxed?

"This response  is my part of the Virtual Homeschool Coop Channel Collaboration. You can find out more at www.virtualhomeschoolcoop.com The goal of the Virtual Homeschool Coop is to build the homeschool community of knowledge with collaborations to give voice to all experiences in homeschooling."

Tuesday 13th September, 2016

 31st January 2013 seems like a life time ago when I laid claim to the nails sealing the homeschooling coffin. I never did get rid of the idea of homeschooling and it has once again been resurrected in our household though only 1 child is home this time.

 Tuesday 19th July 2016 saw me withdrawing Miss E from the local primary school and begin our new journey together. Now I'm breaking my way back into the world of homeschoolers and why not join in the fun of the Virtual Homeschool Coop.

Assignment 1 : How Structured or Relaxed is your homeschool? Rate your amount or lack of structure from “0” being no structure to “10” being high structure and why in 3 categories: curriculum, daily routine, and homeschool space. 

Curriculum = 5  I do have books for maths, english, science and history, but we are just about to change our english curriculum as I wasn't happy with what we were using. I am also thinking of dropping the books for science and history and having a go at doing unit studies or lapbooks for these. We are so eclectic its not funny. But it has to work for your family and we shall jsut keep trying new things until we find our fit.

Daily Routine = 0, could I even give it a negative number? - We have not set start time, no set end time. If fact I work  casually and as such I can get a call at 8 am and be asked into work. Lucky for us my husband works from home from 8:30 to 1 Monday to Friday, so I write a todo list and leave it with Miss E. If she is having problems then she just has to wait until Dad is available to help her, so sometime its schooling in the afternoon. The other day it was schooling after dinner when I had a chance to go through her maths with her. Our routine consists of Maths and English are worked on every day. Everything else happens over the week as the mood takes us.

Homeschool Space = ?  We have a dinning table, that counts right? We have one large room that has hubby's work desk, my work desk, the sewing desk and the dinning room table and lined with book shelves where we have space. I shouldn't forget the couch or the treadmill. It is somewhat organised. We have a space for Miss E books she is currently working on. Its all good.

We have only been back in the game for 8 weeks and it takes a while to find your homeschooling legs. last time it took me nearly 6 months to find a happy groove, if not longer. I'm sure it will happen, there is always tomorrow.............

 

And Sew The Fun Begins

8th October, 2015

I don't mind saying I know I'm already behind the eight ball, its not about keeping up, but the journey I go on. Well something like that.

Last week saw the start of the long awaited 1930's Farmers Wife Sampler Quilt Sew Along. Three blocks we were given directions for. 3!!. So while I only have 1 completed, I thought I may as well share what I have done with Gnome Angle's Link up party. With a bit of luck I wont be the only one that is taking my time.

After purchasing the book and reading some of the lovely letters that are in there, I tossed and turned as to how I was going to make my quilt. Should I paper piece? Should I do templates? Should I use the machine or should I hand sew? The answer is wait and see on the day. So far I have decided to hand sew as this allows me to sit in the lounge room with the family. Plus they are starting with the easy blocks so hand sewing is not that bigger drama. So one might assume I am doing templates, but that would be wrong. As its squares and half triangles to begin with I'm just using my good old rotary cutter and rulers, after I sit and work out the measurements that I need on the diagram that comes on the cd with the book. Lucky for me being a 6 1/2 Inch block the diagrams are life size, provided you print actual size and not scaled.

Print out from CD that comes with book with my scribbles

Drawing on my sewing lines after cutting shape required

 

Keeping it all together in plastic sleeve until I get around to sewing

Storing all my cut out blocks in my yellow folder.

Finding the time to work out measurements, cut, mark and sew. I know there are long term quilters out there sighing at my long way of doing things, but hey its how I work. Hopefully I will find more time to sit and sew this coming week. But I do have one block to show off and that is #12 Becky.  Its back in its plastic sleeve and will go into a leaver arch folder and wait very patiently for me to finish the remaining 98 blocks.

 What a good named block to start with. Until next time.........

Bec.
 

All Sewn Up Or Is It?????

Monday 7th September 2105,

Last year saw me take on the new hobby of patchwork. So here is my major project that I ended up showing at the Henty Art, Quilting and Photography Exhibition.

 This was all my own design and sewing. The quilting I did get done by Pandora Quilting in Wodonga. She does an awesome job in there and I certainly wasn't about to try and make my first quilting attempt at a king size quilt. I dont think my little Elna would have survived.

And now it has rightful place on my bed, well not at the moment as I had to pull out my big winter doonah. But it will find its way once back once the nights warm up.

The next question was what to do next. This year I have managed to pick up casual work and between that and other family commitments I have not joined in with the local sewing group, so I have found a Sew Along to join in online. It starts on 28th September, so for once I have not discovered it half way through but will be able to join in from the start. It is a sample quilt, which normally I don't like, but sometimes we need to stretch ourselves and I do need to learn some new skills. So why not.

If your interested, click on the button above and check it out. I must admit the main reason I'm doing it is because Angie, who is helping to put it all together, is based in Australia. Granted there is others helping so some of the schedule is US based, but I love the fact that there are things being done on the Australian time zone.

Ok I have to go and start looking for some fabrics now.

Bec.

Sew what......

Wednesday 25th June, 2014

Wow, its been over a year. My poor neglected blog.

I have found a new way to lighten my purse and spend my hours.

Sewing. I've dabbled with sewing for many years but never really got stuck into it. I never saw the point of quilting. Honestly how many quilts does one person need?

Then I met Sharon. She runs  Sharon's Sewing Service. I needed a zip replaced and I was too lazy to do it myself so I went for a visit. Not only does she sew but she has a patchwork fabric shop. She invited me along to her one of the sewing days that she has at her place and I was hooked.

This year to encourage the ladies of the community in their patchworking/quilting/sewing she organized a friendship quilt. We meet once a month, Well twice a month now, and learn a new block. Everyone that wanted to participate put their names in a hat. Along side that hat was another hat which had the names of blocks that Sharon is teaching us through out the year. Names and blocks were drawn. The plan is simple enough. Person named decided on a colour and that was the colour theme for the block drawn and all the blocks sewn for that block are given to that person. So here have been my contributions towards some lovely ladies quilts.

The Merry Kite

The Palm Leaf - using Foundation Paper Piecing

Card Trick

Attic Window

Toad in a Puddle

Dutchmans Puzzle

Also along the way I have done some other various sewing activities.
Before we tackled the palm leaf, we did another class on foundation paper piecing as no one had ever done it before. In case you didn't know its sewing material onto paper basically. The best part is you don't have to worry about bias or the grain of the material.  It is a bit tricky at the start until you get the hang of it.

You have the material on the back and sew along the line. You do one section at a time so there is lots of getting up and down to trim and iron in between each new piece of material. So the picture above show what both sides end up looking like once you have finished. There are plenty of tutorials out there if your interested. 

I ended up using mine to make Miss E a tablet cover. There is a panel on the front and back

I then needed a sewing book to keep all my papers and designs in so I made myself a cover to go over one of those A4 display books.

Now I am having a go at hand piecing. I did these ones myself at home

The photo below is of my very latest hand piecing project. The Atlantic Jewel. I'm going to be game and see if I can do more and turn it into a quilt, but I have to get this one sewn first. It took me ages to cut out the middle bit to get all the lines to match. Here's what it looks like just laid out.

There are 8 triangles in that middle piece. Sharon was showing us how to use fabrics with borders or patterns to create new patterns.

Sew sew sew, as you can see I have been keeping myself busy.

What have I done?

Thursday 6th June, 2013 


It dawned on my yesterday exactly what I had said I was going to give up with no processed for for 28 days.

To be honest, I dont think I will make.

My day started with a womens bible study group and believe it or not the subject was facing temptations. Sitting on the table while we had our cuppas were scones with jam and cream, lemon slice, carrot cake (from a packet) and some orange cake. AHHHHHHHHHH. I was good. I had nothing.

Then we had to go out in the afternoon, which meant we would be out for tea. So while the family ate pies and pasties, I had remembered to grab the last little bit of left over vegie soup from the fridge. Boy am I glad I didn't have it for lunch like I had planned.

So the thoughts did start to run through my head, what have I done? I might end up being a bit more "loosey".

Anyway, I just also wanted to share a really yummo recipe that I made on day 2. Chickpea and spinach burgers. I found the recipe while surfing some time ago and fell in love with it as its vegan and gluten free. I got it from Tale of Two Vegans Click on their name and if I have done things correctly it should take you straight to the recipe. It was posted back in 2009 but its a great recipe. 

I did make some changes, like I left out the soy sauce and I also baked them instead of fry them. I baked them at 180C for 15 minutes and then turned and baked for another 15 minutes.

I did make up a double batch so I could have some left over, but my teenagers devoured them. Oh well at least I know they were eating something healthy.

Wish me luck as I start out on day 4.

Bec.

Behind the Challenge

Tuesday 4th June, 2013

Day 2 of the 28 day challenge. Lucky me, I live in Australia so I'm ahead of all my fellow Americans by half a day in this challenge, which means I will finish first, maybe??????

Really I'm just trying to eat a lot healthier. I'm glad the rules are a bit "loosey goosey" as Lindsay said on her blog, as to what processed is.

A couple of years ago I had a bad rash on my hands. The doctors only wanted to give me some creams to help relieve the discomfort. "You'll probable never find the cause, best just to use this" said the doctor handing me a script.

Well I found a cause, food. After speaking to a friend who is a naturopath, I eliminated a few things from my diet. 2 to be exact. Dairy and wheat. Within 1 week the rash I had had for 3 months, and that was only getting worse and spreading up my arms, was gone.

A bit more testing and talking with my friend and we eliminated some other things as well. Soy, gluten, cashews, almonds, yeast, oats and a few things I can't remember now as they were not really in my diet to begin with. An interesting thing happened.

I felt bad, really bad, really REALLY BAD. For about a week. The first couple of days were ok, but then it hit. My joints ached, every muscle in my body hurt, I was crabby and cranky and I did not have a problem in letting people know. And I was tired. By the end of the second week, I felt fantastic. I started to discover I had symptoms I never new were symptoms.

Things like walking up stairs no longer hurt, not that it hurt much before, but I could feel the difference. I had an ease of movement and didn't feel like it was an effort to be walking up the steps.

I didn't need my horizontal life pauses. I found that I could stay up later at night. It had become such a routin for me to crawl into bed at 7:30 on a friday night and sleep until 7:30 the next morning. I was actually starting to stay up later than the kids.

I could think! I had heard of people talking about a brain fog before and had laughed it off, but I had it. I didn't relize it at all until it went away and suddenly I knew what brain fog was. My skin cleared up, I started to lose weight. I had alwasy been hungry. It seemed some days that I was a bottomless pit and nothing would fill me up. But after that first 2 weeks, I lost my craving, my hunger. I would look back on what I had eaten all day and think "Man, how did that ever fill me up?"

Then after 3 months of being really super strick, it was time to try out the no-no foods. To work out which ones, my body could cope with and which ones I was never going to eat again. The theory being that after giving my body and immune system a time of healing I might be able to reintroduce some of the foods.And that my friends is where I fell off the wagon big time.

Coupled with moving and life in general, my eating habits went back to what they had been several months before, because that was what was easy. I cut back on a lot of things and tried to minimilise how much i was eating of certain things, which I'm sure has kept me out of major trouble.

But.......

Over the last 2 years I have learnt that I can survive on eating anything, but not live fully, Sure I dont get major cramps or have to run to the toilet. I have trouble remembering, it hurts just that little bit to move, I have no energy to do anything fun. I now know that what I am feeling now is not normal motherhood, as one doctor tried to tell me years ago when I complained about my tiredness.

So that brings me to today. Time to reassess what I'm doing to my body. Time to listen to it and find out what it likes and doesn't like.So here's hoping this whole food challenge will kick start me into gear.

Bec.

,

A Challenge

Monday 3rd June, 2013

 

 

 

There, I said it. Three times in fact. I'll say it again.

I'm taking the 28-day Whole Food Challenge.

Lindsay from the Happy Herbivore has set up a challenge for anyone that is interested. I encourage you all to go and have a look. Your body will thank you.

I am doing well so far, quinoa and rice porridge with fruit salad for breakfast this morning, yummo. Hopefully the next 27 and half days will be as good.

Bec.

There is life...................................

Sunday 2nd June, 2013.

Well what do you know, there is life after homeschooling. One could be forgiven in thinking that I had infact died when the coffin was sealed on homeschooling. Its been a long time since the last posting.

What to do with myself is a question I am still asking. No longer are my days filled with teaching or researching curriculums. Leaving the homeschooling scene was not my first choice and there are days that I get pangs of wanting so badly for my kids to return home.

My blog got neglected as it was originally set up to record our homeschooling activites.I have decided that I will now turn it into a journal of my thoughts and activites as I try to figure out what to do with myself. Who knows what I will come up with.

I'm always quick to tell others that there is a season for everything, just because one door closes doesn't mean others wont open.Its also no reason for just stopping. How do I know if a door is locked or not if I dont try and open some.

Its funny, I was asked what I enjoyed doing the other day and I really couldn't think of anything straight off the top of my head. Can "nothing" really be considered doing something? 

So I shall see what I can come up with. There has to be something out there for me to sink my teeth into. Hopefully it wil be an interesting journey as I discover more about myself and how to live outside of homeschooling.

Bec.

The Coffin Has Been Sealed........

31st January, 2013

Well thats it. The lid has been shut and the nails are in. Homeschooling is officially over in our house.

Wednesday 30th January was greeted with much delight at 6am by Miss E.

6:30 saw her fed and dressed and chanting, "I'm going to school, I'm going to school". Dropping her off at the school at 8:50 she was buddied up and gone with out even a hug or goodbye. I'm not so proud as to admit that I came home and cried, actually I was crying by the time I got to the car, but even worse when I finally got inside the house. Just as well hubby works from home and could console me.

Thursday 31st did not bring the same enthusiasim for Miss Z..........

 

No she really wasn't that bad. I did get some smiles out of her....

Master J was so nervous that he couldn't eat his breakfast. But be assured, his appetite is back to normal now.

The end of the 2nd day for Miss E and the first for Miss Z and Master J has seen a thumbs up for school. I believe Master J's comment on facebook was it was cool.

Oh well, I do believe in resurrections, so wont get rid of the idea of homeschooling. There are reasons and seasons for everything and for now this is the schooling season.

Storm Photos

23rd December, 2012

yeah I know my dates are not in order, but thats ok. These photos i want to share are from the storm on the 23rd December 2012. Yes nearly thought the Myans had been out by 1 day, but i knew better. Anyway to the photos.

The photo below was taken while still light and was pretty much a fluke. I had just been snapping away, as you can't take long exposure photos during the day. I tried that and you just end up with a white screen. Any way I circled the lightning strike to make it easier for you to see.

So once it got darker and i could set up my tripod and set the camera to a 4 second exposure these are the shots I got.

 Yes it is still night time, you can see the light from the window on the grass near the garden bed. There were some huge flashes during this shot and in the circle you can see a clear strike.

The trees in the back yard make it hard to get good shots, so I discovered the front verandah. I can get a clearer shot, just the lightning has to be in the right spot.

 

 January 3rd, 2013

So this time I headed around to the front, my biggest problem today was the little midge bugs we have started to attack me, so I had to call it quits before the storm had moved past enough to get some good shots. But I managed to get some. Here a few of the better ones. I'm going to put all of them in a mini film as i think it would come up awesome watching the cloud move past, but that will have to wait for another day.

The next series of shots are all in a row and it is of a car that drove past. I thought the photos came up ok. What do you think?

 I know there wasn't much lightning, but I thought it was cool the effect of a longer exposure. Any way hope you enjoyed looking at them.

Angels working overtime

 8th January, 2013

"For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go." Psalm 91:11

What a great promise we have. A couple of nights ago I was reminded of God's love when I was able to take some photos of a passing storm which produced a beautiful rainbow.

 God had just taken Noah and his family through the worst storm ever, and promised that there would not be another like it.

Storms are still bad and scary, maybe they only last a couple of minutes, but it is great to know that when they hit we have angels watching over us.

Last night was a scary 10 minutes.

Miss E had been put to bed at 9 and so the rest of family sat down to watch "War Horse". The landlords dog kept barking out side, so I gave her some water and she sat happily at the back door. More barking started this time with her running away. Normally the landlords dont leave their dogs at work so we thought it a bit strange that she was there.

After the 3rd time we decided that we had better call the landlord to check that everything was ok. This was when we discovered that a storm was coming. Having called the landlord he said he would come and collect his dog and take her home. She was probably upset about the storm.

They came and collected her with winds raging around us. Dust was filling the air and we waited while the landlord checked their silos as we had heard some crashing and bashing. 

Its very hard to see things at about 10:30pm. We don't have street lights out here. Everything must have been fine as the landlord gave us a toot and drove out the drive way.

We continuted on watching the movie for only about 10 minutes, when the wailing of the wind caught our attention. Windows started to shake as the noise of the wind grew louder and louder. Mr J tried to open a door to have a look but the pressure of the wind was too great. We could hear things hitting the windows in the back room, so moved everyone into the front of the house and told them to stay there, as we knew we had a dead tree in the back yard.

The noise subsided, the winds died down. Mr J went out the house through the garage to check out side. Sure enough the once faithful shade giver had fallen. I never really understood a storm coming to a complete stop before, until last night, as that is what it was like. As quick as it came, it was gone. The stars where out shining like nothing had happened at all.
This morning before the sun gets too much heat in it, I went to survey and take photos.

 How truly blessed we are. No damage to the house. The only fatalaty might be the watermelon and rockmelon vines that are now sitting under the tree over near the fence. But I'm not calling that yet, they may have survived.

There was a few other branches down as well.

All I can say is "Thank You God" for giving us angels to watch over us.