I homeschool

I Wanted to Play Drums

3
December 5, 2008
by Abby in

I wanted to play drums in middle school band class, but they wouldn’t let me because they had a rule that we had to know how to play the piano first. Dumb rule because, isn’t that what middle school band class is for? Learning? And Dabbling? How could I learn the stuff before band class? Assholes. I didn’t want to learn piano because, my god, the piano is so fine-motor skillish and I’m more of a gross-motor type. So I didn’t take band class, I took choir instead where I lip-synced and messed around and did drugs. Ok, I didn’t do drugs, but I could have and I would have been justified.

*sigh* We watched Girls Rock last night at the Wexner Center and I cried all through it because it was awesome. And then I yelled at Bryan because, well, he’s a boy and he didn’t even have to learn that he rocks. And it’s not fair! But then, Dawn’s Girls Rock post makes a good point about boys and their struggles and whatnot, so I guess I won’t yell at him today. For being a boy.

The movie inspired my girls to play the drums (Liberty), play guitar and drums (Lena), and play guitar and drums and sing (Maya). And Bryan and I were inspired to pay for stuff that would enable those endeavors. Finally, the girls are doing what they’re supposed to by living out my dreams so that I can live through them. Er, maybe it’s not supposed to be about me and my dreams? I can’t remember. The world is so confusing after seeing Girls Rock.

Anyway, Kids Know Stuff is giving away a Washburn guitar soon and now I wish we could win it. Except it’s kind of ruined because it has either Hannah Montana or Camp Rock paint splashed all over it. I’m sure a kid would like it, but whatever.

We’re going to the Wexner Center to watch two more movies today: Jump and Children of Heaven. I’m sure Jump will inspire a jump rope purchase. I just hope Children of Heaven doesn’t inspire me to make the children share one pair of shoes. I’m easily swayed by visual media.

It’s About Homeschooling, I Swear.

2
November 6, 2008
by Abby in

You could put that Will.I.Am Yes We Can song on a cat food commercial and it would make me cry. Here it is trying to make Lena and Liberty’s review of Nikki Grimes’ Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope review less, well, boring. It was the end of the day and neither of them was really into doing the review, but just like the Gosselins, we don’t have child labor laws in this house so I made them do it. And it was boring. And I told them it was boring and they were like, “Yeah? Well? It’s a boring book.” And then I called them racist and sent them to bed.

Sometimes it doesn’t matter if it’s a boring book. It’s important to learn about important people in history. And now that he’s our president, I felt comfortable putting it on Kids Know Stuff. I didn’t feel comfortable before because I thought somebody would see it and then make me review that John McCain book by his heir-head daughter. I just can’t support Meghan McCain. As a daughter from my dad’s first marriage, it enrages me that she excluded Sen. McCain’s first marriage and her own half-brothers (half-, not even step-) from the book. Plus, she’s super rich and not that talented. I heard her once on NPR and she was all, “Like, yeah, it was super sweet writing that, like, book about my, um, dad and stuff?” And then I punched the car radio in the face.

Why am I still talking about politics? I’m not, I’m talking about my kids. That’s why this post is going under the “I Homeschool” category and not “I Like Politics?” I homeschool. And part of homeschooling is Kids Know Stuff. And part of homeschooling is being called racist by your mother. They have to learn.

We Do Stuff (A Homeschooling Post)

1
October 13, 2008
by Abby in

I have a run-around Monday today, so I’m cross-posting a recent Kids Know Stuff post that Lena wrote. It’s not political!

I’ve been using Kids Know Stuff as a homeschool tool because, as a quasi unschooler, I have to pretend that every single thing we do has some sort of educational value. It might actually be true in this case, though.

Lena and Liberty write their own reviews and sometimes they write Maya’s reviews if they feel like it. Or sometimes they throw a hissy fit and wail about how it’s boooorrriinnnggg and then I have to write Maya’s reviews and then punish them later (i.e. “I wish you could have a friend over, but I’m just ever so tired from writing that review for Kids Know Stuff *sigh*”).

They run the spell check, then we go over the proofreading together and talk about why edits are made. Lena and Liberty can type well thanks to Dance Mat Typing, which they were addicted to last year, but if they’ve had a hard-working day, I’ll let them dictate to me. I type exactly what they say, even if it’s weird.

Sometimes I have to tell them what questions their review should answer, sometimes they’re overflowing with ideas and they need no prompts at all. Sometimes I ask Maya why she likes something and she replies with, “Tushie!” and we just try again later.

The kids choose the transitions between clips, the effects, the titles, the font, the colors, and the music. Lena and Liberty like the colors of the “Buy us stuff we like only!” title at the end of each video to tie in with the product in some way. For instance, brown-on-brown for the Indiana Jones review because, in their words, “Brown is an Indiana Jones color.” (Yes, they both said that at the same time. Sometimes they’re very twin-ish.) Maya usually chooses pink-on-pink. I hope it’s not because, in her world, pink is a tushie color.

It’s been a lot of fun and we hope the site continues to grow, but I have to be careful that I don’t burn them out, which means they won’t update every day. So, since Christmas is coming, you should totally subscribe to our feed so you don’t miss out on giveaways and gift ideas.

We can’t post every day anymore because we’re busy doing a lot of fun stuff during the week. We recorded some of the things we do, but we also do things like go apple picking, volunteer at political things, and go to free concerts. But we have lots more cool reviews coming soon and we’ll have more giveaways, too!

P.S. We forgot to record my gymnastics class, but that’s something else I do. And even though I’m not in the rollerskating part, I was there! I love rollerskating!

P.P.S. We have to do our homeschool work, too!

Lena

The song is Dare by Gorillaz.

We Have Fun

2
September 26, 2008
by Abby in

We hung out at Campaign for Change headquarters last night. Kristen has pictures here.

The kids all said they thought it would be boring, but it ended up being fun. They decorated signs, they talked to other campaign workers about our country and what needs to change. Liberty couldn’t sleep because she’s worried Sarah Palin is coming for her uterus. And it’s not even ripe yet. I’m kidding. Sort of. She actually did misconstrue “taking away women’s reproductive rights” as being the same thing as slavery, though. Wait, maybe she actually understood it better than most people. Smart kid, that Liberty.

So I made almost 70 phone calls, talked to 7 real people, 2 of those people hung up on me, 4 were already voting for Obama so we talked about morning sickness, cost of college, racism, etc. And 1 person was translating for his Chinese mother and he told me he wasn’t planning to vote because he has a tiny baby. Yeah, I don’t get it either, but I said, “Well then you especially have to vote for Obama so the tiny baby can afford to go to college!” and then I read a little bit off of my script about the American dream and whatnot. It was super fun and I LOVED leaving the scripted messages on answering machines. I’ll do it again. My kids will do it again. I don’t care if, as some people say, it doesn’t make a difference in the grand scheme of things; it made a difference in my kids’ education and it was fun. I’m all about the fun memories and this was a good one.

Would it Be Wrong?

8
August 20, 2008
by Abby in

Do you think the kids could review, say, wine on Kids Know Stuff? I mean, obviously they couldn’t drink it, but maybe they could tell everybody how much more fun their mommy is when she’s pouring a glass or two of Charles Shaw Merlot. And then maybe we could get free wine delivered to our door so I wouldn’t have to fight traffic to get to the nearest Trader Joe’s. It would be wrong to use the kids that way, wouldn’t it? *sigh* I thought so. How about if they could get me some free coffee? Still wrong? Bummer. I want some free mommy stuff. The Hannah Montana that’s playing in the background right now brings me no joy.

I’m trying to get on a new schedule for fall homeschooling. I’m all gung-ho and inspired in the fall, before the holidays come and I get complacent. And by “holidays” I mean Labor Day. Having a schedule involves actually scheduling things, which involves heart palpitations when I’m behind schedule. I don’t like that. But instead of abandoning the schedule, I’m going to just decide that it’s ok if I’m a little bit behind schedule from time to time. I tend toward the all-or-nothing, so if I have a schedule, I feel like it must be followed to the minute. That’s not true, though, right? I didn’t think so. Not in my line of work, anyway. Kids can feed themselves if they’re hungry and lunch is behind schedule. So says I. And if they don’t like that, they can try to figure out a way to get mommy some wine delivered right to her door. Then I would feed them on time. Probably.

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