We Laugh A Lot: Cynthia's Interview

Cynthia and her family crack themselves up as they live and learn together in Washington State...

1. How long have you been homeschooling (or if finished, how long did you homeschool)?

We have homeschooled for four years. But, in a way, we did so even before that, because it was a part of our lifestyle and our personal habits to spend a lot of time in "enrichment" activities with our daughter. We read to her for long hours, had season tickets to the opera, and spent a lot of time exploring the world with her through hikes, science experiments, and community events. When we decided to take her out of school, we reasoned that it would not involve a great deal more time than we were already spending.

2. One of the main benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility it allows. Can you give us a few examples of how this freedom and flexibility benefited you (your family)?

We love the freedom of homeschooling. Obviously, there is the ability to take vacations when it suits *our* schedule rather than the school district's. We have been able to involve our child in adult activities that took place during "school hours," which were of interest to her in spite of her age: a knitting retreat, a day at the courthouse, a lunchtime concert in the park, etc.

Furthermore, when learning isn't forced into the hours of the school day, it tends to happen more often. We don't call it "school," but we are frequently involved in some kind of project into the evening and weekend hours. If our daughter is still engrossed in the project on Monday morning, we can let her continue and return to the scheduled curriculum another day.

3. Another benefit of homeschooling is the fun factor. Can you give us a few examples of some especially fun times you had as a result of homeschooling?

We laugh a lot. We have a special way of jumping onto the couch together when we sit down to read that never fails to crack us up.

My daughter likes to pretend the cats are in the lessons too sometimes and we can't get them to cooperate. (Typical cat.)

One day on a weekend, I came home to find that my daughter and husband had decorated the entire downstairs with altars for the Greek gods (we were reading the Percy Jackson books at the time). I had to "take a tour," including a visit to the Oracle at Delphi, played by one of her old dolls wrapped up like a mummy in toilet paper. It was hilarious.

4. We all have funny experiences while homeschooling. Can you share one of yours with us?

I guess the funniest event was a talent show - conceived, organized and executed by the kids in our homeschool co-op. No parents had a hand in it.

I love those kinds of events, the kid-driven ones. Some of the children could barely speak they were laughing so hard.

But there were also the serious moments, when respect for a child's recital of her poem kept everyone absolutely silent - something I don't think you'd find in any school program.

The Freedom To Learn By Doing: Heather & Shamus' Interview

Heather and her husband Shamus homeschool their children in Western Pennsylvania where the whole family lives and learns together. Both parents have talents that enable them to work from home, so the family makes the most of the freedom their lifestyle allows.

Want to learn more about them? Here's Heather's family blog, An Untraditional Home . She's also an artist and you can go to this link to learn more about that. Shamus' blog is called Twenty Sided Tale where you can go and learn about all he dabbles in as part of his untraditional life.

Heather planned on working on the questions with Shamus in person, but sometimes an untraditional life gets pretty busy so she gave up on that and just emailed it to him. Heather reports that "His answer ARE my answers though he did write it from his perspective and that is just fine with me. :)"

1. How long have you been homeschooling (or if finished, how long did you homeschool)?

We've home schooled ever since our kids were old enough to not go to school. Twelve years ago my wife was pregnant with our first child. She was a public school special education teacher at the time. Sitting in the teacher's lounge, listening to her own former teachers talking disdainfully about her now-students changed her perspective on how public school actually works. Specifically: It doesn't.

Whatever their faults or virtues, those teachers were never going to love our kids as much as we do or care about the quality of their education than we do. So why don't we just do it ourselves?

2. One of the main benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility it allows. Can you give us a few examples of how this freedom and flexibility benefited you (your family)?

There really is nothing more useful than being free to teach the kids what they're actually interested in, instead of trying to make kids interested in what you're supposed to be teaching them this week.

Kids are into bugs? Let's study bugs!

Curious about the stars? Let's grab a telescope and do some astronomizing!

Curious about plants? Let's get some seeds and grow some. Or watch them die because my wife has a black thumb. That's a learning experience, too.

Meanwhile a public school kid is sitting at a desk in late May, looking out the window and wondering about how flowers grow while the teacher hands out worksheets with the stuff the kid was into last year..

They have the freedom to learn by doing.

They go camping instead of reading about it.

They visit museums instead of seeing pictures of the stuff inside of museums.

They collect flowers and herbs instead of sitting in a lecture on flowers and herbs.

They learn to cook instead of standing in the lunch line.

3. Another benefit of homeschooling is the fun factor. Can you give us a few examples of some especially fun times you had as a result of homeschooling?

It's great being able to vacation while everyone else is still stuck in school. We don't have to school when they school, rest when they rest. Our kids can get the park and Chuck E. Cheese to themselves if they like.

We can take spontaneous trips. We often go off and visit friends out of state. Not only has this been educationally beneficial, but it is also just plain fun to do things as a family and not constantly have to figure out who needs to be where when.

4. We all have funny experiences while homeschooling. Can you share one of yours with us?

This summer we went to the lake. The kids flew kites (learned about
airfoils) saw interesting topography (learned about glaciers, man-made lakes, and how a dam is constructed) watched the sailboats (learned about economics and why our family can't afford boats) and generally got a head full of knowledge without even realizing it.

The Force Will Be With Her Always: Obi-Mom Kenobi's Interview

I guess it was inevitable with all the traveling I've done lately that I would end up in a whole other galaxy. One far, far away.

I forgot my map, lost my way and ended up on the dark side. Fortunately I met Obi-Mom Kenobi and she helped me find my way back. Good thing too, because she was my only hope.

As you can see by the photo above, the force is strong with this one. When she's not in the far away galaxy, she and her family make their home in West Michigan, which she refers to as part of the Great Frozen Midwest.

Obi-Mom has a blog called, wait for it...Help Me Obi-Mom Kenobi, You're My Only Hope, where you can learn all about her family's life told in the way only a true Jedi Master can.

1. How long have you been homeschooling (or if finished, how long did you homeschool)?

We've homeschooled for 6 years, after pulling our son - Padawan Learner (PL) - out of school in the middle of 2nd grade. Those 5 1/2 months in 2nd grade were so traumatic for him (and us) that we ended up bagging the entire rest of that year and started 2nd grade over again in the fall. That was one of the best decisions we've ever made homeschooling. Padawan Learner grew into himself a lot that spring and summer.

2. One of the main benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility it allows. Can you give us a few examples of how this freedom and flexibility benefited you (your family)?

We all love to travel, travel, travel. Well, at least that's my favorite part of the flexibility from homeschooling. There's just so many ways that we've all benefited from the freedom of homeschooling; it's hard to pick just a few...

Padawan Learner decided (back when we first took him out of school) that he wanted to learn Dutch like me. Now you may be shocked to hear this, but Dutch is not a language that's offered in most American elementary schools - private or not. Shocking, I know.

Because he started lessons at the age of 7, his accent is just beautiful. I sound like an American speaking decent Dutch. He sounds like a true Nederlandse jongen - with that gorgeous blond hair to match it.


PL at his Earth home

An unexpected benefit of doing this was incorporating many of the spelling rules from Dutch into his English spelling efforts. Dutch has very hard and fast spelling rules, and many of them transition well into learning the spelling guidelines for English.

On the flip side, he has very little tolerance for all the spelling rule exceptions in English though because he's seen that a language can operate very well without them.

Dad Windu (DW) likes that he gets to see us more often than when PL was in school. We join him at his office for lunch sometimes and tag along on projects when he's out doing a site visit.

Sometimes he has to stop in at home on his way to a job, and we get to visit with him for a few minutes while he gets ready.


Dad Windu says "Drive a car one must learn before piloting spaceships, yes."

There's no worrying about getting permission from PL's school to travel with Dad Windu when he has an extended trip out of town or a conference out of state.

I like being able to juggle curriculum, methods and/or timing as needed. If something isn't working for PL, I can put it aside for a while to see if it's a developmental thing or chuck it altogether if it just isn't a good fit.

We've run the gamut of homeschooling methods over the years from a very heavily regimented classical approach, to unit studies, to footloose and fancy free unschooling.

No single method was right.

So we settled on planned lessons in the morning (Algebra I, expository writing, and either history or science - on alternating days) and interest-led things in the afternoon, e.g., piano practice, trampoline class, housekeeping, cooking, visiting museums or nature areas, etc.

3. Another benefit of homeschooling is the fun factor. Can you give us a few examples of some especially fun times you had as a result of homeschooling?

We have the most fun getting out into the world when everyone else seems to be locked up inside! We especially enjoy sledding with friends, slinking around art museums, hiking and camping in National and State Parks, roaming Lake Michigan, and having the trampoline center all to ourselves.

We once ran off to Madison, WI on a lark when our house was in the middle of a horrendous, double bathroom, repair fiasco. We just couldn't take it any more!

Instead we went creeping through an awesome cave system, snuck into a writer's conference (inadvertently), found one of the most wonderful chocolatiers in the world, and hung out around the WI State Capitol Building - watching a very confusing smorgasbord of protest groups roll in and out across the Capital lawn.

4. We all have funny experiences while homeschooling. Can you share one of yours with us?

Once, while PL and I were climbing to the top of the bell tower on the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft, we saw a look-out ledge about half way up the 356 steps to the top.

Being curious, Padawan Learner gave the door latch a pull and it opened right up. We had a grand old time checking out the panorama. I was a little shocked to see such low railings and thought, "This would never pass inspection back home!"

Only after we had climbed to the top (decent-sized railings here, I was glad to see) and returned to the main floor did we learn that the viewing ledge we first stopped on was NOT intended for public use.

I was stricken with belated panic.

The ticket seller was stricken with horror.

Only Padawan Learner thought it was funny. "We're homeschoolers," he announced to all in his best Jethro Bodine voice.

The Possibilities For Fun Are Endless: Kristi Blumeyer's Interview

Kristi lives in Indiana with her husband Trent, and son, Tyler. Kristi writes about their life on her blog, Soaring Mountains Academy where you can see how she uses the freedom and flexibility of homeschooling in a way that works for their individual family.

Tyler is pictured above getting ready to launch his rocket at the recent summer fair, where he earned Reserve Champion!

My son built a few rockets during his time at home and I remember one model had a place where we could insert something to go on the flight. So somewhere near our home there is a beetle who stays busy entertaining his little beetle grandchildren with many stories about his adventures on the day we chose him to be an astronaut. Or would that be astrobeetle?

1. How long have you been homeschooling (or if finished, how long did you homeschool)?

We've been homeschooling since birth, but the answer most want to hear is that we're in our 6th year of "official" homeschooling. We only have one child and he's 9.

2. One of the main benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility it allows. Can you give us a few examples of how this freedom and flexibility benefited you (your family)?

We love our freedom & flexibility!

They allow us to year-round school, which helps because too much off-time means we have lots to go through to get back in the routine of school and lots of review to remember where we were.

They allow us to to take time off for fun things like field trips, fair week, traveling, etc.

They allow us to learn about something when we are interested in it and to adjust all our learning around whatever we want.

Most recently it has allowed my son & I to start volunteering at an animal refuge. This was something he really wanted to do and our flexibility allows for these types of things to happen during the day.

3. Another benefit of homeschooling is the fun factor. Can you give us a few examples of some especially fun times you had as a result of homeschooling?

I have tried over the years to make sure that there is fun every day so that neither one of us burns out on this adventure called "homeschooling" we're pursuing.

It could be things we do when we leave the house (which happens often) such as going to a zoo, nature center, museum, park - the list just goes on and on.

When we stay home, fun things include science experiments, reading books, playing, watching our pets, etc. The possibilities for fun are endless.

4. We all have funny experiences while homeschooling. Can you share one of yours with us?

There are always funny experiences at our house, but right now my son is going through a phase where he is developing his sense of humor. To watch this process unfold has been wonderful.

He's always coming and telling us some joke he made up or some funny face he's invented. You just never know what he's going to come up with next.

How Can We Not Have Fun?: Sussette Webster's Interview

I think this photo pretty much sums up the heading of this post, don't you?

Sussette lives with her husband Patrick, and their children in Florida and she blogs about their lives at The Webster Family.

One thing I learned about her family is that they they love to pack up and head on down the highway when opportunities arise.

I'm glad because, even when homeschooling, native Floridians can't really understand the concept of snow until they actually get up north and experience a good fight with a snowball or two.

Neither Sussette nor I recommend the same advice when learning about sharks though.

1. How long have you been homeschooling (or if finished, how long did you homeschool)?

I always smile when trying to answer accurately the date we began homeschooling. Frequently when asked I will just say “we have always homeschooled.”

Homeschooling to me is education directly overseen by the child’s parent. Educate, as defined by Merriam-Webster means “to train by formal instruction and supervised practice especially in a skill, trade, or profession.”

With that definition all parents are educators. We naturally teach our children to walk, to talk, to brush their teeth, to dress themselves, how to sing the ABCs, count their fingers, pick out shapes and colors, and especially how to love and be loved.

A child’s 5th birthday or first day of kindergarten does not suddenly turn on the ability to learn. Children were designed to begin learning from within the womb. From there they learn things like how to suck their thumb or to recognize sounds found in their mother’s everyday life.

Education naturally begins with the parents as the primary educators. Some, like our family, choose to continue educating their children as the children move from letters and numbers to reading and arithmetic, either instructed by the parents or directly overseen by them.

In answer to your question, our oldest child will be 13 years old this December, so we have been homeschooling for 13 years.

I would like to add that, although I have not been without burnout days, I have been able to joyfully persevere in homeschooling my children through the grace of God. The Catholic Church tells us that “The father and mother receive, in the Sacrament of Matrimony, the grace and the responsibility of providing Christian education for their children, to whom they bear witness and transmit, at one and the same time, human and religious values.”(John Paul II. Rome, Italy, December 26, 1982). The Church goes on to state “The role of parents in education is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute. The right and the duty of parents to educate their children are primordial and inalienable.” (CCC 2221)

2. One of the main benefits of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility it allows. Can you give us a few examples of how this freedom and flexibility benefited you (your family)?

The most obvious freedom we enjoy is time. We have the time to really investigate life. We can spend extra time working out a math problem, or studying the way a praying mantis captures and devours its prey.

We can spontaneously go experience science, art, music, history, or any other subject as the opportunity arises without concern for what day of the week it is.

Last year a good friend of ours, an entomologist, was invited by the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Discovery and Science to conduct a short lecture on an assortment of insects. With family in that area willing to open their home to us for a few nights, we just loaded the car with books, CDs, manipulatives, paper, pens, etc and off we went. It was awesome!!!

Could we have done that if we were confined to a specific building and schedule? No, it was only possible because we had the freedom to travel and homeschool as we went.

Last February a good friend of ours made her first profession as a cloistered nun in Summit, New Jersey. Witnessing such an event was an incredible opportunity in and of itself, but 7-year-old boys would not exactly refer to it as fun; however, seeing and playing in snow for the first time was by all accounts very fun.

We were able to really enjoy a winter experience foreign to us Florida kids. We made snowballs, snow angels, and snowmen; we had snowball fights and went sledding. We watched through the window of the van as the plant life changed as we drove north. We were able to glimpse places they had only read about, like Washington DC and New York. We were able to laugh, play, learn, and enjoy all these new and wonderful experiences without the dread of hurrying back to “do school.”

3. Another benefit of homeschooling is the fun factor. Can you give us a few examples of some especially fun times you had as a result of homeschooling?

Homeschooling lends itself naturally to fun. History is a particularly fun subject. While studying Egypt we played the part of an embalmer and an archaeologist. We made a mummy. Yes, a real mummy, no, not human :-P.

We purchased a freshly and humanely killed rat from the local reptile store (snake food) and proceeded to dissect it (science) and fill the cavity with salt (science). We also salted the organs to be placed in child-made clay pots (art) with the lids in the shape of Egyptian gods. Once drying was complete we needed to remove the salt, properly wrap and add the scented oils. We then went to bury our mummy for future excavation.

Also, while studying Egypt we excavated a small area of our yard. The children each unearthed a clay pot that they had previously embellished with their names in hieroglyphics. I had gently smashed them with a hammer and buried the pieces.

Science is another great excuse for fun. Living away from a large city has really helped give us many opportunities to immerse ourselves in science beyond dissections.

As an example, two years ago we were able to witness a spectacular light show, a meteor shower. We had been at a church party when we noticed the huge number of “shooting stars.” When we got home they were still “falling” so we decided to get sleeping bags and lay out under the stars to watch them “fall.” It was so much fun racing to see who would see the next one first.

There were so many and we were having such a great time we did not want the magic to end so my daughter ran in, got pillows, and another sleeping bag and we slept out under the stars all night. Wow, what a wonderful way to fall asleep not to mention how cool it was to wake up with dawn gently tickling our senses.

Lessons that would seem mundane can surprise us with entertainment. For instance learning measurements lead to much laughter and fun. When my daughter was learning about comparing the size of different objects, she went around the house and yard measuring everything that would stand still long enough, grass, trees, people, cats, dogs, goats, chickens, eggs, etc. She used a camera and her brother to document the experience. The pictures were very cute and it was obvious that the siblings were enjoying every minute.

Each day presents new opportunities to laugh, enjoy each other, and give thanks for the gift of creation. Often we marvel at the intricacy in the pattern of a butterfly’s wing, or at the innumerable variety of insects found in our yard, as we tube along the Ichetucknee River, or even in the parking lot of the local grocery store. We are humbled at the thought that our Lord must have had us in mind when He was designing them.

It is great fun trying and experimenting with the many flavors and textures of the foods we have been given to sustain our lives (yeast is such a great science critter). With so many examples of God’s love in our environment and kitchen, with the beauty He has surrounded us with, how can we not have fun and enjoy it?

4. We all have funny experiences while homeschooling. Can you share one of yours with us?

Funny in a word is spelled S P E L L I N G!!! We have had many funny moments reading some inventive spelling. The topics and descriptive words my children have chosen when writing or dictating has often left my sides hurting from stifling a hearty laugh.