Saturday was the 1 year anniversary of my first half marathon. I didn't run another half or anything but we did take Olivia down to the race to see the expo and get her into the free Kid's Mini Marathon. Maggie would eventually call it 26.2 yards of pure determination.
Olivia loves my races, she gets caught up in the excitement of being a fan, the cheering, the noise, and seeing people determined enough to finish the thing. It doesn't matter if it's 26.2 yards of 26.2 miles; Olivia is a ball of cheering energy. This Saturday, though, she was the star; the runner; the racer; the winner of her age group.
Buffalo Marathon hosts a short, free, run for the kids. Generally this would be for the runners but we opted in for the nice day, free family fun, and Olivia's enjoyment. We got down there early and walked the expo (still underwhelming) and signed her up for the race. I guessed wrong about the crowd and we ended up bumping around downtown for about an hour.
Olivia pulling ahead of the pack.
Race time came and Olivia was determined. She did a few dashes to warm up, stretched, and did a few other odd things to get loose. She's such a goof and clearly has her own brand of fun. I took my place at the finish leaving Olivia and Maggie at the start. We all waited for the four-year old girls heat.
In the meanwhile, though, Olivia cheered on the younger kids in her typical exuberant manner. She loves to cheer (and I look forward to see her and Maggie cheering on my races) and she was probably the loudest in the starting line crowd.
The race director called for four-year old girls and Olivia lined up front and center. The RD started them and Olivia bolted for the finish line. On such a short course, I almost missed the shot.
Here she comes, determined, fast, and focused. She's a terrific runner and I'm glad she enjoys the excitement of races and running. Physically, she's comfortable run/walking about 1.5 miles. It is a good foundation, she's set a goal to run a 5K with Dad this Fall. We'll run/walk it together, but I'll be super proud to cross the line with her.
"Just Win if You Want to Win"
In Cincinnati's Flying Pig while Maggie and Olivia waited for me to come across the finish, Olivia took to cheering for all the runners with this encouragement, "Just Win if You Want to Win."
Well, Olivia wanted to win so she flew down the course. At the end she told me and Maggie how proud she was of herself. We were too. Her sense of self is developing nicely and what matters to her is how she feels about herself.
After crossing the line, she grabbed some hard earned cookies, a little hug and the obligatory race banana.
She runs again next week in another free event for kids in Delaware park. We'll wrap that up with a 1.8 mile walk around the park together as a family.
Maggie reminded me last night, in the middle of a heated moment of budgetary frustration, that we have a good family and this too shall pass. We all need those reminders sometimes, that at our foundation we have a good family and, despite the current tribulations, we persevere. It is a big reason I love my family - for those reminders.
For the last few years we've been experiencing what a lot of families experience; rising costs and shrinking or stagnant revenue. Like you, we've seen gas prices double and triple (if you've been driving as long as we have), soaring food prices, inflating utility costs (despite all the improvements we make to save resources or maybe because of them), and increasing government/school taxes (or assessment values if you listen to the bureaucrats). In short our money just doesn't buy what it used to buy.
Economists define inflation with that last sentence (sort of). However, if you look carefully at what is happening, it does seem as though the scales are out of balance. None the less, our money isn't stretching as far as it once did and that forces you to take stock of your lives, your property, your budgets, and the like.
Last night we experienced a setback with our property assessment where we missed some important hidden bureaucratic deadlines which in turn is going to keep a recent increase in our tax allotment up for the next year or so until we can straighten it away. It was my fault, I blame myself, and I am taking it pretty hard. Missing tiny bureaucratic details costs us money; money we don't have from details I should have found.
Without going into the details, our house is worth barely what we owe and certainly not 25% more than what we owe. Add to that an increasing school budget and a bloated town government that built a surplus of over $1 million to buy us all fancy garbage cans and...well...my Libertarian blood begins to boil.
"We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." - Winston Churchill
I digress...
As a one-income family we understand making some sacrifices for the health and happiness of our children. Maggie is an awesome mom and having her home is a tremendous boon to the growth of the family.
We made conscious choices to live more simply, live more sustainably, and rid ourselves of costly creature comforts that are easily replaced with other lower or no cost items. We have over-the-air television, grow/can some of our own food, time our showers, go most of the night with lights off, don't go on vacations, don't use our credit card, and generally live well below the Joneses of the world.
We are doing what we feel is right but for whatever reason, we are presented with challenges.
Sometimes we look on at the Joneses of the world and feel gut wrenching angst that we're doing the right things but seem to have so much less. Chalk it up to credit card debt or whatever but we wonder, in amazement, how it is done.
So, with the frustration off my shoulders, and my family standing in support we look at our budget on both sides of the bottom line. We need to look at the costs side and everything is up for review. We need to take stock in all our costs and determine if cut will our shoes stay tied. Cautiously examining things so we don't make frivolous and austere cuts that jeopardize growth or safety but enough that we can safely pay our bills, feed our family, and have something for unforeseen expenses.
We also need to take a look at the revenue stream. Are there ways to bring in more money and maintain our family environment? That's up for consideration too and ideas are beginning to percolate.
For now, we need to live on a little more of a shoestring budget and that's okay.
We need to stop worrying about the Joneses.
We need to listen to Maggie's advice, "We're a good family and this too shall pass"
Sunday was another exciting day for the family. We had a day filled with church, gardening, and Calypso but let me explain that a little.
Ring of Fire as seen in Buffalo, NY in May 1994 Taken from Oregon Live
You might know that Sunday, May 20 was the Annular Solar Eclipse where parts of the world witnessed a fabulous Ring of Fire effect as the Moon passed between the Sun and the Earth. Here in Buffalo, NY we got to see part of the lower right quadrant of the Sun be blocked by the Moon before it set behind the horizon; nothing like it was in May 1994.
We decided this was a rare opportunity to learn more about this phenomena and kept Olivia up a little late for the event. We headed down to a beach south of Buffalo to get a full view of the sunset, horizon, and whatever part of the eclipse we could see. Arriving a little early, I was able to give a little tour of where I lived while growing up and share some stories with the family. We also looked for fossils common to the shale cliffs of Lake Erie and were able to find some amazing shells.
Olivia holding the eclipse glasses on her face.
When we got to the beach, a family offered us some spare Solar Eclipse glasses. We all thought it was very nice and offered our thanks. It turns out the glasses weren't of much use by the time things got started because the sun was ducking behind some clouds making it harder to see through the glasses.
We watched as the Moon covered the lower right portion of the Sun and ventured home. Luckily we were able to catch the rest on Ustream from Scottys_Sky. We bumped around a few "live" feeds but found them lacking an actual live feed but instead were either a play-by-play announcement or periodically updated snapshots.
Scottys_Sky was live near Area 51 and had a live feed. We sat back and watched in delight as the Moon, Sun, and Earth came into alignment and formed the Ring of Fire effect. We got terrific commentary from the feed, nice crowd interaction and play with the folks at his site, and thoroughly enjoyed his efforts to broadcast this terrific event. Kudos to him.
Olivia was enamored by the experience. It is giving us a few great days of talking about, learning about, and being excited about the basics of space. She's even mocking up demonstrations we played out on the beach where she is the Earth and some rocks form the Sun and Moon. I'm amazed how quickly she grasps concepts like orbits and how objects can pass between one another in space.
Better yet, we got to experience the event as a family (including Uncle Foley). Here's some pictures of the evening.
So what of Calypso? Olivia was so excited about the beach, the dinner, and the family fun that she asked if we could come see the Calypso every night. After we figured out she was enjoying some word play with us, we began to meme the idea of Harry Belafonte providing a beachside serenade to us every night. We had a good family laugh.
A sunset family photograph
Uncle Foley, Dad, and Olivia taking in the horizon.
The sun setting at Hamburg beach. Look to the lower right of the picture and you'll see, ever so slightly, the beginning of the eclipse.
Showing Olivia the way the Moon is beginning to cover the Sun.
Maggie and I attended a party for a friend yesterday and each of us found ourselves on the receiving end of dissonance about our family's decision to homeschool. Both conversations were from K-12 teacher families and both rooted in ignorance and incorrect preconceptions of homeschooling.
Maggie's discussion was with an actual teacher who asked questions in an attempt to understand how we address and will continue to address issues of gym, music, art, socialization, testing, etc. We've spent a lot of time researching and thinking about these aspects and have some well-prepared and reasoned arguments. The conversation for Maggie was pleasant and ended with what we hope is enlightenment about how homeschooling is done with someone we believe to have genuine skill in teaching children.
My conversation was considerably more angry and attacking, including calling Maggie and me idiots for homeschooling and suggesting our kids will be retarded for doing so. Including a fantasy that Olivia's gym class is her running in circles or getting together with other retarded homeschoolers. It got my cockles up, that's for sure. It was with the husband of K-12 teacher who has repeatedly criticized our decision and wrongly thought our intention is to completely dismantle the public schooling system. Ironically, or perhaps as a result of conversations when we aren't around, it focused on gym, music, art, and socialization.
I reserved personal attacks because I don't feel they add to the discourse or serve to promote a healthy friendship. I don't mind a disagreement but calling me and my wife idiots and my kids retarded crosses the line. It shows you that there are many ways to deal with cognitive dissonance. One way is to ask questions and attempt to understand. Another is to attack, condemn, and put down.
Aren't you concerned with socialization? Yes! Aren't you?
The socialization conversation is tiresome already and we've only just begun. It gives Maggie, Olivia, Nathan, and me opportunities to practice it. This was told to me by a Masters Degree graduate from the college where I work and lifelong homeschooler - "practice addressing the socialization issue."
Sadly, this happens with those Olivia would call Uncle or Aunt (because of the closeness of our friends). Sadly, it resorts to petty name calling and angry disagreement. Now, I know he would never say that to my children but he should realize that saying it the parent is just as inflammatory. I was deeply hurt and saddened by the angry conversation. It weighs on my mind heavily.
The idea that homeschoolers are isolated or lack social skills is simply unfounded, untrue, and disproven. Social maladjustment happens regardless of educational environment; in many ways it is hardwired in our children. Because homeschooling is far from isolated and instead part of a highly connected world filled with networks, people, and possibilities homeschoolers often have advanced social skills including an ability to interact with people of all ages, professions, levels, etc.
Olivia is as comfortable talking to Ph.D's as she is with younger children. She regularly engages people in conversations about many things and sometimes finds herself easily bored with platitudes and placating. Maggie and I never practiced baby talk with Olivia. We always spoke to her as an adult. We use a wide vocabulary and help her to understand the words. We put ourselves in situations where we all get to interact with different people and topics. It is part of how we see ourselves in the world.
On the flip side of socialization, let's address some common schooling social situations that most people would find disagreeable.
How many eighth graders are pregnant in your school?
How many conversations are had about drugs, drinking, excessive partying, etc in your school?
How many students are mocked for being above the curve or common level of knowledge in your school?
How many students are mocked for physically developing early or late in your school?
How many students are bullied to the point of regression, depression, or suicide in your school?
How many students feel social pressure to wear a certain thing or not wear a certain thing in your school?
How many students are victims of peers' behavior problems in your school?
How many students are more concerned with dating than learning in your school?
How many inappropriate teacher conversations are overheard by students in your school?
This is a recent example of how broken our schooling system can be for some students.
I can continue the list but I feel the point is amply made. To stave off bias there are plenty of good conversations that result from good teachers following constructivist or social constructivist theories of learning. However, with testing, State and Federal mandates, etc these types of activities are not the rule but the exception.
One final question for the socialization issue: Would you rather have your children be prepared to have conversations with a wide, diverse, and interesting population or not? If not, then by all means follow your gut on that just don't mock our desire to have our children be part of the wider world.
How do we learn art, music, and gym (substitute any subject here)?
As I covered earlier, homeschoolers are connected to a wide and diverse world where we can learn from experts like professional musicians, other homeschool families with experts in particular areas, visit organizations and businesses who deal with these topics daily, or simply dig in and learn it ourselves (that is possible to do you know). Homeschoolers are also quite active in intramural sporting activities with other homeschoolers.
Which do you think is more exciting? Learning from a generalist in a school setting who can't possibly be an expert in all areas or a specialist who makes a living or excels in that field?
Now we know plenty of teachers and school administrators. We know plenty of highly educated people. Many of whom are experts in their fields and we'd be proud to have them teaching our child. Alas, we don't get to pick the teachers unless we homeschool - then we can pick from a fleet of experts, resources, and situations.
Anything left to say here?
Well, yes, a few more things. Public schools are a blip in the education landscape. For centuries before education was a highly individualized and diverse experience where students studied at home or under a master. The public schooling system is wrought with union and tenure problems. Public schools are widely criticized as being throwbacks to an agricultural and industrial era where the goal was to produce workers capable of performing tasks in a burgeoning industrial complex. Worse, public schools, at least in our area, are producing a remarkably low level of graduates who can boast an 85% of higher in areas like reading, writing, math, and science. Read the report for our district.
Last point, I promise.
Teachers in schooling environments are forever complaining that parents don't do enough, parents need to engage their children more, that teachers can't do everything, and/or that families aren't doing what is needed to adequately prepare their children for life. Well, here we are doing 100% of that work. How much more should we be doing? Perhaps, the crux of the problem really is that teachers can't do it all, won't do more, and need families to feel guilty about the contribution levels in order to preserve an outdated and outmoded model of education that is really more of a employment office than a place of learning.
We homeschool and we're proud. You're welcome to disagree but please don't attack our choice with myopic and ignorant preconceptions. Instead trying having an open mind, ask questions, and learn about our choice. We promise to respect your choices for your children and please respect ours.
Today we finally got our Three Sisters garden planted. We're all very excited to try this ancient and proven system of planting corn, beans, and squash out for ourselves.
The legend of the Three Sisters is an Iroquois legend associated with creation. It is said that these three sisters support and help each other. In the garden it works like this:
Beans provide nitrogen to help the corn and squash
Squash provides a natural mulch keeping weeds down and moisture in the soil for all the plants.
In our garden (which is not pictured here) we updated the planting with heirloom varieties of Strawberry Popcorn, White Runner Beans, and three different varieties of pumpkins (Cinderella, Fairytale, and Connecticut Field Pumpkins).
The idea of planting in mounds was new to us since we have success in rows of plantings but we managed to get the mounds built, plant all the seeds, and not crush our new plantings as we moved through the garden.
We're doing more planting this year than past years to help with the food budget, learn a little more about eating in season, and have supplies for canning that will last the Winter and not focus on pickles or salsa. Our main garden goes in, hopefully, Sunday and it will feature peas, two types of bush beans, more popcorn (we love popcorn), and whatever else we can fit in the 12'x12' box.
Gardening is something that Olivia and I enjoy together. She likes to hear the stories and help with the planting. Last Summer she enjoyed pulling out the carrots early and enjoying the fresh sweetness of a crisp homegrown carrot.
In terms of learning, well, we focus on the enjoyment but if there are lessons they amount to patience, nature, nurture, science, and economics. By no stretch of the imagination do we openly incorporate these discussions. We just talk about what is happening and enjoy the fruits of our labor.
Olivia is promising to make some fairy houses for the pumpkins. We've certainly got the sticks for it. The promise of fairytale pumpkins and Cinderella pumpkins has her all aflutter with possibilities. Add to that our decision to plant wildflowers instead of grass in our bare spots and the backyard has become a little girl's fantasy realm. I can't wait to see what she does with it.
Learning and science is sometimes about failure and learning to deal with failures in stride. Some of our greatest achievements are first born in failures.
Alright, a little melodramatic for the first attempt at making yogurt with a four-year old but the these opportunities are important for teaching Olivia about perseverance, vigilance, and reflection.
What happened?
Following the recipe we made only a change to the starter yogurt and used Fage. Waiting the three hours resulted in simply warm yogurty milk in mason jars. Olivia had gone to bed by this point so I made the call to dump all the yogurt except one jar. My intention was to show Olivia what had happened and discuss the attempt and failure. In checking other recipes it seemed that Dr. Fankhauser's three hours was a little short. I left the remaining jar in the heated cooler for a total of ten hours.
It did thicken up in ten hours but it wasn't like anything described in various recipes. Olivia and I took a careful look at the yogurt, tasted it, and followed the remaining step which was to refrigerate the yogurt for eight hours. After eight hours it was no different in thickness but was cold.
Judging from Dr. Fankhauser's troubleshooting tips and Internet searches yogurts like Fage often sit on the shelf too long at the store which reduces the amount of live cultures in the yogurt. Dr. Fankhauser recommends Dannon and others did as well. However, more recipes suggested Stonyfield brand plain yogurt.
What's next?
We are both committed to giving this another shot using a better starter, checking it at three hours but being prepared for ten to twelve hours of incubation, and hoping for better results. So, the promised pictures, we're going to post will be of the successful batch. We'll include the detailed steps and recipe too.
Now that Olivia is nearing the end of our school district's Pre-K program it was time to sit down and talk about what she wanted to learn for the next year. Here in New York State we don't need to declare our homeschooling intentions or curriculum until she turns 6 but that's no reason to hold back learning if she wants to learn something. We wanted to make sure she was getting a rounded experience all year long and still remain child-led.
Throughout the year Olivia has been using the kitchen and food for what she deems "science" and so we talked about how to turn that into some Olivia-appropriate learning for the coming year. In our discussions Olivia said she wanted to make cheese and the quest to build a curriculum began.
We've got a lot of experience in our family with food science with nearly a decade of homebrewing beer (not an Olivia project), a food science company in the family, and few years of finding/creating our own recipes for delicious and healthy food.
After searching the Internet for a while, I happened across a cheese making curriculum from a University of Cincinnati professor, Dr. David Fankhauser. While this is written for older people than our Olivia, the steps are clearly laid out, illustrated, and concisely worded. Also, I truly appreciate how Dr. Fankhauser scaffolded the whole cheese making process from making a simple yogurt to a 1 lb. wheel of bleu cheese (although we might substitute cheddar).
Now, this was written at a level Dad can understand and the intended audience wasn't a 4-year old (albeit bright) curious girl. This is where the family aspect of homeschooling comes into play. How do we take this adult-oriented complex process and make lessons out of it for our child? That's the beauty of Dr. Fankhauser's curriculum; it is written in a way that you can not only easily extract lessons for kids but also repeat and build the learning up to the mastery level of making cheese at home.
Our plan is to build in steps to each scaffolded project. At first, Olivia will learn some basic steps for each project. For example, in making yogurt (project #1), Olivia will learn these steps:
Clean the jars to get rid of germs.
Heat up the milk.
Cool down the milk.
Mix the slurry (a fun word).
Mix the slurry into the milk.
Pour the milk into jars.
Put the jars into a cooler (or hot box as she calls it since we heat it up with warm water).
Step 6. Pour the milk into jars.
We will stay at this level and with yogurt until she gets good at it. We're in no hurry and embedded with each attempt with each project is some basic science, math, and composition (via a video story about the project that Olivia will record). All Olivia-appropriate.
Olivia is excited to make yogurt, cheese, and have fun in the kitchen with Dad. We've got to work on some perceptions that are completely natural for a kid; like the yogurt we are making isn't the strawberry-banana stuff in the colorful containers and the cheese we make isn't deli cheese in individual plastic wrappers. So, add to culture to math, science, and composition.
Mom's excited to have help with making things Olivia-appropriate, helping with the composition, and enjoying the fruits of the labor.
Dad's excited to be learning along side Olivia the craft of making cheese, building and implementing the curriculum (along with Mom and Olivia), and watching Oliva go from cheesy apprentice to cheesy master. We'll post about the first night making yogurt once we get Olivia's video dairy about it...right now the yogurt is incubating in the "hot box" for a few hours.
I encourage you to check out the About page for a little background. Our purpose is to share, chronicle, and connect our lives to other similar families. No sense in beating that About page to death, hop over and take a read.
