What's your story?

I wonder now and then where Jordan will be if we continue the homeschooling. Maybe like one of those preteens who graduate college with degrees in rocket science and molecular engineering? Or a semi-famous, troubled ski pro like that guy whose name escapes me. All I can think of is Billy Kidd, but he's a generation back. I'll think of it later. (Edit: Bode Miller. He was home-schooled in the mountains of somewhere till the third grade.)

So I was wondering if a bunch of you folks who have been homeschooled and/or are homeschooling might have some stories you could share relevant to the comparison of homeschool with public or private school. I'll probably take the hunt out to other blogs, since most people come here wanting to find out about homeschool. I'm reinventing the wheel as I go along in most cases, but it's still coming out round.

That's what leads me to wonder if there's an upside to learning everything you can sooner. I would think there is. How many of us have said at some or another that we wish we knew then what we know now? I know I would have benefited in so many ways. Not to say I wouldn't have found other ways to throw wrenches into my life's path, but I might have found out better uses for my tools.

Any comments, please?

Going with what works

It's that hap-happiest time of the year. Not only Christmas coming up at the end of the coming month, but Jordan's birthday at the beginning of the month. He's been asking for three months how many days till his birthday, and now that it's only seven, he asks several times a day.

Still working the homeschooling and loving it. Had a couple of outings with the homeschool co-op group we're planning to join at the beginning of the year. Looks like a great group of kids, which will be a good thing for Jordan, to add to the number of friends that he has. The actual homeschooling itself goes so well I wonder if I'm leaving something out sometimes.

Jordan is signed up for basketball coming up this month. Got him a 28.5-inch ball, the size he'll be using, and got him bouncing around the house. He's picked up dribbling very well. We've got a post in the backyard on a concrete pad that looks like it used to have a basketball net. Just need to figure out how to get a pole, backboard, and basket on it. Or maybe it'd be easier to dig that thing out and get a movable setup.

We got his birthday gifts bought, along with his Cars cake ordered. He had a Cars cake last year. Nothing has come along to take away its magic for him, I guess. So be it. Works for me. I even ordered the same kind of marbled cake with whipped icing. Go with what works, eh?

Giving my son the business

What's the future going to be like? Forty hour work weeks, still? Working at home more? More privately owned busiensses? Entrepreneurship going crazy?

What does the school system teach a baby these days? The same thing as it always did? We must learn our three R's and get ready to be a good little automaton. Factories need bolt tighteners?

I don't think so.

I'm into teaching my son the joys of Monopoly, the ravages of Life, the fall of dominoes. I want him to think more about starting his own business than about working for somebody else's business. Of course, there comes the problem of how to reinforce that desire. Kids think of things to do immediately, things that I as an adult know in my own stilted adult way won't work. Or will they?

What's stopping me from putting up a lemonade stand? The health department? The tax department? Competition from the Speedway down the street?

Do I know too much to start my own business?

Gotta get a lawyer, an accountant, a lawyer for the accountant, an accountant for the lawyers, and soon, I've got to get another job to pay for the great job I thought up. Why does my mind think that way? Bad brain, bad.

The daddy difference, part 3

This isn't really part three of anything. I just decided I liked the name, "the daddy difference." Lots of people are noticing the dads at home, and perhaps more are turning away from the stereotype of Keaton's "Mr. Mom," seeing that as the comedy which it is and not the reality, which it can also be, no matter the sex of the parent.

I've just added a new SAH Parent link to Evolution Of Dad's blog after getting an email from one of the associate producers of the film called, The Evolution of Dad. It's one of those things that a lot of us blogging SAHDs look and say, "Sheesh, why didn't I think of that?"

Truth is, we probably thought of it, but didn't have the gumption to put it together. From the looks of the site, Messeurs Kaufman, Glatzer, et al, have done a great job, garnering notice from no less than Time Magazine. So, kudos, and here's my salute to the cause of helping SAHDs achieve full credibility.

Maybe someday there will be an Evolution of Dad II, in which the hero is also a work-at-home dad who takes on the added job of homeschooling his young charge, and together they save the world through advanced play on some kind of handheld computer game device.

The daddy difference, part 2

Previously, I tried to analyze my thoughts about the effects on the child of having Daddy stay home instead of Mommy. After thinking through the situation, I wonder if the bigger effect is not on the parent.

I've become a lot more in tune with "why." Why what? Why anything.

"Why do I have to study?"
"Why do you have to work?"
"Why don't you want me to stomp in puddles?"

I do my child the respect of analyzing his questions, and I try never to give him the old "because I said so" answer, though sometimes I do. When I do, I apologize for being short with him and try to explain why I was that way. The scary thing is that he sometimes analyzes my responses depending on tone and attitude. Other times, he uses his feelings as an excuse for being the way he is. "Kids my age want to have lots of candy." Life father, like son, I guess.

There are lots of other things that have changed about me since I've been daddy, teacher, friend to a growing child, and all of it has been good for me, hopefully for him, too.