CHN Family Expo Reflections

My husband and I were talking on the way home from the Expo on Saturday afternoon and he mentioned that the Expo seems to be smaller than when he went last year. He was right, it did seem that way. The past few years, I believe the organization has been experimenting with different venues to see if they can’t make the Expo more intimate and friendly. I don’t know what the attendance or membership numbers are, so I can’t say if that has changed or not. But I do have a story to tell.

When my first son was born, my step-daughter was starting 1st grade in the local public school near her mother’s apartment. It was in a nice neighborhood and one of the better schools in Orange County, better meaning more money was spent there with fewer children attending public schools. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like that she was already reading fluently way above her peers and had to sit through phonics lessons. I didn’t like that she was bound to a classroom from 6 to 7 hours a day. And I didn’t like that she was forced to homework way beneath her level of understanding for an hour each evening. I knew that the situation would only get worse as she progressed through the grades. She was put into GATE classes in second grade. I assumed this meant work at her level, but really it translated to a greater amount of the same work. Besides, some things she wasn’t more mature at, like organizing her thoughts or class work. That was when I began looking into alternatives for my own children. Private schools were too expensive and the more I read the more I like the homeschooling idea. I couldn’t change what my step-daughter was going through at school. That is up to her mother. But I do support her and help her through as best I can from where I am now.

Fast forward a few years. I find California Homeschool Network and read up. It seems pretty straight forward. My boys were not of school age just yet, so I had plenty of time to research. I’m also lucky enough to have a husband who completely supports me in my decisions about the children. We talk about things all the time and consult each other, but his philosophy is he takes care of the outside of the house, working, and the money. I take care of the children, cleaning, feeding, and general indoor stuff. Oh, and the garden, because he hates that. Anything to do with power tools is out of my league, but I digress. It works out great. Because he trusts my judgment and I trust his, we get along so well, it is frightening to others.

A friend of mine, who was also looking into homeschooling, emailed me about a Family Expo in Riverside in a couple weeks, hosted by CHN. I signed up and since grandparents are free, take my grandpa along with me. We were both amazed. He was amazed at the number of people that were there. I was amazed about the information being thrown at me. We were both amazed at the friendliness and warmth of the people and the number of children with their parents that we saw. Kids running from their parents, parents either completely ignoring the behavior of their children (as if they are not theirs) or yelling and threatening them to behave, are the family scenarios I typically see. This was not the case here. And I wanted to be like them. I was convinced. I went home and started working on HOW we were going to homeschool.

Our styles and theories have changed over the past three years. My husband and I went to the next years Expo together and this year we brought along the kids. We liked having the weekend to regroup ourselves for the coming year, so next year I think we will go it alone. We do so many things together as a family that sometimes it is nice to just be the two of us, as greedy as that may sound.

And now I come to the point of my entry! We were discussing CHN membership and what it means. I wondered what the benefits of membership were and if those benefits matched the cost. My husband was more on the side of supporting an organization that helps so many people see that homeschooling is feasible in California. I think he hit the nail on the head. No we may not get a discount at the student store, or tickets to special events, or a flashy magazine each month, but we do have the peace of mind that there are people out there that are trying their best to keep homeschooling simple and legal in California. The Expo is a celebration of that. I would hope that my $30 combined with so many others would help people with young children start homeschooling before they find out that they cannot work within the public school system. I hope that it helps parents that have children struggling in public school realize that there are other options and you don’t have to be rich or super smart to utilize them. I would love to see CHN at more education related events, like OC Parenting and Book Fairs. That would be my dream. To see the private homeschooling option right up there with the super expensive private school and the public charter that boasts of higher test scores if you use their program.

I hope that someone that reads this in California decides that it would be nice to send in their $30 to CHN and become a member each year, not because they need to be a part of a group or we need to band together. I want people to support a group that reaches out to others so that they will know their options. I want to support a group that helps others be better parents. I want someone out there helping others to be as happy with homeschooling as I am. And I want to support a group that watches our government like a hawk to protect the private school laws as they stand and watch for changes that may affect all parents of small children.

Ok, I’m stepping down now. I hope I made someone think a little. California Homeschool Network is the reason I homeschool today. If it weren’t for this organization, I don’t know how else I would have gotten started. There are other groups. But this one, I feel, serves the general public without offending any of the other parts. (I don’t have the vocabulary for this sentence, sorry.) This group is for ALL homeschoolers, not just one kind or another. And I think it is for all parents that want what is best for their children.

Oooo! An Entry Two Days in a Row! Wow!

I should have started this entry earlier in the day because now I have to go back in my mind and retrieve it. I kept trying to, but I found Nikki listening to music she is downloading whenever I had a chance.

My chores today were to clean the upstairs bathroom and do the boys’ laundry. And it got done! We forgot to take the trash cans to the curb last night, so now the yard trash did not get empty. Luck for us they don’t come for the house trash first! That one is always full.

This morning I wrote some emails I had been meaning to get to. I talked my Aunt several times and we are now on the same page about having a family get-together more often. This is what we did for “school” today.

Bible Study: Read a passage from the Bible and draw a picture of the story.

Copy Work: Both the boys are working on their penmanship. They copied a line about Washington that is on a plaque at Mount Vernon. It made me cry! Jake traces nicely and Tom’s is getting so much neater and quicker.

Reading: Tom finished reading a DK book about the race to the moon and told me all about it. Jake got half way through “Green Eggs and Ham”. He is really reading well. We started reading a few minutes each day from a book he picks. He has picked up a lot of speed in the past three or four weeks.

Math: Jake and I worked on counting by 5’s. We are going through the last half of Right Start Math Level A. When we finish with it, I will get the next level and work more with Tom again. This level is just too easy for him and Jake hasn’t learned it yet so it make him crazy to see Tom understand the lesson so quickly.

Science: We went to the Natural History Museum in LA. They gravitated to the bird section and we spent about an hour in there. I have been carrying around their “science notebooks” for weeks now. Jake asked for it today so that he could write something down. He made a “Bird Guessing Game” and drew a picture of the ocean birds diorama that we were looking at. Tom drew the same diorama. They looked awesome and they spent quite a bit of time on it.

History: We listened to our new CD by Jim Weiss on the way to the museum. It is about the Scottish kicking the English out of their country during the 13th century. It is a great story. Tom was riveted and he did notice that the story was much like Robin Hood.

When we got home the boys went swimming for a while. Now they are out and Dad is out of his office and I’m off to make dinner!

Tom convinced Dad to get out the electric guitar while I was making dinner. Wow, what a racket! Nikki and Dad can actually play things, but Tom THINKS he can and just makes so much noise. Dad told Jake he was still too little and it about broke his heart. He was comforted by some time on the computer with Dad, so he lost interest. Tom left the guitar laying on the couch and I saw Jake walk over, pick up the pick, and pluck a few strings. Then he says to himself, “It’s not what I thought.” and walked away. He didn’t worry about the guitar anymore.

After dinner we played Star Wars Trivia DVD, under duress! Jake insists on playing that game and we are all bored. Nikki is the only one who knows any of the answers! The boys got their pj’s on and then we watched a show on National Geographic about Atlantis. Tom liked it. We talked a lot about exploring. Jake lost interest and built things with the Knex.

When we went to bed, the boys hadn’t finished getting their teeth brushed and putting away their laundry like they were supposed to BEFORE the came down to watch tv with me, so we didn’t get to finish “A Journey to the Center of the Earth”. They were bummed, but seriously, how much do I ask them to do! I was bummed out too because I really want to know what happens!

What DID we do today?

This past weekend we spent at the CHN Family Expo in Ontario. That wore us out. Ok, it wore me out! So today I was pretty positive when I got up that we would be taking the day off from any formal “lessons”. We had donuts and milk for first breakfast and washed down an hour later with pizza left over from Saturday night. I was determined to work in the back yard this morning before it got hot, so I pulled weeds in my so-called garden (it only has a couple strawberry plants and a scraggly cucumber plant). I cleaned up my containers and talked to Dan about moving them somewhere else and then moving our 100 year old grape vines to that sunny spot. Our neighbor who bought the house next door built up his new house so much that the place they were in no longer gets enough sun for the poor vines and I would hate to lose such an heirloom as these plants. Dan looked at me like I had spiders in my nose, but I know he understands the value of the plants and will attempt to help me with the project.

The next project I started was to clean out a cubby between my back door and my MIL’s. This spot gets nasty because the dryer vent is there and all the bikes and other toys accumulate there because it is under the eaves. I cleaned it all out and threw away a bunch of toys, washed what was left and reorganized a bit. It looks ok. Don’t you hate it when you clean up and sweat and work and it doesn’t look much better than before? At least the whole thing isn’t covered with dryer lint anymore!

You are now probably wondering what my kids were doing. Well, Nikki was in her room working on her guitar and reading. She is reading 1984 and telling me all about it. I get to read it next and I wish she would hurry up! Jake and Tom were in the pool most of the time. We just have a little blow up pool about 10 feet across and 2 feet deep. It was the best $40 I have spent this summer. They will be in that thing for hours, day after day.

Now it is lunch time, more pizza. I told you, I’m not in the mood to be super Mom today!

We read some of a new book about George Washington called “The Story of Mount Vernon” by Natalie Miller. We bought it at the Expo on Sunday for a dollar. Tom looked up where Maryland and the Potomac River was on the map. We need to get a new one! Jake listened while he was playing with the roller coaster track. The boys and I put together the Time Machine from National Geographic that my aunt bought them. That was fun. We put different things in the tubes to see if they would work for the battery. Tom put together the Ph levels he was checking at the Huntington Gardens Rain Forest Conservatory a couple of weeks ago and the Ph levels of the liquids we were using for the batteries today. The higher the number, the lower the acid level. It was neat. We checked the Ph of our spit.

I am reading another book that I got at the Expo called “Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?” by Richard J Maybury. If you ever want a great explanation of economics, check this out. I love it! I have almost finished it and I feel smarter. I can’t wait to read others in the series.

Tom is building Lego structures. Jake and Nikki are playing Battlefront on the Xbox. And I’m writing this. Don’t you wish I’d go on forever? It’s 4:30. I’m going to wait a bit before I post this. I might have more to tell. Tom and I are making a dinner that he thought of yesterday while we were at the grocery store. It was so cute because he saw a can of sweet and sour sauce and he wanted to make the recipe on the can. I said sure and we went around getting all the ingredients. Finally, I said, “Let’s get Hawaiian bread!” And he said “Mom, are you sure we can afford all of this?” Too funny, he wouldn’t ask that if we were buying some toy he “needed”. That led to a great discussion about why I say I won’t buy something because it is too expensive. It isn’t that we can’t afford it, it is that it isn’t a good buy for us.

Oh! And I finished Nikki’s laundry and mine. 

Dinner is over! Tom helped me make the dinner he planned. He cut up the carrots, peppers, and experienced the cutting of an onion. That made me laugh because I always tell him that the onions make me cry and he never understood. Now he does. He made the rice too. I told him that you put one cup of rice with two cups of water, but we need to double it. He says right away, “So two cups of rice and four cups of water?” We had dinner and it was great. Jake helped me with the dishes.

After dinner, Jake wanted to do a show with his Lego things and a flashlight. He had been “experimenting” with a flashlight, paper, and many of his toys on and off all afternoon. So now he has this show. He has Nikki be the light and Tom helped him with the characters. It was so funny! Grandma came in to watch.

Now they are out in the back yard. They wanted to wrestle some before it gets dark. Nikki is upstairs trying to finish 1984 before school starts again in a couple weeks. It is sad that she has to put away books that she wants to read during the school year. L

That is it for today. I’m going to try to get these guys to bed early. I’m reading a great book called “A Wrinkle in Time” that I also got at the Expo. I think that was the best part, buying all those used books. I love books!  AND now Dan is reading "What Ever Happened to Penny Candy?"

Definition of "Hero"

If you would like to read something that will bring tears to your eyes, please go to Jim Weiss' website and read the whole page! http://www.greathall.com/jimwrites.html

We first heard Jim speak last year at the CHN Expo in Southern California. We were amazed by his story-telling and were inspired to use some of his tellings in our homeschool and attempt to teach them to re-tell their favorites as well. Every time I go to his website, I come away with some new bit of inspiration. I beg you to check it out for yourself!

What Started the Vietnam War?

I know you are wondering how in the world I got stuck on studying Vietnam, but there is logic to this. My grandfather and I were debating the other day and I realized that I had absolutely no information about that subject to draw from. That is sad! Another reason to understand what happened in Vietnam is to understand why people compare what is happening today in Irag, to the war in Vietnam.

So here it goes. I read a website that gave me a basic timeline to the war.  Also, I borrowed a great book from the library called "America's Vietnam War" by Elizabeth Becker. Not being a huge history buff, I really liked reading this book cover to cover. I found it easy to read and I remembered many details just from reading it once through. Now I'm going through it and taking notes, mostly to answer questions I gave myself after reading the first time.

This was the first question. What started the Vietnam War?

The Indochina War started as a war of independence between France and the Viet Minh in Vietnam and ended with the United States fronting 80% of French war costs to stop communism from taking over Asia.

1920's & 1930's Vietnamese oppose French colonial rule (since early 1800's)

1940 WWII - Germany occupies France and sends Japanese ally to establish bases in all French Indochinese colonies.

1945 Ho Chi Minh works with United States to oust Japan, atomic bomb dropped, Japanese surrender, British allies return  Vietnam to France (pre WWII conditions), Roosevelt had condemned the idea of colonialism as a cruel and ancient practice, but Truman was more worried about communism in France. France viewed as a country mostly likely to elect a communist government, it was the most unstable after WWII.

1946 NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) formed to fight Russian communism. France basically blackmails US by refusing to help NATO unless US funds their colonial war.

1950 US views Ho Chi Minh as part of Soviet Russia's attempt to expand communism all over Asia. Ho Chi Minh downplays communism ideas and stresses independence to gain support from his country.

1953 Eisenhower, now President of US, pushes France to plan a larger battle. France builds garrison at Diem Bien Phu thinking they could beat Viet Minh in a classic battle. Viet Minh don't attack head on, gain high ground, and bomb French until they surrender in May 1954.

May 1954 Geneva Conference with France, Great Britian, United States, China, Soviet Union. France agrees to leave Vietnam and split country into North and South until and election can be held in two years. Russia convinces Viet Minh to take deal and not confront United States directly. Ho Chi Minh feels cheated that his country is split in two.

So that is what I know as of now. I do know that the US helped set up a democracy in South Vietnam and helped set up elections for the whole country. That never happened because the South Vietnamese government knew that North Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh) would win elections because the whole country believed that he had rid them of the French. The US did not want another communist government in Asia so it backed up the South Vietnamese.

More to come! :)

Benjamin Franklin

Hey everybody! I just finished reading Ben Franklin's Autobiography. You have to read this! What an amazing testimony to self-reliance. The man was brilliant and taught himself from books he read (and there wasn't the local library or amazon.com), all while he worked to keep himself alive.  What amazed me most was his determination. His reputation among his fellow man was so important to him. He regretted every mistake he felt he made and tried his best to make amends each time. He listened to others when they found fault in him and tried to fix those faults. He also spent his entire life trying to make the world better, not just in his own back yard but everywhere. You have to read this book if you are homeschooler.

Skirball Cultural Center

Yesterday we went to the new Noah's Ark exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles with Poppy. These are the days that I marvel about how wonderful it is to live in Southern California (the other days I'm grumbling about it)! The exhibit was awesome! I have few pictures because I was playing too much, sorry!

 All the animals are made out of recycled, excuse me "repurposed" materials. The kids had more fun trying to figure out what each animal used to be! Jake was in love because there was a room full of stuffed animals. And Tom spent most of his time trying to figure out how things worked and how he might be able to make it at home. Nikki just walked around making jokes. My comedian!

 If you are any where near LA, I highly recommend that you come see this place!