A Letter to Myself in 1992

I write for Latter-day Homeschooling and this is my submission today:

We recieved this inspiring e-mail from a reader and decided to share it here.  I left out the name but if you recognize this letter and want to be acknowledged just let us know and I will put your name back in.

I am 17 years old and I want to homeschool my children some day (no, I don't have kids-no I'm not married, and yes I'm still in High School)
As the time came to select our classes for our senior year- I was thinking about what I want my future to look like.
I want to go to college, meet a nice guy, get married (in the temple) and have kids, and maybe Home-school my children.

I know & babysit many families with homeschooled kids- they seem SO much more intelligent and happy.
I love the idea of being close and spending more time than otherwise.
Only thing is....

What things can I do now to prepare for my future as a Home-schooler mother?

 What are some important skills I need to be a homeschooler mother that I can gain now?

Do you like what you do?

Thanks! I love reading your posts (even though I'm only 17)

 My Dear Young Friend,

Oh, Bless You for knowing what you want for your future children!   I am so excited for you because you are at the PERFECT time in your life to prepare for this important (no other is more important in my opinion) mission.  So many homeschooling mothers realize AFTER they have little munchkins running around that they wish that they were better prepared and there just isn't any time!  "There is no time" we cry " If only I had known about this when I was younger!"

Study NOW!  
Fill yourself up with knowledge learn everything you can.  Read, read, read. Try out all the wonderful branches of knowledge that are available to us in this information age. Discover beauty, become addicted to learning. Become an encyclopedia that your children can turn to for questions.


Get an Education:
Education and school are not necessarily synonymous.  Find out what true education means to you and then choose your future institution.  Choose one that will mold your character and enrich your mind rather than just provide you the credentials to earn a living.  Choose one that you can afford so that you and your husband will not be saddled with debt.


Use Your Time Wisely:
You are young and you deserve to have fun but don't waste your time on things that don't bring you joy or don't prepare you for your mission. You might have time to read The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire now you WON'T when you are a mom.  Keep a book or audio book with you at all times.


Become a Student of the World:
Engage with the people around you.  Everyone knows something, you can learn from everyone.  Ask questions, be bold!  If you can afford it I highly recommend travel.  It is amazing how your mind broadens and opens when you travel to a new place, city, town, society or culture!  You won't have time later.

Establish a Relationship with the Lord:
Search, ponder and pray.  Become dependent upon the Lord.  Listen to the spirit, read the scriptures, understand the Atonement , dedicate yourself to Him. Discover his plan for you and your family. Establish now patterns of study, meditation, prayer, service and charity so that when your children arrive you will already have those things in place as your most valuable support and resource.

If you teach your children nothing else you will have succeeded.

Love,
Samurai Mom

P. S. I LOVE what I do.

Snow Much Fun!

We happened upon a great wintertime book.  It is called  The Story of Snow 

it has those amazing photographs of snowflakes on a microscope slide.  They are just beautiful. 

The book explains how snow crystals are formed and why they look like they do.

  

Did you know that snow crystals always have 6 arms or sides?  This is because water molecules attach themselves in groups of 6.  How interesting!

What the book doesn't include but should is instructions for cutting your own six sided snowflake, which is what we did after we read this book.  

I suggest using a slightly lighter weight paper than your typical printer paper.  It is really hard to cut through all of those layers and I ended up needing to cut every one's flakes which led to many tears.  Old fashioned typewriter paper, newsprint, origami or tissue paper would work very nicely.  We also used different sized paper hole punches for some of the details.

Grammar is So Unforgiving

Today is the beginning of the end.  Nutmeg has been reading Level 1 books for a few weeks now, reading is her new passion.  I am so happy but also sad because not 10 minutes ago she was looking at the cover of Little Red Riding Hood and said to me "Mom, shouldn't it be l-i-t-t-O-l?"

Nutmeg has a charming little accent that is hard to pin down.  She likes to pronounce things with a lot of vowels.  "Littol," "clev-uh," "Sister Doming-uh."

As I explained to her that "little" was pronounced "litt-L," I could see the puzzle pieces arranging themselves in her mind. The puzzle of "They way that I say words are not they way that they are spelled.  Either the words are spelled incorrectly  or I am saying them incorrectly."

I am afraid that the benefits of reading and correct spelling will shortly chase her haughty little accent away.

"I Just Like Nature"

Boba Fett has made an important decision. He phoned the grandparents right away and left the the following message: "Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I have decided to become a zoologist and I started a nature journal. Bye."

This does not come as a surprise to the Mr. and I. Boba Fett has been aiming at a career at the zoo for some years now but this evening he confided to me that he didn't know if he wanted to to work at the zoo or to study animals. He was relieved to find out that the two occupations are compatible. He was a little dismayed to learn that college was involved as well as mastering the tricksy skill of reading but I think he is willing to power through.

One problem though, Boba Fett plans to relocate to Montana and was sad to learn that the only zoo in Montana isn't anywhere close to Grandma's house. I will have to let him know about the fish and game opportunities in NW Montana.

We discussed "observing" things and set up a nature journal with a primary study of Little Fishy, one of our goldfish.

Tomorrow's subject: Rocks.

One Year of Unplugged

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of our Unplugged Experiment. It isn't really and experiment any longer, we have decided it is a keeper.
One year ago I decided that it was time for extreme measures and send all of the remote controls to work with Moose while I and my plucky band of small people were left to amuse ourselves in other ways. We were not allowed to play on the computer or watch TV until Moose came home from work.

Occasionally, on Mondays we watch an episode of "Nature" together.

The results? We are now able to maintain some sort of a routine during the day. Increased imaginative play in all the children. Those same children playing with one another in general harmony. Commander C has become an avid reader and has taken to drawing comics. Boba Fett continues to ask questions that floor us and is learning to read. Nutmeg has learned to knit AND read and spends hours a day writing and drawing and dancing. I grew a garden, created an entirely new form of biking, started a fashion empire, kicked a congressman's butt and fell in love with a house.

Our pet fish still live.

Samurai Mom Steps Out

I don't blog very often about our homeschool adventures mostly because this blog is my space where I share what is exciting to ME. It's my way of taking time for myself. Not that I don't LOVE homeschooling and think my kids are amazing, it's just that it isn't very spectacular in a way that one can see. It is a process that take time and little, tiny, agonizingly slow steps.

That will change as I have been asked to be a regular contributor to a new homeschooling blog, Latter-day Homeschooling! So saunter over there and check it out. It won't be hard to find my post, there is only one so far and it is about how I am moving. There hasn't been much blogging by Samurai Mom anywhere because I am busy yelling "Pick that up RIGHT NOW!" and obsessing over the amount of dust that accumulates in one day. Perhaps I should take this time to FOCUS on blogging?

In Which I Come Perilously Close to Becoming A "Look How Smart My Kid Is" Blogger

Last night Nutmeg wanted me to teach her how to knit. The thing about Nutmeg is:
1) She is very persistent as in "This reading lesson will not end until I can read the entire book."
2) She does not like to be helped, she wants to do it herself.
3) She is a perfectionist and gets frustrated and quits. I have seen her crumple up an entire drawing because she made an accidental mark and "ruined" it.
We started out last night with some worn size 13 bamboo needles and some bulky wool. It didn't go very well so I sent her to bed, dug through a foot of knitting stuff to find my very pointy plastic needles size 17 (I think) and some extra chunky acrylic yarn. A much more slippery combination .
Then I turned to that marvelous tool the Internet, looked up "How to teach kids to knit" and found this poem:

How to Knit:
In through the front door
Around to the back
Out through the window
And off jumps Jack

How to Purl:
Under the fence
Catch the sheep
Back we come
And off we leap.

It worked like a charm. She is knitting, alone, gets mad as a hatter when I try to help. One 10 minute lesson.
Watch out world there is a new knitter in town, age 3 3/4.

*At the risk of turning into a silly mommy blog can I just say I am so proud of Nutmeg? I have been looking forward to the day where I would teach my daughter to knit for a long time. Of course I thought that the day would be a little further along down the road!*

One Good Thing About the Swine Flu Hysteria

The one good this as far as I can see about the Swine Flu Pandemic Scare is that finally our nation's school children are allowed to actually stay home when they are sick. Attendance policies are being loosened so that sick kids can stay home and not infect others (never mind whether it is better for their ability to get well.)
Imagine that. Sick people staying home so that they don't infect others and their bodies can heal. Am I the only one that thinks that this should be standard policy not just pandemic hysteria policy?
I remember going to school so sick that I could barely stay upright but I had to be there because I wasn't allowed to miss anymore days of school and still be able to graduate regardless of my B/A average.
One of the things I appreciate about homeschooling is not having to send my children to the germ infested school everyday and then deal with all of the illnesses that they contract from the sick children who came to school. We don't get sick very much around here and I give a big chunk of the credit to not sending my kids to school.

Say Do You Remember?

Even though I wish it was still August for another 4 weeks we are dancing around here! September means apple season,Not back to School Day, 10 days until Boba Fett's Birthday, Autumnal Equinox AND the Knitting Season which officially begins today.



There might be a few leaves turning color as well!
Get out your knitting needles, September!!!

Into the Wild

This afternoon I head out to the Cascade "wilderness" for 4 days of Outdoor School with my kids. There will be fire, dirt, bugs, sunshine and more rain. I am not bringing Moose, he has to work. Moose says that I am "very, very brave." I can't figure this out because this is not different that when he leaves me for business trips except that when he goes away on business trips I don't have the novelty of 50 other kids, the woods and fire to keep them distracted, lots of moms for me to chat with and no housework.

The things I am worried about are the garden, will Moose remember to leave out the milk bottles, will the house be cleaner than will I left it and will Moose decide to do something crazy to the house while I am gone?

Unplugged

Commander C did something really, really bad the other night. Really bad. He also does not feel one bit bad about it. We have some characters issues to work on.

I decided it was time to shape up and be a much better homeschooling mom, to pay more attention to the kids and not let my really slow computer continue to steal me from my children. I also determined not to let the kids sit in front of a screen all day. We have rules but they usually sneak past me when I am on the computer and then I am too tired to fight it.

Yesterday, I made Moose take the Tivo remote, the Wii controllers and my network card to work with him. We were screen-less today and it was exhausting. It seemed like they did 10 times the activities and needed my help/intervention/refereeing 100 times more.

We did scriptures, patriotism, crafts, gardening, chores, reading, library, errands and bought books at Goodwill. We made food, we hung out in the hammock. I was SO happy when Moose came home at 3:45 so I could escape to the Doctor's office.

We manged just fine but there were a few things I had to write down to look up later, like a book at the library, the Butterfly Treehouse, add to LibraryThing etc.

I am beat, but I am going to keep it up. It helped that it was a glorious sunny day today. If it had been gloomy and rainy we might not have made it.

11 Things I Love About Portland

Portland is the saddest city in the nation according to BusinessWeek. Everyone is talking about it. Personally, I think their logic is flawed because they said they took green space into account (have they been to Portland???) and obviously they didn't put traffic into account or Seattle would have been up on top too.

The weather (i.e. lack of sunshine) in the winter is pretty tough. We do have a self proclaimed liar in the Mayor's seat and we can't do anything about him until July, and people in Oregon know that the govt will do what they want to do regardless of the will of the people. We have very few property rights, we are taxed to the hilt and they still claim they need more money. We are a horribly politically correct city but aside from that living in Portland is pretty good.

In retribution I give you 11 things I love about living in Portland:

1- Close proximity to the Columbia River Gorge, the Cascade Mountains and the Oregon Beach. These are beautiful peaceful places. They are free and remind us who is in charge.
2- Organic food. I do not have to search to find not pesticided, hormone laden food. I have 3 stores in a very short distance that carry mostly organic foods and most grocery stores have a decent selection of organics. I don't have to work very hard to give my family good food. We also have Asian markets, Mediterranean markets, Indian markets and who knows what other variety of market. If you want it you can find it in Portland. You can grow food in your garden year round in Portland and there are numerous dairies, farms, farmers markets, orchards and berry fields.
3-I have told you before about my love for Fabric Depot. About how the first time I walked in the store I cried tears of joy, I had never ever seen so much fabric in one place. The best thing about Fabric Depot apart from selection is quality. This is good fabric, the kind it is hard to find anymore. The store is not half fleece, half crafts and a tiny corner for real fabric. It is the other way around.

4- As a homeschooler it is hard not to appreciate our library system. We have libraries everywhere, private, public, educational you name it. Most of them are connected. All I have to do is to put in a request from my home computer and I can have any book from any of the libraries sent to my tiny, and very convenient library branch. It is very rare that I can not find what I am looking for.

5- Powell's City of Books . The largest independent new and used bookstore in the world. Need I say more?

6-I haven't been there yet but just knowing that a place like Yarnia exists in my town is so awesome. There are plenty of other artsy and crafty paces in Portland. Someone is always making something and helping you to learn how to do something.

7- The parks. We are the park-iest city in the nation. We have the smallest park in the world, the enormous 5,100 acre Forest Park and everything in between. The parks are always well kept, accessible and the Parks and Rec provide a staggering variety of fun classes and activities.

8-Super nice drivers- In Portland when you are trying to get on the freeway people on the freeway stop and let you in. It is weird and kind of annoying but really, really nice. Drivers are generally very nice and considerate in Portland. We have to be because we all know the traffic engineers are complete idiots and we try to make allowances for that handicap

9-Multi cultural community. I love that there are people from all sorts of cultures here in Portland. In my neighborhood there are lots of Indians, there are Russian communities, Japanese communities, Chinese communities (even a China Town) Hispanic, Filipino It is so fun to get to learn about different countries, food and customs.

10- I fit in here. In Portland I am not the only person that wears her baby on her back, I am not the only person that eats whole foods, I am not weird here. There are a lot of LDS people here and I really appreciate that after living most of my life in places where there were very few of us. There are also LOTS of homeschoolers. It is not at all unusual to be chatting with someone and find out that they are homsechoolers too.

11- The climate. Say what you will about the clouds and the rain but I will take that over cold, frozen snowy winters anyday. I enjoy sunny summers that are not blazing hot. I like the weather in Portland.

Goals for 2009

I don't do resolutions, they seem a little too resolute. I like to make goals instead, something to reach for but not too concrete to allow for the ebb and flow of life.

Here are some of Samurai Mom's goals for 2009

Spend more time interacting with each of the children.

Do Family Home evening more.

Serve more.

Adopt more structure into our day.

Sew a tartan Christmas Skirt.

Crochet snowflakes.

If handmade Christmas gifts are to be given - start them in September.

Figure out how to read while knitting.

Go walking.

Learn to listen and ask better questions.

Spain the Forgotten Member

A few months ago there was a plane crash in Spain. You may or may not have heard of this. Why? Well because Spain is the forgotten country in Europe. I am serious, think about Europe. What are the first 3 countries you think of? I bet they are France, Germany and Italy while you debate whether or not Britain is technically in Europe. If pressed you will think of Austria and Switzerland and then head north to Scandinavia.

Most of this is due the dreadful news reporting in this country. We rarely get news of any other country and if we do it is a country we are economically linked to. Not to mention the abysmal education in the public schools where geography isn't even a subject. But I digress, my point is Spain. No one thinks about poor Spain, they speak a language most of us think about regularly namely, "Spanish."

I myself no little about Spain other than Moorish Architecture, Don Quixote and bull fighting. I assume they are pretty into Soccer like the rest of Europe.

So for those so inclined here is a link to educate you about Spain.

A Day in the Life

A day in the life of a homeschool family.

Wake up and check on Hairy Spider - he is not on vacation (sorry about the fuzzy pic the camera refused to focus on him.)
Build a castle,
and a secure institution.
Make Pokemon cards.
Have a conference with Commander Piggy.Listen to Mom's records.on high speed so they Sound like chipmunks

DanceAnd dance some more.
Make a wishing well and solicit wishes.
Play with friends, ace cello lessons eat pizza, go to bed.

September!

Contrary to popular belief, September is not my favorite month, October is. September, however, is a very close second.

Thanks to my LP collection and the 7-up $100,000,000 Match Up record, we have been grooving to September the song. I first noticed this song a few years ago in a GAP ad. I couldn't find that but I did find this...

This video rocks. Circa 1978 - a very good month, I was born, the church issued Official Declaration - 2, and this groovy song. Excellent.

Honey, I think I want this for my ringtone.

"You like me! You Really Like me!"

I added one of those following gadgets on my blog. If you like to read my blog click on the "Follow this Blog." It is on the right underneath the label "People who like to spy on Samurai Mom." It is easy and if you really are spying on me blogger allows you to follow anonymously so I won't know who you are. I suspect you may be Russian because Russians are the bad guys (ergo spies) again. I am sad because I like Russia and would like to visit someday, but on the bright side James Bond and cold war movies are applicable again. For a while there the only bad guys were Arab Terrorists and that felt uncomfortable because it was pretty racist. But with Russians you know that you aren't being racist just anti-communist (I know, I know Russia is a technically democracy now but work with me people, Think of the MOVIES!) I would love to have German bad guys again, but that seems unlikely unless it is a movie about homeschooling or ideological freedoms.
Currently the only follower of my blog is my mom. I adore my mom and I am thrilled that she is following my blog but seriously imagine how it feels that the only person that admits to reading your blog is your mom. She has to like my blog, she's my mom. I sit there looking at my one follower (my mom) and feel like a total social misfit. So please let me feel like the sunburned Sally Field and let me say "You like me! You really like me!"

Not Back to School Day!

Today was the first day of school for the PS kids. We celebrated our freedom by doing things you can't do in school, such as...
sleeping in. Nutmeg did this really well, she slept until 10:30. I ended up getting up early because I was so excited about out not back to school celebrations.
We had cupcakes for breakfast and hung out in our jammies for a long time...
and then played with play doh, this wasn't on the schedule but the kids liked it.
They liked it so much they didn't want to stop.
We went to lunch and then colored on the car. We didn't hear any honking though.
Next we went bowling. You will have to excuse the number of pictures. I just can't help myself at the bowling alley.
Everything they do is so adorable and the camera just doesn't do it justice.
And there are three of them so the cuteness is tripled.
So I am a shutterbug at the lanes. I won, Commander C came in a close second.
Nutmeg carried the ball herself all 6 lbs of it.
Boba Fett's shoes were way too big for him.

After bowling we played with knives. The plan also included playing with fire but it was already 4pm by the time the knives were done and the kids wanted to play with the newly released inmates so the fie play was scraped.
We had a great time! The time went too fast.