_ I originally published this a year ago.  I wanted to pull it up and repost it since I have had so many new subscribers since then!  Enjoy!
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I want to be very clear to all of you about something.  I am not, or ever intend to be a self proclaimed or "ordained by society" parenting expert.  I am only here to write about my experiences in an effort to share what has worked and hasn’t worked for me.  If you can gain a different perspective or see an idea you’d like to try, then great!  If you completely disagree with anything I say or believe that nothing I share has any benefit to you other than the fact that you know you don’t want to do things the way I have, then that is just as perfect.  Either way I don’t feel like I am wasting my time here.  Everything I share is solely my opinion and my viewpoint and I am not here to seek validation.

So here’s for my opinion part:  I believe parenting is a process, just like any other relationship, but often more complex because we each have a unique perspective regarding who our children are, how they learn, what their personality traits are as well as what their strengths are.  I believe you betray your relationship with your child when you parent in a way that doesn’t feel completely right to you.  I’m not saying that you can’t try different things to see if they work for you but what I am talking about is adopting a parenting “method” that you feel coerced into or uncomfortable with for any reason.

I believe, the most effective and quickest way of disconnecting from your kids can happen through adopting a new parenting style that is not grounded in the relationship you desire to have with your kids just because you read a book or took a seminar.  If it doesn’t feel right to you right now, don’t do it.  Also if you are considering a new parenting style, be sure you have conversations with people who have already tried it.  And I am not talking about those that have very young ones that have been doing it only for a few months.  Talk to as many people as you can to get the full picture from those that have done it for at least a few years.  These are the people that can tell you the pros and cons, what worked and what didn’t – not someone who decided that their way is the right way and who is interested in either self promoting or who wants others to do what they are doing because they need the validation.

Self-proclaimed or society-ordained “gurus” are probably the biggest offenders for undermining your parenting.  They most often give the worst kind of advice because many, at a certain point, start adopting a god-complex and act as if they have all of the answers for you.  Sometimes self-promoters don’t always have the healthiest intentions in doing what they do.  Don’t give your power away to them and let their opinions rule your life or make you feel guilty in any way.  Especially the ones that do go out of their way to make snide or passive aggressive comments about parents “like you” in order to manipulate you to feel like you are the one missing something. While you don’t always have to dismiss them completely don’t let their strict definitions constrict your life.  Take what may help you and ignore the rest.

I don’t believe in deciding what is right for other parents especially since parenting has a tendency to expose people’s vulnerabilities at times.  When parents feel unsure of themselves and vulnerable (and we all do at one time or another) they are more apt to be taken advantage of by unscrupulous people who need to feel that what they are doing is the right way, so they proselytize and gain followers.  (Isn’t that what cultists do?)  I refuse to do that or endorse anyone else who does.  I parent through being connected to my kids.  If you can find a way to do that through your own unique parenting style, which will most likely be different than mine in more ways than one, then you are on the right track.

Above all, I believe that you need to find your own style that works for you and your kids.  If you don’t feel right about certain aspects of your relationship with your kids, stop making things more complicated than they need to be by looking elsewhere for answers all the time.  You need to take responsibility.  I know for some parents, it’s more frightening to take responsibility than to run through a list of everything they “tried” and then be able to blame everyone else, or worse, their child, when none of those things worked.

Our kids are not from a different species than we are.  They are not pets and we don't need to pick up a book to learn more about them.  It is much more simple.  You need to remember what it was like to BE a kid, without projecting your own childhood “stuff” on them, and you need to always be focused on how much you love them.  If you try something and it doesn’t work don’t be bitter and hold onto blame.  You chose to do it and simply ignored your own reservations or didn’t get enough of the full story before you tried it.  Everything will have pros and cons for you and only you can determine what those are not matter how anyone else presents their viewpoint.  You have the power to find what works best for you!

Being a busy homeschooling mom of four kids, the question I get asked most often is how do I do it all.  Most recently it was my friend Melanie who brought it up at our knitting day.  I realized that when someone asks me that I always tell them the same thing:  "One day at a time!"  That's the simple answer.  The real answer is a little more complicated. 

As I have mentioned before, all of my kids are very, very different.  My fourteen year old has had some strong interests that have been the same for a long time.  He is very social, loves acting, Dungeons and Dragons, video games, anything Anime, including drawing, has an interest in Japanese culture, is learning to play guitar, reads a lot, loves learning about anything to do with history and science (which explains the steampunk fascination sparked by our attendance of Anime Boston this past year) and the list goes on but those have been his main focuses for a while.  He really would love to travel and see some ancient historical sites someday. 

My eleven year old loves seeing how things are made and has had me writing down his invention ideas in a journal.  He is definitely a technology kid and likes coming up with ideas to solve problems.  He is already better at navigating his computer than I am!  He also loves making and altering recipes, has a fascination with geology and nature, loves online gaming with his friends and building with Legos. 

My eight year old has a very vivid imagination.  Just like his brothers, he also loves video games.  His most recent fascination is watching YouTube videos people have made relating to the games he enjoys playing.  He loves it so much that he asked for, and received, his own video camera for Christmas so he can record videos for his own YouTube channel.  He also loves swimming, going to the beach and visiting with his friends.

My five year old has loved horses from the time she started speaking!  She is also loves to dance, sing, paint, can hand sew already and loves being outside.  The most recent things she has discovered is Minecraft and a love for anything zombie related!

These are my short lists of their interests and as you can see there isn't a lot overlap!  Even though their personalities are just as different as their interests, they are very close to each other.

Logistically, as far as seeing that they can pursue their interests, I will admit it isn't always easy.  For example, I can't always just jump in the car and drag all of the kids to go antique store, steampunk supply, treasure hunting with my oldest.  There is a lot of compromise and working things out.  Sometimes that has meant bringing one of the kids to a class somewhere and figuring out a way to entertain the other three while we wait.  Sometimes it means that my husband and I need to split our efforts between the two of us.  One of us goes one way on a Saturday with a kid or two and one of us goes the other.  While most of our vacations have been taken together as a family, we have also planned trips where my husband took two of the kids to LegoLand in California or to New York City so they can get the most out of it.  While we take it one day at a time, it takes some foresight and planning.  We figure out what is best for us as a family as well as what best individually as we go along.

As you can see it's not an easy answer to a simple question!  If you would like me to elaborate more about anything above, don't hesitate to ask.  I have decided to make my next several blogs related to this topic.  The other questions I have received have been about handling personality differences and how my husband and I manage to pursue our own interests as well.  If there are any other questions, be sure to submit them!

Our homeschool community is relatively small, even though our numbers are in the millions now.  We need each other for support.  It is hard enough that the mainstream is pretty clueless when it comes to how we operate.  Not only do we have to rely on each other for moral support but we need each other for co-ops, field trips, classes, events and friends for our kids while all of the school kids are doing their thing.  I feel like I am stating the obvious here but hear me out.

I had mentioned to some of you on Facebook that my Anti-school homeschoolers... Enough already!!! blog was going to be my only rant for the year.  That one was WAY overdue and needed to be put out there.  After seeing the same theme year after year for fourteen years, everything I said needed to be said.  It apparently got through to a lot of people because I have had an overwhelming response not only through emails but through people coming up to me and telling me how much they appreciated it.  Most of them are homeschoolers!  So here's my second and last rant for a while.  And hopefully it doesn't come across so much as a rant but as a wake up call.  My judgment about anything is simply a reflective of what I have learned about what I have witnessed.

Here is what I have observed or have been told about that has happened in our homeschool community.  We have lived in six different communities up and down the East coast and I have seen much of this first hand.  Please bear with me.  This list may seem very negative but I wanted to call attention to some behaviors that I feel continue to hurt our cohesiveness.

Believe me, this is almost as painful to type as it has been to witness:

~  Homeschoolers giving advice that crossed the line of ethical behavior.  You really don't want to know...

~  Homeschool parents setting up groups that claim to be inclusive then making anyone they don't completely agree with feel uncomfortable so they leave.

~  Homeschool group leaders setting up field trips then literally turning their backs to any newcomers present at said field trips.

~  Homeschool interviews conducted by other homeschoolers which sounded objective then interviewers turning passive aggressive after the interview was over.

~  Very public blowouts posted on blogs - and shockingly still posted months, even years later - between homeschoolers that many in the community look up to.

~  Articles or blogs that are reformulated, ripped off of and reposted.  Yes, sometimes it's blatantly obvious!

~  Homeschoolers fighting over the best answers to questions on support boards.  Those that have named themselves authorities being the worst offenders at either online bullying or ignoring questions from anyone but people they agree with.

Do I really need to keep going?  You all know exactly what I am talking about and what I could continue to list.  But wait!!!  Is this not the type of behavior that some of you complain about being wrong with traditional schools?  Sure your kids may be getting a top of the line education but is this type of environment any better than "schoolyard" behavior?  In many ways I think it's worse!  We have full control of the learning environment we set up for our kids.  We have control over the type of community we want as well.  The worse part about it all is that it is divisive.  Don't you realize that newcomers into the community get filled in very quickly about any of the goings on?  I have been one of those newcomers more times than most and I have to tell you if you think that just because something happened a while ago everyone forgot about it and moved on, think again!

I understand things happen.  We disagree.  We live and hopefully learn from our mistakes.  Some of you may be reading this feeling pissed off that I let the whole world know that homeschoolers are people too and that some do continue the same stupid behavior they learned in school.  Others may feel justified because someone finally is pointing out the elephant in the room. 

If something happened in the past, do you still owe someone an apology?  Is there a blog or two you should really take down?  And if you misjudged someone, can you move on and be kind to them?  I understand that there are always going to be negative and divisive people.  I also understand that sometimes people don't know how to resolve conflict and think that ignoring what happened is going to make it all okay.  This isn't just in our homeschooling circles.  It's elsewhere as well.

The one thing that having both of my parents die in their forties has taught me is that life is too short!  If we can't all be great friends, let's at least diffuse some of the negativity the best we can.  Let's be cohesive and supportive of each other.  Let's give our kids the best community we can.  Don't they deserve it?

Even though I have posted several blogs recently about homeschooling, in no way does this mean that I am anti-school.  There are great schools and great teachers.  I have friends that are teachers.  I also have friends that I care very much about who send their kids to school.  In no way do I wish to alienate any of them, or any of you, by pushing some sort of elitist "My kids are better than yours" message.  I also don't want anyone to feel like I have the attitude that I'm a better parent because I homeschool.

Homeschoolers often seem to feel like they need to push back against anything school related.  I have heard my schooling friends say that this is one of the things that turns them off about homeschoolers.  I understand that, for some, this is part of the process of transitioning from a school mentality to a homeschool one.  Others they may feel the need to be anti-school whenever they are feeling insecure about their decision to homeschool.  In my opinion, the ones that really give homeschoolers a bad name are the ones who constantly go on the attack.

I believe homeschoolers have so much to offer when it comes to parenting and fixing broken school systems.  Why not refocus some of the negative, anti-school energy into something positive?  Give some ideas at school board meetings.  Talk to a teacher or two about what works well for you.  Help a neighbor, friend or relative that is struggling with school.  Or just focus on helping parents who want to transition to homeschooling.

I hope that if you are reading this and do homeschool, now or in the future, you will eventually realize that just because it's the best decision for you and your family doesn't mean that school is a bad decision for everyone else.  Generalizations like this cut potential friends out of your life and divide people.  We all want to be the best parents we can be for our children.  Making the right choices for our own families does not have to involve diminishing other parents' decisions.

How do I begin homeschooling?  I would love to follow that path with my kids but don't know where to start!  (Just a question I get a LOT!)

There is no shortage of advice about how to homeschool.  There are tons of articles that will guide you by covering things like telling you to find out what your state laws are, to find your local homeschool networks and to read certain books.  When you start talking to other homeschool parents they are very quick to offer advice as well.  You will soon find out that there are many labels that people use and you are left sold on the style they described to you or you are completely confused.  There is relaxed homeschooling, classical homeschooling, eclectic homeschoooling, unschooling, radical unschooling, Waldorf homeschooling, life learning, etc, etc. 

Then there are the reasons for homeschooling that can include religious, academic, ethical, philosophical, special needs or others as well as combinations of a number of them.  To go along with any of your reasons there are different types of curriculum:  whole package, state provided, by subject, by grade, religious, secular, unit study, lapbook, co-op classes, distance learning, online courses, video courses, etc.  Confused yet?  If you are starting to think that you need some sort of training to understand any of this, think again!

After homeschooling for as long as I have, I have been around many different types of homeschoolers.  Some have always homeschooled, some have pulled their children out of school and some have put their children back in school.  The ones that put their children back in school after a very short time of homeschooling have always had one thing in common.  (Not including the ones that had to go back to work full time, of course.)  They ALL started off focusing on the wrong thing.  They concentrated on everything I mentioned above instead of focusing on the most important thing to make homeschooling and parenting a successful and peaceful way of life. 

They didn't spend enough time thinking about or working on their relationship with their child.

I know this is a very specific thing to say but it is directly relevant to the reasons each one of these parents gave as to why they were putting their child back in school.  Most of the time it was because the parents believed that their own learning style was the style that their child should be following whether the child liked it or not.  They forced it on them to simplify things; you know, kind of like schools do because they don't know of any other way.  Then they wondered why their child was rebelling against them more than ever when it came to everything else as well.

If you are thinking about homeschooling, I would suggest you ask yourself a few questions.  What is your relationship with your child like?  How well do you really know your child?  What is your interaction like?  How does your child's personality mesh with yours?  How does your child like to learn about things?  Is it ok with you if that is different than your own style?  Are you willing to let your child "run" with anything they are interested in?  Are you willing to drive your child to different field trips and local homeschool events or classes that your child wants to attend?  Every homeschooling parent I have met who was having trouble with homeschooling was having difficulty in one or more of those areas.  If you go into homeschooling thinking about these things first, the rest will fall into place.

Photo credit - jimmiehomeschoolmom

This is my 2nd annual Liberal Arts Living blog.  I hadn’t planned on this being an annual thing but I decided that since I have done a whole lot more living since my blog a year ago, I wanted to share with all of you.  My only hope is that it will inspire you to get up and do something new.

Over the past year:

•  I decided to publish a book; which most of you know already.
•  I learned how to knit.
•  I learned how to sew wool felt playthings for my kids.
•  I learned how to get over my fear of singing in front of everyone.
•  I have learned about adding more raw food recipes to our family food choices.
•  I learned how to grow my own organic garden.
•  I am learning how to play the bass; something I have said I wanted to do since high school.
•  I made my first herbal tinctures.
•  And most recently, my husband, 14 year old son and I decided to participate in the NH 48 Hour Film Project.  We had to write, shoot, edit and complete a 5 to 7 minute mini-move with all work being done in the 48 hour period.

There are a lot of new things that are in the works for the next year but I will keep those under wraps until I actually do them.  A lot of them are new for me.  The ones I am most excited, as well as nervous, about are the ones where I will be out there helping other parents.

How does all of this fit into my parenting?  I am living the kind of life I want my kids to live.  A life not filled with “I always wanted to”s and “someday”s and certainly NOT “when the kids move out”s.  What kind of example would that be for them?  If I haven’t been always learning something new and actively pursuing my interests, I do fear what kind of message that would give my kids.
Would it tell my daughter that to be a stay at home mom is to be boring, or bored?  Would it tell my sons that their future wives couldn’t pursue what their interests were unless it were making an income?  Would it tell the kids that mom can’t start living her own life until they are out of the house?

Instead I am showing them that you can be an involved, loving parent with close relationships with your kids without smothering them or living your life vicariously through them.  I am showing them that parents need to feel fulfilled and it makes them better parents.  I am showing them, and go look this one up for yourselves, that the key to staying younger is to always learn something new.  I could sit here and just “tell” them about all of this, but actually doing it shows them that I would know what I was talking about if I did talk to them about it.

I hope I have inspired you to get up and just go do one new thing.  I don’t care what it is or how crazy it sounds!  There is no excuse good enough not to.  Would you do it if I told you your kid's future happiness depends on it?


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Recently our 10 year-old son, Colin, discovered we had the original Halo for our old Xbox.  He saw it in storage and asked me if he could play it.  After checking the rating on it, and seeing that it was rated M, I told him that I didn’t think it was appropriate for his age due to violence, language or intensity but I wasn't sure so I’d ask dad about it.  Since I don’t have very much time, or desire for that matter, to play video games anymore I rely on published reviews and friends’ opinions on the appropriateness of certain games.  This was one game that I heard mentioned within some gaming circles as not necessarily deserving of the “Mature” rating.

We ultimately decided to let him play it.  I figured I could watch the kids play it as well as ask them if there was anything that bothered them about it.  After my husband also played it with our son, we decided that our 8 year old, Ethan, was mature enough to play it as well.  I’ll admit that I still had my reservations but I was taking a watch and see sort of approach with it.

About two weeks after the kids started playing it, we had an incident that made me realize that my kids were way more in tune with reality no matter what studies try to show about kids and video games.  It was right after dinner and the six of us were running around the house chasing each other.  Everyone was laughing and having a great time.  We were all at the point where we were out of breath so I decided to run upstairs to check the afternoon’s emails before it got too late.

It was about two minutes later that I hear our four year-old daughter, Keira, crying, and about sixty seconds after that Colin and Ethan came running upstairs with tears in their eyes saying “Dad needs you.”  You can imagine what I started to feel at that instant but I managed to take a deep breath and quickly go downstairs instead of panicking.

As soon as I walked in the kitchen, I was thankful that the first thing I saw was the quarter inch long, tiny cut above Keira’s eye.  If I had seen all of the blood first, I probably would have been as upset as the boys.  She was covered in blood from the top of one side of her head, down her arm and elbow, and down the side of her leg.  My husband was holding her and trying to calm her down so he hadn’t been able to determine where the blood had come from yet.  All I can figure is that since she had just been running around, her blood was really pumping and then when she hit her head of the side of the table, the first thing she most likely did was rub where she hurt herself, spreading the blood everywhere.

I got her cleaned up and put some medicine on her cut which had stopped bleeding just as quickly as it had started.  Then my ten year old looks up at me and says:

“Halo is nowhere near as scary as THAT was!”

My eight year-old, who was standing next to him with big tears in his eyes says, “Yeah!  I thought Keira was going to die.”

I will never, ever wonder if my kids truly understand the difference between video game violence and reality ever again!

(Thankfully, Keira didn’t need any stitches and it looked like a tiny scratch above her eye by the next day.)

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Every single day in our house is different.  I know that’s hard for those who have no idea what homeschooling is about to comprehend.  Hopefully, after you see how things change and progress naturally, you will understand.  Thursday was a perfect example of how one thing just flows into the other and how learning is integrated into our lives.

The week had already begun a little off because I started to feel like I was coming down with a cold so I had to cancel daytime visits with friends.  This is one of the days that we had to cancel so we were home all day.  If we classically homeschooled, meaning "school at home" style, it would look like a schedule, with a list of tasks completed.   I will warn you this is long, because it ISN’T a schedule and, if you are an unschooler, this won’t surprise you. 

My day began at 7:15am, which is earlier than normal, but I wanted to be up to see our 13 year old, Jody, off to his homeschool Movie Club.  They are right in the middle of their 12 hour per day, 10 day shoot.  The kids have been involved in every single part of the process of making a movie.  From deciding the theme, writing and re-writing the script, auditioning for parts, costumes, sets, directing, videography, sound, lighting, directing, etc, etc, and using real equipment, each of the kids get a chance to be involved in every single job beginning to end.  I am SO very grateful for this club because Jody's passion is acting!

After Jody was off, I got myself ready for the day just in time for our other three who also decided to get up a little earlier than usual, at 8:00.  Colin, our 10 year old, jumped right into playing his MMOG game, Lego Universe.  Up until its release date, he was a Lego Universe Beta tester and has discovered more glitches.  Ethan, our 8 year old, was hanging out with him playing with his Bionicles.  And Keira, who is 4, decided it was a Dora The Explorer morning.

After a breakfast of multigrain toast, cantaloupe, and home-made lemonade, Ethan asked if we could make a new drink recipe.  If you have been following my blog long enough, you will remember that I released a book at the end of last year called The Herbal Beverage Book and the kids were my taste testers.  Ethan pulled out the rooibos and nettles and decided those were the two he wanted to use.  We measured the herbs and pure stevia (a natural sweetener); this is where I took the obvious opportunity to use this as a fun fractions lesson.   Ethan even named it – Bouncy Tea!

As soon as we were done with that, Keira noticed the teardrop crystal prism we have hanging in the window was sending rainbows all over the kitchen.  The kids made a game of finding as many rainbow pieces as they could.  Ethan wanted to know how the crystal did that so we talked about refraction and visited this website – Explain That Stuff!

By now Ethan wanted to get Colin off the computer so he decided to draw a bunch of arrows on pieces of orange paper that led from where Colin was, all the way downstairs to where he would hide.  When Colin found him they all played hide and seek.  While the boys did that, Keira brought me one of those learning dolls that have buttons, snaps, zippers and ties and asked me to show her how to tie the shoe again.  She’s getting it really quickly!

By now it’s about 10:00 and the kids are hungry again.  They all agreed on peanut butter and jelly!  (Organic, peanuts only and the same for the fruit spread.  No extra oils, sugars, etc.)  I have to say that this was a rare food day.  They normally do not all pick the same thing to eat!

After they were done, Keira was absolutely thrilled to receive her first piece of mail!  She got a Thank You card from her friend Zoe!  Keira had me buy a duplicate of a stuffed animal she wanted from the store to give to her.  This turned into a discussion about how great getting a Thank You makes you feel, even when the person thanked you at the time they received the gift.  This reminded Ethan that he needed to send some for his birthday party gifts.  He decided it would be a good day to work on them.

After that the kids wanted to make some popsicles with the lemonade we had.  We found some frozen raspberries and filled the molds for a snack for later. 

Since we seemed to be in a cooking mode already, Colin suggested that we take one of the raw snack recipes we had tried the week before and change the ingredients.  We made almond, peanut, cranberry, oat balls; which included more measuring, dividing fractions and figuring out the right combinations for the right consistency for the substituted ingredients.  The recipe included oats, shredded in the food processor, peanut butter, almond butter, raw honey and dried cranberries.  We put them in the fridge to set and the kids picked at them the rest of the day.

Colin had to run back upstairs to take screenshots of the glitches he found in Lego Universe so we could compose emails for each one a little later.  Since I wasn’t feeling very well, we watched Spongebob for a bit in front of the fire and the kids made comments about how Squidward was not very nice and Mr. Krabs was so cheap, even to his own daughter.  They like Spongebob and silly Patrick though.

After the episode was over, I decided to pull out the book Stone Soup since it has been a while since I had read it to them.  We read it and the kids asked about any words they didn’t know – like scholar, famine, seamstress and merchant.  When I had started to read it I had pointed out the picture of the Great Wall of China in the illustration.  Colin asked more about it.  How long is it?  Where exactly is it on the map?  And the questions kept coming so I grabbed my netbook and we visited these websites: Kidspast.com, Google images search for the Great Wall of China and Ancient China for Kids.

12:30 Lunch!  The kids decided on pasta, Bouncy Tea and the popsicles they had made.  Right after we were done eating, we picked a movie.  By now my throat and ears weren’t doing too well so I needed downtime!  The kids picked one of our favorites – Shark Boy and Lava Girl!

After the movie, I told the kids we needed to finish planning our vegetable garden and get a final decision on what we are going to grow so we can order the seeds.  We went back through the catalogs.  Then I opened my gardening books, since they have fantastic illustrations, to talk to them about how we need to plant everything.  I showed them what crop rotation and companion planting was about and the kids helped figure out where we need to put the seeds this year.

Next Keira wanted some one on one time with me so we played with her stuffed Care Bears while Ethan and Colin went back up to play Lego Universe together.  They both have accounts and wanted to help each other do something in the game.  After about an hour, I asked the kids if they wanted me to show them how to do watercolor painting like the illustrations in Stone Soup.

By now the kids were hungry, again!, and asked for pizza.  So we made pizza!

Keira then decided she wanted to watch Team Umizoomi and Ethan said he’d watch it with her.  Colin wanted me to show him how to use YouTube on the old iPhone dad gave him for Christmas; to use as an iTouch.  He wanted to be able to listen to Metroid music he could only find on YouTube.

By now I wanted to get the kids outside for some air even though it was pretty cold.  We bundled up, I grabbed the drill, tree taps and buckets and we went out to tap maple trees.  After doing that and playing outside for a while, the kids were getting cold and hungry so we went in for dinner.  My husband had left by now to go pick up Jody from Movie Club, so I just fed the three of them.  Tonight they asked for spaghetti tacos.

After dinner, I sat down with Colin and we emailed those screenshots over to my computer so we could compose emails to the Lego Universe tech support team.  (We are very happy to say that the glitches were fixed by the next morning!)  The other two watched Avatar - The Last Airbender, the tv series, while we did that.

The kids were getting sleepy around 9;00 and so, after their typical giggling and messing around for a half hour, I made sure they had brushed their teeth.  In the meantime, I put on some dinner for John and I, and put some extra on for Jody even though I knew John had brought him a pizza on his way to the shoot tonight.  Just as the kids were getting settled down, at 9:45, Jody gets home with John.  Keira fell asleep on the couch while we ate. 

I got to talk to Jody for a little while after that since I had to remove his movie make up; using my moisturizer because I keep forgetting to get remover.  We also had to do a little costume repair because he was acting again the next day.  He got to bed at 11pm and John and I very soon after.

There you have it.  No two days are ever the same and this day was a perfect example of how the kids are always learning.  And in case I get the question from someone who really thinks it matters, they do close to 100% on their year-end standardized testing.  But we ALL know those tests don't measure ANY of the learning the kids really did.  That's a topic for another day!

The YouTube Video above is what I promised I'd share the other day!  This is my husband's band's original "Adrenaline Addiction."  The band did all of the recording and mixing as well as the video editing themselves.  The camera operator was the friend of ours (and her 16 year old son) who produced the video I shared in my last post What is Homeschooling? An introduction.

Even though we are all about our family, John, and I place a high priority on setting a good example for the kids.  This is just one way that John shows the kids that if you want to pursue your passion, don't let anything stop you.

Tomorrow.... My post will be about how we spent our day Thursday!

This video was professionally recorded and produced by Keren Green, who, along with her son, recorded all of the video for my husband's music video in the fall... but that will be a fun share for another day!  Enjoy!