Homeschoolers All Grown Up --- Part II

I am curious about what it was like to be homeschooled....so I decided to interview a bunch of former homeschoolers.   You can read the full introduction here.  Here is Part I Part III. Part IV

Disclaimer:  This was not an unbiased interview process or anything.  There was selection bias in the people who I interviewed.  I asked around on a couple of Facebook groups to which I belong and on my personal Facebook page.   Most of the groups I belong to and most of my friends involve fellow Catholics/Christians and other people with similar values as myself.   I'm sure if I had asked on the  Angry Athiests Who Are The Former Homeschooled Children of Fundamentalist Christians, I might have gotten different answers.  But, I don't belong to that group. 

So, here are the second sets of answers with their made-up anonymous names.  All names have been changed to protect the privacy of those who responded.  To all my participants:  I apologize in in advance if your anonymous name is one you've always hated

Second Note:  These responses are unedited (other than for formatting).  I have left any grammar/punctation errors and original sentence structure intact.  I thought that was important, as it gives an idea of how well former homeschoolers write. (Spoiler: Most of them write very well!) 

____________________________________________________________________

****Elizabeth

1. How long were you homeschooled  and what ages/grades?

K-12 - all the way, baby!

2. What was your parents’ primary motivation for homeschooling (if known)?

When I reached school age, we were living on a tiny island off the coast of Canada with a population of 2,500. There was only a public school available, and my parents felt that it wasn't going to provide a quality education, so they turned to homeschooling as the best available option.

When we left the island and moved down to the States, we couldn't afford private schools, and again, they didn't feel that the public schools would provide a quality education, and perhaps there was a bit of fear about the secular influences in the public schools as well. In any case, homeschooling had been working for us for almost ten years at that point, so why stop, you know?

3. How do you overall feel about your homeschool experience?

Very positive. I am seriously considering homeschooling as an option for my daughter and any future children we may have.

4. How do you feel about the social experiences you had as a homeschooler?  Do you feel that you had enough friends, or enough opportunities for friendship?

When we moved to the States, I was almost in high school and my family was under a lot of stress as my dad was back in grad school, changing careers. We didn't have any roots in the area, and that may have hurt my ability to find and make friends. I was kind of awkward about it, I'll admit. My mom made me to go a youth group, try out for some sports, and a 4H group, and I ended up making some good friends from 4H, girls that I'm still close to today.

I could see my younger brothers had very different social experiences during their high school years. They had a wider and larger group of friends, and I feel like they were able to blossom more socially in a way that I wasn't able to until college. Some of that might have been because they had more outgoing temperaments, some of it because my family had more roots in the area by that point. It's hard to say.

In the end, I know my parents did the absolute best they could in the difficult circumstances of our life at the time. No one has a perfect social experience during their schooling years, you know?

5.  How do you feel about your education?  Do you feel you received an average, above average or below average education compared to same-aged peers in your community? 

Definitely above average. In whatever peer group I was in, I felt like "the smart one." I did figure out how to keep that quiet so as not to alienate people too much, but I could tell that I was a better student than many of the kids that I knew, and that I actually enjoyed learning.

6.  What did you do after graduation?  College? Work? How prepared did you feel for “the next step?”

I went to a small liberal arts college and studied business and philosophy and took their Great Books Honors classes. It wasn't as demanding as Harvard or something, but it wasn't a slacker party school. I think I could have handled the coursework with the skills that I had after completing 8th grade. That's not a knock on the college - that's a compliment to the study skills that I learned from being homeschooled, along with the ability to be organized and self-directed. I wouldn't have been emotionally ready for a college environment, of course, but I could have done the work.

I've pretty much found throughout my professional life that I've been able to handle most challenges with those same skills.

Not everyone has a similar experience homeschooling - a lot depends on the child's character and personality, how the parents structures the schooling experience, etc.

_____________________________________________________________

******Linda

1. How long were you homeschooled and what ages/grades?  I homeschooled from 4th-12th grade. 

2. What was your parents’ primary motivation for homeschooling (if known)? My mother started homeschooling my brother the year before because he was “outsmarting” the teacher and learning nothing at the local elementary school. She took me out the following year because it was just easier to have both of us at home. She ended up continuing on for all 9 of us because she liked the ability to work around each student’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as teach the Faith more directly at home. 

3. How do you overall feel about your homeschool experience? I am happy to have homeschooled throughout most of my school years. I did go through a period around the beginning of high school where I really wanted to go to school because I thought the socialization would be better, but I was always so involved in extracurriculars outside the home, ultimately, this was an unfounded fear. 

4. How do you feel about the social experiences you had as a homeschooler?  Do you feel that you had enough friends, or enough opportunities for friendship? We were always part of at least one homeschool group so did other activities outside the home with friends frequently. I also played sports, was involved in scouts, 4H and church youth groups, so lots of socialization. My closest friends now are many of my homeschool friends that I grew up with. We are now raising our children together. 

5.  How do you feel about your education?  Do you feel you received an average, above average or below average education compared to same-aged peers in your community? I know I received an above average education and this was apparent even when I was a child. Although school attendees probably spent more hours in a classroom each day, I always felt I was learning more. 

6.  What did you do after graduation?  College? Work? How prepared did you feel for “the next step?" I went on to a Catholic college (Christendom College) and graduated with my bachelor’s in Philosophy. I never felt too strongly about a ‘career’ direction so it was hard after school. (I do think my college was lacking in career guidance, but I know they’ve since remedied that situation.) I also graduated in 2007 — the year of the crash. Jobs vanished so there wasn’t much to choose from anyway. I was a youth minister for a year, then worked at a private elementary/after-school care center, first as a teacher, then an administrator. I was discerning whether to go to grad school when I met my husband, and decided against it at this time so I could stay home and raise our children.

_________________________________________________________________

****Sarah

1. How long were you homeschooled  and what ages/grades? 

I was homeschooled for 9 years from 4^th through 12^th grade.

2. What was your parents’ primary motivation for homeschooling (if known)?

There were multiple reasons. Overall it was what was best for our family at the time. My parents took it year by year asking if it was what was best for the family and each of us individually each year.

3. How do you overall feel about your homeschool experience?

I feel very grateful and blessed for being homeschooled.

Honestly, the most challenging part of being homeschooled is the way people treat you about it. They look for you to be weird, blame any shyness or awkwardness on your education, and constantly feel like they have to prove their education/choices for their children are superior. There seems to be little understanding that the people who fit the stereotype of a homeschooler would posses those same traits, but maybe teased more for it, had they been in a public or private school.

4. How do you feel about the social experiences you had as a homeschooler?  Do you feel that you had enough friends, or enough opportunities for friendship?

The social aspect is tricky. I feel that we were provided with many opportunities through homeschooling groups, classes for dance, art, etc. offered by local institutions, and Church youth groups. High School was the hardest time, however, even though we had plenty of opportunities to meet other teens it was hard to have a relationship with them outside of that particular event. As an outsider looking in, it seemed that my peers were very departmentalized in their relationships  - not willing to mix friends from church, school, dance, etc. whereas I would host parties and invite all my friends from the different groups to get together. I did feel that it was sometimes because the stigma that homeschoolerswere weird, but mostly I saw it as immaturity of my peers.

5.  How do you feel about your education?  Do you feel you received an average, above average or below average education compared to same-aged peers in your community?

I believe that I received an average to above average education. The hard part about homeschooling is that you don’t know where you stand among your peers. We took all the state testing, SATs, etc. we could and it was helpful to have those scores to be able to know that you were average or above average.

Self-doubt is easy to fall into, especially whenever you say your school you are met with constant questions about your social life, classes, wardrobe, etc. As an insecure teen that was rough, but I knew deep down that I was receiving a solid education with some benefits that did not exist in the public and private schools. When I went to college it helped me to realize that I received an average and above average education.

6.  What did you do after graduation?  College? Work? How prepared did you feel for “the next step?”

I went to the University of Notre Dame and received my BA. After college I began working full time in ministry related to Catholic Education. I also worked worked towards my MA part-time while working. I felt very prepared for college from being homeschooled. I knew myself, how I studied best, and was used to keeping myself on task for deadlines. The self-study necessary for classes wasn’t new to me. What was new was having someone else besides myself or parent to hold me accountable. Some of my classmates felt that he professors didn’t guide them enough, but to me they guided more than I was used to which was actually kind of nice due to the challenging subjects.

______________________________________________________-

 Part III and Part IV and Follow-up.

Homeschoolers All Grown Up --- Part 1

I am curious about what it was like to be homeschooled....so I decided to interview a bunch of former homeschoolers.   You can read the full introduction here.  

Disclaimer:  This was not an unbiased interview process or anything.  There was selection bias in the people who I interviewed.  I asked around on a couple of Facebook groups to which I belong and on my personal Facebook page.   Most of the groups I belong to and most of my friends involve fellow Catholics/Christians and other people with similar values as myself.   I'm sure if I had asked on the  Angry Athiests Who Are The Former Homeschooled Children of Fundamentalist Christians, I might have gotten different answers.  But, I don't belong to that group. 

So, here are the first sets of answers with their made-up anonymous names.  All names have been changed to protect the privacy of those who responded.  To all my participants:  I apologize in in advance if your anonymous name is one you've always hated

Second Note:  These responses are unedited (other than for formatting).  I have left any grammar/punctation errors and original sentence structure intact.  I thought that was important, as it gives an idea of how well former homeschoolers write. (Spoiler: Most of them write very well!) 

________________________________________________________________________-

***Abby

1. How long were you homeschooled for and what ages/grades?

I was homeschooled for 2 years: 6th and 7th grades.

2. What was your parents’ primary motivation for homeschooling (if known)?

My brothers and I had attended parochial school for years.  We switched schools when I was going into 5th grade, from a very poor school with a homey and loving attitude, to a wealthy school with a seemingly elitist attitude. My mom began getting more and more frustrated that parents had little say in the school. The straw that broke the camel's back was when my brother, in 7th grade at the time, completed a solar panel science project (This was the 80s! It was a big deal!). He did the whole project himself and received a C, while students whose parents had clearly done the majority of the project received A's. My brother, always a scientist at heart, lost motivation and my momdecided enough was enough.  They pulled us out of school at the end of that school year.

3. How do you overall feel about your homeschool experience?

At the time, I wasn't sure I liked it.  I was super social and being home with just my brothers was rough.  But looking back I see that it pushed a reset button on our family life.  It allowed my parents to reconnect with us kids and changed our family dynamic for the better.

4. How do you feel about the social experiences you had as a homeschooler? Do you feel that you had enough friends, or enough opportunities for friendship?

Because I was homeschooled in the late 1980's and early 1990's, homeschoolers were rare. I have a bunch of siblings, so I did have kids to play with.  But my mom is an introvert and I am an extrovert, so that made it a little more difficult.  I did have neighbor friends who I remained close with.  But then, they weren't the best influence on me!

5. How do you feel about your education? Do you feel you received an average, above average or below average education compared to same-­aged peers in your community?

I was ahead in everything except for math. basically because I hated math and totally skated by.  I used to just copy the answers out of the back of the back.  I don't know if I've ever confessed that, actually...  ;) No, but my language skills were above my peers and my math caught up in high school.

6. What did you do after graduation? College? Work? How prepared did you feel for “the next step?”

I skipped 8th grade and went to a brick-and-mortar high school, and then off to college.  I was prepared for the next step, definitely, even though I skipped 8th grade.

________________________________________________________________________

Jessica***

1. How long were you homeschooled for and what ages/grades?

I was homeschooled until the seventh grade! During the summer after my 6th grade year, my family moved to a new diocese where there are a tons of awesome Catholic schools—and tuition is free for active Catholic families! My siblings and I were curious to see what going to a “real school” was like, what it was like to have a locker, uniform, multiple teachers, and those kinds of things, so we gave it a try!

2. What was your parents’ primary motivation for homeschooling (if known)?

I don’t know word ­for ­word what their motivation was, but here’s my best shot: My parents always instilled in us kids that as parents, they were our primary educators. While brick­ and­mortar schools offer many wonderful opportunities, in homeschooling, my parents were able to steep our educational experience in solid moral foundations and center our lives on and around the family.

3. How do you overall feel about your homeschool experience?

I loved it!!!!!!! I honestly would not be the woman I am today without my homeschooling

foundation. When I started attending a private Catholic school in the 7th grade, I really

appreciated my homeschooling roots. I mean, there were great things about being in the school, but there are so many negative influences & terrible peer pressure that I greatly appreciated how homeschooling helped me to grow in strength as a person outside of the tidal wave of pop culture.

4. How do you feel about the social experiences you had as a homeschooler? Do you feel that you had enough friends, or enough opportunities for friendship?

I believe an important thing to discuss here is “Quantity vs. Quality.” Sure, when I was attending a private school, there was a massive quantity of Catholic kids my own age! However, based on many factors, I didn’t become friends with all of these kids. As I continued to move onto Catholic high school, I befriended lots of wonderful people, but many of these friendships didn’t necessarily last, because our common ground was mainly found in classroom settings. Some friendships have continued to last (for example, my best friend and I have been close since middle school),but others have dwindled over time, which is perfectly natural.

On the other hand, I would place homeschooling friendships in the category of “Quality.” Even if I had only a few other homeschooled friends, even if I only saw certain friends at once­ a ­month gatherings (or less frequently!), and even if my friends and I were different ages, our friendships grew strong. Whenever we saw each other, it felt like we hadn’t been apart that long, and simply picked up our conversations where we left off. Instead of being based in the classroom setting, my homeschooling friendships typically grew between other people and I who all shared similar values and passions.

5. How do you feel about your education? Do you feel you received an average, above average or below average education compared to same-­aged peers in your community?

I am so blessed to receive the education I did! When I started attending private school in the

seventh grade, I really saw the awesome effects of my homeschooling education. When I

homeschooled, my mom was fairly unstructured, so the main subjects I had each day were math, reading from my history book, and possibly reading from a science book & doing some spelling tests or handwriting practice. When I began school in the seventh grade, I had never written a formal research paper or done any major formal projects! However, my critical thinking abilities, love of reading, and writing skills were all nurtured by my homeschooling education—and these gave me a big boost above many of my classmates. My homeschooling education was definitely above ­average, I feel, because that natural love of reading, writing, and discovery were all invaluable in the classroom.

6. What did you do after graduation? College? Work? How prepared did you feel for “the next step?”

After homeschooling, I did six years of Catholic school (two years of middle school, four years of high school), and then I went onto a Catholic college. All of my education greatly prepared me for this liberal arts university, because I didn’t just know how to memorize facts and take exams (courtesy of my private school experience); I also knew how to think, and how to stand up for the Truth (courtesy of my homeschool experience). I went to an awesome college, but any time you get a huge group of people from different backgrounds together, there are always opportunities where you need to stand convicted in your beliefs. I feel that homeschooling really taught me how to be convicted in my beliefs, radical, independent, and willing to work hard—and all of these are aspects not just important for college, but for life in general.

_____________________________________________________________

****Victoria

1.I was home schooled from 4th-8th grade full time. And then 9th-12th I took some classes at the high school and did some learning at home.

2. My mom didn't care for the one sided way of learning they did in that school. I was falling behind a bit. She thought that home schooling would be a better way to help me meet my potential.

3. It was OK. I definitely think if you don't have a large group of other home schooling families in the area, your children can be deprived socially, and maybe even feel "singled out".

4. I had some home school friends and some friends that went to regular schools in my town. 

5. I would say Average in both home school and regular school. I all round the education in elementary and high school in my town, could have creatively challenged their students more. Also I think how well any school does depends on the teacher and the curriculum the parent is using.

6. I went to a vocational school after high school. Then I opened my own business. I don't think it's possible to be prepared in every way for the world, because you never know what life throws at you. What I think happens is our parents tend to prepare us for the challenges they had to face in their life, but not necessarily for what is coming in their kids generation. I know people who took courses in fields that are in high demand, but yet they either can't find a job, or they had to settle for a job position related to their education that ideally wasn't what they wanted. 

______________________--

Read Part II  and Part III  and Part IV.

Homeschoolers All Grown Up -- Introduction

We're one of those homeschoolers who have been doing it from the very beginning.  My oldest is in 8th grade, so that means we've been doing this for about 9 years now.  Not to say that we will NEVER send our children to school.  In fact, every year we think about it and consider it, and every year we decide to keep homeschooling.

And every year I second and third and fourth guess myself. 

Doesn't everyone?

I think we all want to make sure we are doing the BEST for our children.  I have this awful fear that my children will miss learning some vital skill or important tidbit of knowledge.  That they will go off to college and everyone will be all, tsk, tsk, those dumb homeschoolers are weird and unsocialized and uneducated and stupid.

I don't have any personal experience with homeschooling.  I'm a product of the public school.   I know what I know, but I also know that there were gaps in my education.  I never learned all the states and capitals.  I never had any geography teaching.  Really....I didn't. For some reason, my school wasn't down with teaching geography.  I certainly never diagrammed a sentence.   And, I never learned Latin.  I did however learn lots of other stuff...reading, writing, gym, history, science.  I had a really good science education, I think. Overall, I would say I had a decent school experience and high school definitely prepared me for college.  In fact, I remember finding many college classes to be way easier than high school classes. 

I also learned a lot of not so good things in public school.  Kids can be cruel.  Don't you dare wear the same clothes in the same week.  Brands matter....that little C logo on Champion socks makes all the difference (anyone else remember that trend???).  Only losers shop at K-Mart.  Everyone talks about everyone else.  

I didn't have many friends in school. I had a few in high school, but mostly I socialized through 4-H and was busy studying and working at a horse barn to get free riding lessons and didn't hang out with friends.  I didn't have a bad school experience, there were parts I liked and parts I didn't.  I had friends I would sit with at lunch and I did really well in my classes. For most part, I was pretty much ignored by the other kids. Everyone thought of me as the shy, quiet, smart kid. Except in elementary school.  I actually was made fun of quite a bit in elementary school.  Not sure why little kids can be so cruel, but many of them are.  And the teachers were quite oblivious to the whole thing.  Actually some of the teachers were pretty mean too, or at least I thought they were in my 8-yo mind.

So, I know what it's like to go to school, but I don't know what it's like to be homeschooled.

But, lots of adults do.  The "first generation" of homeschooled children has now reached adulthood and are raising their own children.   When I was growing up, I didn't know anyone who was homeschooled.   And, now I do know several adults who were homeschooled.  Most of them are a bit younger than me, I'm just a bit too old and when I was in school, homeschooling was really unheard of.  Now, it's fairly common-place and everyone knows someone. 

So, a few weeks ago, I got the bright idea to interview a few former homeschooled adults.

They don't really dress like thus.

I sent them a list of the following questions, which they returned back to me.

1. How long were you homeschooled  and what ages/grades?  

2. What was your parents’ primary motivation for homeschooling (if known)?

3. How do you overall feel about your homeschool experience?

4. How do you feel about the social experiences you had as a homeschooler?  Do you feel that you had enough friends, or enough opportunities for friendship?

5.  How do you feel about your education?  Do you feel you received an average, above average or below average education compared to same-aged peers in your community?

6.  What did you do after graduation?  College? Work? How prepared did you feel for “the next step?”

And, I will them be sharing their (anonymous) answers with you. 

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Sick Kitty and Thoughts on the Pope and the Death Penalty

1.  Our poor kitty is sick. 

Doesn't he look pitiful?  And he likes to sleep in a box of Christmas beads. 

 It all started on Saturday night...he started making this awful caterwauling sound.  Awful.  Sunday, he wasn't eating or drinking and kept trying to use the litter box, but nothing came out.  Sunday, night I figured it all out.   Apparently it is super common for male cats to get completely blocked and unable to pee...at all.  This is extremely painful as you can imagine. So, Monday morning, we took him to the vet and sure enough he was completely blocked. His bladder was the size of a baseball.  Poor guy. 

2. At one time in my life, I wanted to a vet.  Now...I still love animals, but we're at the point in our lives where we really can't spend a lot of money on vet bills for a pet....beloved as that pet may be.   So, it was hard choosing whether to have him treated or put to sleep. I couldn't just let him to continue to suffer.

3.  Turns out that treating him wasn't as expensive as I was thinking, so we had him treated. Our vet is pretty down to earth and understands that not everyone wants to spend thousands of dollars on their pet.  So, we had him treated.  They catheterized him and he stayed at the vet one night. 

4. Now he's home, but still not doing well. Slowly he may be improving, but it's very slowly.  I have the vet in my frequent calls now.  Thankfully, they don't charge for phone calls!  He still isn't really eating...although he is drinking and peeing (all over himself), so we have him shut up in the basement (don't worry the basement is actually finished and nice) and we stopped the medication the vet gave him (that was probably making him pee on himself).  He's definitely lost weight though and is pretty traumatized by everything.   Poor guy.   I'm hoping he starts to pick up soon.  I miss my naughty kitty that jumps up on the table and gets into everything.

5.  On a totally unrelated note...did you see my post about the Probiotic giveaway?  There are still a few days left to enter.   I'm going to randomly pick a winner and announce next week.

6. The Pope is in America and my Facebook feed is blowing up with posts about him.  It seems about half my friends are thrilled with what he says and the other half are critical. Personally, I like what he says and I like that he is so social-justice orientated.  I'm not a fan of the death penalty and I am a big fan of subsidiarity and helping those in poverty.  I know a lot of people think he should be doing more to end abortion, but I do feel that helping the poor and abolishing the death penalty (in America, where it is not needed, we have the means to keep dangerous people imprisoned for life) is a step in the direction of abolishing abortion.  You can't garner respect for the unborn, unless you garner respect for all the born people...even those our society deems less desirable...those in poverty or prison.  The people that society tends to want to throw away as worthless. It seems as though a lot of people only value those who are innocent or productive. Yes, many people make very wrong or poor choices, but I think the saying "There but for the Grace of God, go I" is important to keep in mind.  Yes, it's important to fight abortion, but it is also important to fight for the rights and respect of ALL people. So..go Pope Francis!

7.  And that is probably the most controversial I will be in this blog for the next year or so.  So enjoy it now!

(Linking it up again!)

Join the Probiotic Craze {A Giveaway}

Come one, everyone is doing it!

Taking probiotics that is.  I'm sure we've all heard about the importance of probiotics and having a healthy, good bacteria inside our bodies.

Your gut bacteria really does affect your over all health.  Apparently Hippocrates said that "All Disease Being in the Gut."  Or so he is said as saying. The point is, a healthy gut is an important part of a healthy person.

We all know that good bacteria are good and bad bacteria are bad.  And that it's important to make sure you have lots of good bacteria. This is especially true for anyone who has had a round or two or three of antibiotics...which is just about everyone at some point.

Plus, Harvard says that probiotics are good, so it must be true. 

I've been a big fan of probiotics for awhile, which is why I jumped at the chance to try out UP4 Adult Cubes. 

These probiotics contain two very important strains. 

• Lactobacilis acidophilis DDS-1 (this one is trademarked by the UP4 company). 
• Bifidobacterium lactis. 

It's important to take different strains of probiotics...especially after a round of antibiotics. It's called diversifying your gut bacteria.  Everyone thinks of L. acidophilis when they think of probiotics, but there are actually several strains out there, so having more than one in a supplement is a very good thing.  

So, I was pretty excited to try out these probiotics. 

They taste like candy.   Seriously...that's the first thing you need to know about them. They taste like candy. You will actually look forward to taking your vitamins. 

The second thing is that they do seem to make a difference.  Since taking them, my digestion seems a bit happier. 

The third thing you need to know is that the company is great. Not only do they have adult probiotics, but they have children's probiotics, women's probiotics, senior probiotics, junior probiotic powder (perfect for babies and little kids) and even a green supplement containing spirulina.  I want to try that one next. 

The company is also very generous.  They sent me TWO boxes of UP4 Adult Cubes.  One for me, and one for you. 

Leave a comment in the comment box and you will be entered into the giveaway to win a box of UP4 Adult Cubes. 

Winner will be picked at random and announced on this blog next week.  So, be sure to check back. 

And don't forget to take your probiotics!

7 Things About Elsa

Someone is turning 3 today!!

Happy Birthday Elsa!!

In honor of that....I'm going to share 7 things about Elsa.

1. Elsa was born at home.  Intentionally.  But, if it hadn't been intentionally, it could easily have been accidently...it was that fast!  You can read her birth story here. 

2. Elsa loves babies. 

Here she is with baby Audrey.

I babysit Audrey 4 days a week.  Every day, we get a running commentary of what Audrey does.  Audrey said "ahh'.  Audrey kicked her legs.  Audrey rolled over.  Audrey's sucking her thumb. Audrey's eyes are closed.  Audrey's sleeping.  Yay......Audrey's here!!

3. Elsa likes to perform.  This performance is directed by Greta.

4. Elsa loves animals.  For her birthday, she wanted a cat cake.  Do I have a future in cake decorating or what?   Food photography too, for that matter. 

5. Elsa has been potty-trained for a year now.  Just because. I'm a big fan of early potty-training. 

6.  Elsa still loves to nurse.  We talked about weaning after she turns 3, but she didn't go for that idea.   Whenever we talk about getting no more na-na, she just says yes na-na, I DO want na-na. I do like na-na.  She WILL be weaned by her 4th birthday, however.  Mom's honor. 

7. Elsa's middle name is Rose.  When she was born, we wavered between naming her Elsa Rose or Elsa Marie. We chose Rose, because, right before she was born, her older brother, John, said that Rose is a beautiful name.  We felt bad for him, being the only boy and all.  So....John picked her middle name.   However, had we known that Disney was going to come out with a new princess named Elsa.....we would have named her Elise. Alas, Disney neglected to tell us about their movie plans.   How rude of them.   When she was first born and we told people here name, everyone was all Elsa---what a cute name, you don't hear that often. I love that. Now everyone is all, Elsa...her name is Elsa?  You named her after the Disney Princess???

Oh well. Even worse, Real Elsa loves Disney Elsa. I blame that on Greta....big sisters have big influence.

Happy Birthday Elsa!  We love you!

7 Quick Takes Time

Adventures in Babysitting and Other Things Going On

1, Does anyone remember that 1980's movie...Adventures in Babysitting?  Well...I started a babysitting/childcare gig. I watch this little 4-month old cutie, 4 days a week, all day.  It's nothing like the movie. 

Don't worry...her mom said I could post pictures of her.

 She's basically a dream baby and has been known to actually FALL ASLEEP ON HER OWN.  Multiple times actually.  Like, if she's acting tired, I can put her in the playpen, and she'll start sucking her thumb and just fall asleep.  Just like that?!!? 

I really like babies.....I'm definitely a baby person (not so much a toddler person).  So, it's been fun having a baby around. 

2.  Ben and I often ask each other, what one has to do to get a baby that easy.   We figured the answer is probably to have different parents.  Parents that can pass on the laid-back gene to their kids. (I do not have the laid-back gene) and most of my kids don't either.

3. Especially not this one....who turns 3 in just a week!   

We probably shouldn't have named her Elsa, because she came out thinking she was a Princess/Queen/World Dictator.

4. Actually, while Elsa's personality is very much to be very demanding and high needs, I do think parental practices can play a role.  My friend, Martha, wrote a really interesting piece about her change in parenting philosophy with her 2nd child.  While, I wouldn't say that I ever really made a point of following a PHILOSOPHY (I'm not a follower...never have been), I did generally tend to hold my babies a lot, nurse them every time they peeped or showed any signs or cues of wanting to nurse (like sucking on fingers) and generally they were just held a lot.  So, perhaps..just maybe, just maybe...that made them slightly more high-needs. Maybe.   Not Elsa though...she was born demanding.  

5. In other news.  Life is hard.  Really, really hard.  My husband is struggling with his new law practice.  It's harder than we thought it would be.   Most of the people who have contacted him have either been crazy, too poor to pay or a scam artist.  So..that's difficult.   He's also still applying for jobs, so we'll just hoping and praying that either his business will pick up or he'll find something.  Because right now, it's a huge struggle.   It's been like this for awhile, and it's hard to keep up hope or know the right thing to do.  Life is hard.  Everyone's life is hard, but sometimes it's harder than other times. This is one of the harder times.

6. Homeschooling is going well though.  Some days, (if my husband doesn't have much going on business-wise) he takes over the teaching so I can devote more time to my other work-at home gig along with watching the baby.  The kids say I'm a much nicer teacher than he is...he gives them more work.  

7. I cut my own hair. I always do.  I figure that my hair is wavy/curly enough that it hides a lot of haircut flaws. So...I do it myself.  I was starting to notice more than a few gray hairs....so I decided it was time to go shorter.  Some people can pull off the long gray hair look...but not me.  I think that works best on people who had lighter hair to begin with.  You can't really see the gray in this picture....but it's there.   I'm too lazy, all-natural, paranoid about chemicals to dye my hair, so I guess I'll just try to gray gracefully.

Calling this my quick takes and being done with it!