Taxpayer Funded Preschool?

When we looked at preschool, we decided not to do it at all. I could easily teach everything that my children would learn in preschool. I made sure my children had many opportunities to be around other children at church, play groups, story times at the library, and classes through Polk County Conservation. We talked, read books, travelled, played games, explored different places and ideas, and we loved our time together. When it came time for my kids to start school, we put them in, because that's what everybody did. After a couple of years, we took them back out. We decided to follow a different path, as many have before us. I am raising thinkers and learners of things. My children will stick out in a crowd. They won't fit in with kids their ages, and I am so proud of that fact.

People around here are talking about the need of taxpayers to pay for preschool for all 4 year olds. They think by putting kids in school earlier, the end product will be better. These are our children, not cattle being taken to a feed lot. You can not force education. It is a journey that one takes, because they find value in it. It is not a race. Starting earlier does not mean finishing earlier. It is learning. Why the hell would you ever want to finish learning? The early years should be devoted to play and exploration. A young child should not be prepared for factory style education at ages of 3 and 4, and taxpayers should not be paying for it. If you feel the need to teach your child to ask permission to pee, to sit on the floor, and to never speak without first raising their hand, by all means teach them these lessons at home, but that is not an education that I want for my children.

At the same time people are discussing making taxpayers pick up the bill for what parents should be doing at home on their own, they are also complaining that taxpayers currently pay for some highschool students to take college entrance exams. Some students are even taking classes at their local community colleges that are not offered in their highschools. This has some people really upset. They don't want to be paying for somebody else's college education. I am confused. It is okay to pay for preschool, to push children whose brains are not yet developed to learn in a style in which they are being taught, but we shouldn't encourage and help pay for young adults who wish to continue their education by taking classes that are not offered at their high schools? This type of thinking is one of the many reasons that this country has serious problems.

Gone Fishing

As moms in the area are debating if it is ever okay to allow children to skip school, I took mine fishing with their grandma and aunt. Is that so wrong? Really? We got to look at worms and fish. I showed them how to cast and they learned a little about patience. It was rainy and cold. I caught a baby fish, less than four inches long. We came home and had hot chocolate and storytime.

One local mom, who also happens to be a teacher, says that she spends a good portion of her class time getting kids who miss school up to speed. She claims that it is due to this that classes can't cover as much material as they need to and aren't getting the test scores that they should be getting. I'm going to have to disagree on this one. My kids don't spend any time in a classroom, at all. We spend a lot of time working in a garden, helping my mom, hanging out with my grandpa. We watch movies and play on the computer a lot. The kids play imaginative games. They spend very little time looking at a math book when I think about it. They do read a lot, and I read to them. We do not ever play catch up. Education is a journey, not a race. What you get out of it sometimes depends on your ability to stop and smell the roses, or learn how to grow them.

The same woman says that by allowing my children to not go to school on a schedule, I am teaching them that an education is not something of value. Again, I disagree. I believe that by teaching children from a very young age that education is something that you have to leave home for, that it starts at 8:00am and ends at 4:00pm, that you take a vacation from it, and you get weekends off from it, I believe that is teaching children not to value an education. My children enjoy learning. It comes natural for a child to ask questions. They want answers and they don't want to be told, "You don't need to know that now. You'll learn that in 7th grade." They will learn every minute of every day if you allow them to, if you don't train them to shut off their brains when the school bell tells them to do so.

In a time when public schools have no money to take kids to the zoo, or local fire station, it is up to parents to fill those gaps. We have to look for opportunities for our kids. I don't mean to sign them up for every club and sport, dance and art class. You don't have to go into debt to make learning fun and interesting for all involved, but sometimes you just might have to take some time out of a child's regularly scheduled day of answering questions from a book to get them interested enough to ask some questions of their own.

Moral of the story: Play hooky more often. You'll be glad you did.

Spring Cleaning

Today was Mother's Day. My husband was gone all day, feeding the masses. My children were enjoying having some time to watch movies, play games, and read books. I did a bit of light housework and then I walked into my library. There was dust. There were cobwebs. There were stacks and stacks of unshelved books teetering on the floor. Something had to be done. I have put off walking into this room in my house for months. I didn't want to face this beast that had run a muck. It was just too big. Today was the day.

I lack enough shelf space in my house for all of the wonderful books in my collection. I know this, but what can be done about it? I also lack the space in my house for more shelves. It was time to deal with the facts. I have too many books. It hurts to say so, but it is the truth. It was time to make some tough choices. I had to cut some loose to take better care of the ones that I was keeping.

On the chopping block were:

Holiday books- Each child got to pick one book for each holiday to keep. The others are going. 4 books on each holiday is plenty. Holidays are about traditions, and the kids picked the books that they remember me reading to them most. Some are fun picture books. Some are storybooks. Others discuss the meaning of the holidays. There ended up being a pretty good mix.
Bibles- Honestly, how many children's Bibles does any one household need? We have 4 children so 4 seems to be the number that comes to mind. I have counted over 20 in my house. Keep in mind these are huge, thick books that take up a lot of space. It is time they go to a home that they will get some attention in, one that is not mine.
Books based on TV shows- How did I even end up with these? I have a collection of Kim Possible chapter books? Seriously? How did that happen? I think the books are multiplying down there, because I did not, at any point in time, purchase these.
Little Golden Books- These are my families treasures. I have 2 boxes full of these beautiful little wonders. Oh, they aren't going anywhere, other than off of my shelves. I have stored them neatly away and will hide them in a closet somewhere. My kids just don't read them anymore. I don't read them to the kids. As young children, they are a bit wordy. James doesn't have the attention span for them. Meg has the attention span, but now wants to read on her own and the Little Golden Books aren't written at her reading level. Several of them are also Disney movie books. Looking at these books is like walking down a timeline of my childhood. I am not ready to part with that, and my mother would never allow me to, but since I don't have the space for them on the shelves, off into storage they go.

So after several hours of sorting, boxing, and bagging, my library is still a mess. It is getting better, though, and with some time and attention I can see myself enjoying the space again. One of the benefits of cleaning the library, or even being in there at all is that the kids, all in turn, came in to see what I was doing and picked up a book without even thinking about it. That is why my house is full of books. That is what it is all about.

Happiness

What is happiness?
Is it being excited about living?
Is it loving the people in your life?
Is it sharing, even with those you don't know?
Is it creating life and sustaining that life to maturity, in a child or a tree?
Is it small acts of kindness that make a big difference in the lives of others?
It is all these things and more.
I am happy.
Are you?
What makes you happy?