Stay in school little kiddies.

[Guest guest]

Truth about Public Scools

 

Home educating was great.

It was pro-survival that I could learn with my parents in the morning

and work or play in the afternoon. I started a business when I was 11

with my parents lawn mower and made enough to buy a boat & motor.

Then I was selling fish and bringing them home for Mom to cook. The

thing I most appreciated was that I was free to observe the world and

learn from my observations and that I was allowed to work when I was

young. Being able to make money taught me how manners and how business

relationships worked. I would have never learned anything of the real

world in a classroom. Now when I talk with my generation I find that

they are immature and uneducated. I feel that public school didn't

prepare them at all for the world and this is another reason for me to

be thankful that I was home schooled.

 

A question parents could ask their kids is what does government

education really teach our youth? The answer you will probably hear is

"not much, they just want us to pass the test so they give us the

answers before we do the test." or "Our school doesn't really teach us

anything; they only care about how many of us pass the test as their

funding depends upon statics alone.They do teach us that we are

ruled by government and since they put up the fence and tripled the

cops on campus it really does feel like a prison."

 

It is well known that public school is the place where kids can obtain

every kind of drug. From crack cocaine to ecstasy and cough medicine to

heroin. The worst are mind altering drugs that are sold out of lockers

and the education kids teach each other like "dude you can get high if

you inhale that can of air" or "watch me make a bong out of this

Avocado" or the only way we can be secure is if we have numbers and

join or start a gang." Public school teaches our kids to be criminals

and also ironically prepares them for prison. The question is still the

same; what does government education teach our youth? Promiscuity,

laziness, drug education, fear of law enforcement, no production and

lack of enthusiasm to start life as an adult appear to be a few but ask

a kid for a more local report on your nearest public school. You'll be

horrified.

 

We will never send our daughter to a public school even if it means

leaving the land of the free and the home of the brave. We will teach

her so she will survive in this world and not waste her youth learning

garbage!!!

 

~21 year old

[Guest guest]

Kudos, Bryan!

 

My kids could have almost written this! My kids had lots of freedom, too. They also started their own businesses when young, and went to work at age 15 working as much as they could. They have a hard time relating to their peers because they are so immature, into partying, do not have high morals, and many have little character, if any at all. It is sad!

 

I'm glad you see the light and want to keep your kids home where they belong!

 

Thanks for sharing. I am sure many others will also relate and agree!

 

Blessings~

 

Lori

 

 

"By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled."– John Taylor Gatto

 

He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19

 

 

herbal remedies From: bryanDate: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:08:36 -0400{Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

 

 

Truth about Public Scools

 

Home educating was great.It was pro-survival that I could learn with my parents in the morning and work or play in the afternoon. I started a business when I was 11 with my parents lawn mower and made enough to buy a boat & motor. Then I was selling fish and bringing them home for Mom to cook. The thing I most appreciated was that I was free to observe the world and learn from my observations and that I was allowed to work when I was young. Being able to make money taught me how manners and how business relationships worked. I would have never learned anything of the real world in a classroom. Now when I talk with my generation I find that they are immature and uneducated. I feel that public school didn't prepare them at all for the world and this is another reason for me to be thankful that I was home schooled.A question parents could ask their kids is what does government education really teach our youth? The answer you will probably hear is "not much, they just want us to pass the test so they give us the answers before we do the test." or "Our school doesn't really teach us anything; they only care about how many of us pass the test as their funding depends upon statics alone.They do teach us that we are ruled by government and since they put up the fence and tripled the cops on campus it really does feel like a prison." It is well known that public school is the place where kids can obtain every kind of drug. From crack cocaine to ecstasy and cough medicine to heroin. The worst are mind altering drugs that are sold out of lockers and the education kids teach each other like "dude you can get high if you inhale that can of air" or "watch me make a bong out of this Avocado" or the only way we can be secure is if we have numbers and join or start a gang." Public school teaches our kids to be criminals and also ironically prepares them for prison. The question is still the same; what does government education teach our youth? Promiscuity, laziness, drug education, fear of law enforcement, no production and lack of enthusiasm to start life as an adult appear to be a few but ask a kid for a more local report on your nearest public school. You'll be horrified. We will never send our daughter to a public school even if it means leaving the land of the free and the home of the brave. We will teach her so she will survive in this world and not waste her youth learning garbage!!!~21 year old

 

 

Hotmail has tools for the New Busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. Learn more.

[Guest guest]

Thanks for posting this B - even if it made me cry and feel like a unfit mother. I am HSing my youngest son here but have others in high school. They do not want to hs. One of them is quite the ladies man and he would miss the females.

My oldest who is a Jr. pretty much confirmed this. Its all about the testing.

I forwarded it.

K

 

-

Bryan Shillington

herbal remedies

Monday, April 19, 2010 4:08 PM

{Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

 

Truth about Public Scools

 

Home educating was great.It was pro-survival that I could learn with my parents in the morning and work or play in the afternoon. I started a business when I was 11 with my parents lawn mower and made enough to buy a boat & motor. Then I was selling fish and bringing them home for Mom to cook. The thing I most appreciated was that I was free to observe the world and learn from my observations and that I was allowed to work when I was young. Being able to make money taught me how manners and how business relationships worked. I would have never learned anything of the real world in a classroom. Now when I talk with my generation I find that they are immature and uneducated. I feel that public school didn't prepare them at all for the world and this is another reason for me to be thankful that I was home schooled.A question parents could ask their kids is what does government education really teach our youth? The answer you will probably hear is "not much, they just want us to pass the test so they give us the answers before we do the test." or "Our school doesn't really teach us anything; they only care about how many of us pass the test as their funding depends upon statics alone.They do teach us that we are ruled by government and since they put up the fence and tripled the cops on campus it really does feel like a prison." It is well known that public school is the place where kids can obtain every kind of drug. From crack cocaine to ecstasy and cough medicine to heroin. The worst are mind altering drugs that are sold out of lockers and the education kids teach each other like "dude you can get high if you inhale that can of air" or "watch me make a bong out of this Avocado" or the only way we can be secure is if we have numbers and join or start a gang." Public school teaches our kids to be criminals and also ironically prepares them for prison. The question is still the same; what does government education teach our youth? Promiscuity, laziness, drug education, fear of law enforcement, no production and lack of enthusiasm to start life as an adult appear to be a few but ask a kid for a more local report on your nearest public school. You'll be horrified. We will never send our daughter to a public school even if it means leaving the land of the free and the home of the brave. We will teach her so she will survive in this world and not waste her youth learning garbage!!!~21 year old

[Guest guest]

Can you all talk about the specific type of schooling that worked for you?  I have been doing what is essentially " school at home " with a curriculum that we all enjoy (most of the time, lol).  But I have been looking into un-schooling or child led learning.  My concern is that my children have never been in charge of their own time and so I would hear a lot of " mom I am bored " or just a lot of fighting.  We do lots of supplemental stuff now too though, art museum, science museums, aquarium etc. etc.

AnellaOn Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 4:17 PM, Lori Smith <homeschoolmom42 wrote:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kudos, Bryan!

 

My kids could have almost written this! My kids had lots of freedom, too. They also started their own businesses when young, and went to work at age 15 working as much as they could. They have a hard time relating to their peers because they are so immature, into partying, do not have high morals, and many have little character, if any at all. It is sad!

 

I'm glad you see the light and want to keep your kids home where they belong!

 

Thanks for sharing. I am sure many others will also relate and agree!

 

Blessings~

 

Lori

 

 

  " By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled. " – John Taylor Gatto

 

He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19

    

 

 

herbal remedies From: bryan

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:08:36 -0400{Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies. 

 

 

Truth about Public Scools

 

Home educating was great.It was pro-survival that I could learn with my parents in the morning and work or play in the afternoon. I started a business when I was 11 with my parents lawn mower and made enough to buy a boat & motor. Then I was selling fish and bringing them home for Mom to cook. The thing I most appreciated was that I was free to observe the world and learn from my observations and that I was allowed to work when I was young. Being able to make money taught me how manners and how business relationships worked. I would have never learned anything of the real world in a classroom. Now when I talk with my generation I find that they are immature and uneducated. I feel that public school didn't prepare them at all for the world and this is another reason for me to be thankful that I was home schooled.

A question parents could ask their kids is what does government education really teach our youth? The answer you will probably hear is " not much, they just want us to pass the test so they give us the answers before we do the test. " or " Our school doesn't really teach us anything; they only care about how many of us pass the test as their funding depends upon statics alone. " " They do teach us that we are ruled by government and since they put up the fence and tripled the cops on campus it really does feel like a prison. "

It is well known that public school is the place where kids can obtain every kind of drug. From crack cocaine to ecstasy and cough medicine to heroin. The worst are mind altering drugs that are sold out of lockers and the education kids teach each other like " dude you can get high if you inhale that can of air " or " watch me make a bong out of this Avocado " or the only way we can be secure is if we have numbers and join or start a gang. " Public school teaches our kids to be criminals and also ironically prepares them for prison. The question is still the same; what does government education teach our youth? Promiscuity, laziness, drug education, fear of law enforcement, no production and lack of enthusiasm to start life as an adult appear to be a few but ask a kid for a more local report on your nearest public school. You'll be horrified.

We will never send our daughter to a public school even if it means leaving the land of the free and the home of the brave. We will teach her so she will survive in this world and not waste her youth learning garbage!!!

~21 year old

 

 

Hotmail has tools for the New Busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. Learn more.

[Guest guest]

Did anyone see the segment on Good Morning America yesterday and today about home schooling the unschooling method? I have a friend that is doing it and it seems to work for them.

Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Plant roses and lavender for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.~ Practical Magic--- On Mon, 4/19/10, Lori Smith <homeschoolmom42 wrote:

Lori Smith <homeschoolmom42RE: {Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies."Bryan Schillington" <herbal_remedies >Monday, April 19, 2010, 3:17 PM

Kudos, Bryan! My kids could have almost written this! My kids had lots of freedom, too. They also started their own businesses when young, and went to work at age 15 working as much as they could. They have a hard time relating to their peers because they are so immature, into partying, do not have high morals, and many have little character, if any at all. It is sad! I'm glad you see the light and want to keep your kids home where they belong! Thanks for sharing. I am sure many others will also relate and agree! Blessings~ Lori

"By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled."– John Taylor Gatto

 

He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19

 

herbal remediesbryan@academyofnatu ralhealing. comMon, 19 Apr 2010 16:08:36 -0400{Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

 

 

Truth about Public Scools

 

Home educating was great.It was pro-survival that I could learn with my parents in the morning and work or play in the afternoon. I started a business when I was 11 with my parents lawn mower and made enough to buy a boat & motor. Then I was selling fish and bringing them home for Mom to cook. The thing I most appreciated was that I was free to observe the world and learn from my observations and that I was allowed to work when I was young. Being able to make money taught me how manners and how business relationships worked. I would have never learned anything of the real world in a classroom. Now when I talk with my generation I find that they are immature and uneducated. I feel that public school didn't prepare them at all for the world and this is another reason for me to be thankful that I was home schooled.A question parents could ask their kids is what does government education really teach our youth? The answer you will

probably hear is "not much, they just want us to pass the test so they give us the answers before we do the test." or "Our school doesn't really teach us anything; they only care about how many of us pass the test as their funding depends upon statics alone.They do teach us that we are ruled by government and since they put up the fence and tripled the cops on campus it really does feel like a prison." It is well known that public school is the place where kids can obtain every kind of drug. From crack cocaine to ecstasy and cough medicine to heroin. The worst are mind altering drugs that are sold out of lockers and the education kids teach each other like "dude you can get high if you inhale that can of air" or "watch me make a bong out of this Avocado" or the only way we can be secure is if we have numbers and join or start a gang." Public school teaches our kids to be criminals and also ironically prepares them for prison. The question is

still the same; what does government education teach our youth? Promiscuity, laziness, drug education, fear of law enforcement, no production and lack of enthusiasm to start life as an adult appear to be a few but ask a kid for a more local report on your nearest public school. You'll be horrified. We will never send our daughter to a public school even if it means leaving the land of the free and the home of the brave. We will teach her so she will survive in this world and not waste her youth learning garbage!!!~21 year old

 

 

 

Hotmail has tools for the New Busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. Learn more.

[Guest guest]

I have to respectfully disagree with the generalization of you comments. While

it's been 10 years since I went to public school, I attended a good one. It gave

me opportunities that my parents alone could not. I know we are lucky to have a

good school system where I live, many places do not and it becomes assumption

that all public education is bad. I don't want to start a war of words, just

point out that getting educated has less to do with the facilities and more to

do with willingness. I have personally seen casualties of both home and public

schooled people. High school grads that can't read well or home schooled that

can't function outside of the home environment. It is the responsibility of the

school to make sure you can read, write, do math and expose you to art and

history. It is you parent responsibility to teach you life lessons so you

function in the world.

Many Americans don't take responsibility for themselves, how are they going to

make sure their kids are taught proper things? When I worked at a middle school,

the biggest horror was what some parents thought was acceptable behavior. Don't

blame the beast (government) as it is the sheeple who created it to take care of

them instead of taking care of themselves. Anyone who decides what to do with an

open mind and open eyes will succeed while those who don't want the

responsibility will gladly let someone else make the decision for them adding

power to the beast until it can't stand under its own weight.

 

Sorry to be long winded but I'm NOT a lazy promiscuous drug dealer from public

school but an educated high school grad who learned not to take anything at face

value-especially the government.

 

Jules

 

 

herbal remedies , Bryan Shillington <bryan wrote:

>

>

> Truth about Public Scools

>

>

> Home educating was great.

> It was pro-survival that I could learn with my parents in the

> morning and work or play in the afternoon. I started a business when

> I was 11 with my parents lawn mower and made enough to buy a boat &

> motor. Then I was selling fish and bringing them home for Mom to

> cook. The thing I most appreciated was that I was free to observe

> the world and learn from my observations and that I was allowed to

> work when I was young. Being able to make money taught me how

> manners and how business relationships worked. I would have never

> learned anything of the real world in a classroom. Now when I talk

> with my generation I find that they are immature and uneducated. I

> feel that public school didn't prepare them at all for the world and

> this is another reason for me to be thankful that I was home schooled.

>

> A question parents could ask their kids is what does government

> education really teach our youth? The answer you will probably hear

> is " not much, they just want us to pass the test so they give us the

> answers before we do the test. " or " Our school doesn't really teach

> us anything; they only care about how many of us pass the test as

> their funding depends upon statics alone. " " They do teach us that we

> are ruled by government and since they put up the fence and tripled

> the cops on campus it really does feel like a prison. "

>

> It is well known that public school is the place where kids can

> obtain every kind of drug. From crack cocaine to ecstasy and cough

> medicine to heroin. The worst are mind altering drugs that are sold

> out of lockers and the education kids teach each other like " dude

> you can get high if you inhale that can of air " or " watch me make a

> bong out of this Avocado " or the only way we can be secure is if we

> have numbers and join or start a gang. " Public school teaches our

> kids to be criminals and also ironically prepares them for prison.

> The question is still the same; what does government education teach

> our youth? Promiscuity, laziness, drug education, fear of law

> enforcement, no production and lack of enthusiasm to start life as

> an adult appear to be a few but ask a kid for a more local report on

> your nearest public school. You'll be horrified.

>

> We will never send our daughter to a public school even if it means

> leaving the land of the free and the home of the brave. We will

> teach her so she will survive in this world and not waste her youth

> learning garbage!!!

>

> ~21 year old

>

[Guest guest]

They want the kids at such young and tender age so that they can work/manipulate

on their psyche. They will be preset by THEM to do THEIR bidding.

 

Look at those young men at Blackwater/Xe. Those were the product of no God in

school, preset minds with no conscience; and taught with crooked philosphy.

Discipline they recognize is only from those ordered by the SELECT FEW. So what

do you expect when they are odered to do beastial things i.e., while in Iraq?

They follow with JOY without batting an eyelash!!!!

 

You are right Bryan. Protect your children with all your might. You want to

raise good responsible children/people. No beasts as they want to do.

 

Melly

 

herbal remedies , Bryan Shillington <bryan wrote:

>

>

> Truth about Public Scools

>

>

> Home educating was great.

> It was pro-survival that I could learn with my parents in the

> morning and work or play in the afternoon. I started a business when

> I was 11 with my parents lawn mower and made enough to buy a boat &

> motor. Then I was selling fish and bringing them home for Mom to

> cook. The thing I most appreciated was that I was free to observe

> the world and learn from my observations and that I was allowed to

> work when I was young. Being able to make money taught me how

> manners and how business relationships worked. I would have never

> learned anything of the real world in a classroom. Now when I talk

> with my generation I find that they are immature and uneducated. I

> feel that public school didn't prepare them at all for the world and

> this is another reason for me to be thankful that I was home schooled.

>

> A question parents could ask their kids is what does government

> education really teach our youth? The answer you will probably hear

> is " not much, they just want us to pass the test so they give us the

> answers before we do the test. " or " Our school doesn't really teach

> us anything; they only care about how many of us pass the test as

> their funding depends upon statics alone. " " They do teach us that we

> are ruled by government and since they put up the fence and tripled

> the cops on campus it really does feel like a prison. "

>

> It is well known that public school is the place where kids can

> obtain every kind of drug. From crack cocaine to ecstasy and cough

> medicine to heroin. The worst are mind altering drugs that are sold

> out of lockers and the education kids teach each other like " dude

> you can get high if you inhale that can of air " or " watch me make a

> bong out of this Avocado " or the only way we can be secure is if we

> have numbers and join or start a gang. " Public school teaches our

> kids to be criminals and also ironically prepares them for prison.

> The question is still the same; what does government education teach

> our youth? Promiscuity, laziness, drug education, fear of law

> enforcement, no production and lack of enthusiasm to start life as

> an adult appear to be a few but ask a kid for a more local report on

> your nearest public school. You'll be horrified.

>

> We will never send our daughter to a public school even if it means

> leaving the land of the free and the home of the brave. We will

> teach her so she will survive in this world and not waste her youth

> learning garbage!!!

>

> ~21 year old

>

[Guest guest]

Yes, I saw it on the internet and it was very misleading and biased! Makes you wonder about all the relevant and good things that were edited out of this piece so that only the parts that seemed weird or irresponsible would be shown. If this program had been fair they would have shown grown unschoolers who were doing something with their lives as there are plenty. I truly despise the mainstream news and believe maybe 10% of it, if that.

 

Lori

"By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled."– John Taylor Gatto

 

He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19

 

 

herbal remedies From: Kitrina98Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 07:44:40 -0700RE: {Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

 

 

 

 

 

Did anyone see the segment on Good Morning America yesterday and today about home schooling the unschooling method? I have a friend that is doing it and it seems to work for them.

Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Plant roses and lavender for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.~ Practical Magic--- On Mon, 4/19/10, Lori Smith <homeschoolmom42 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:

Lori Smith <homeschoolmom42 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com>RE: {Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies."Bryan Schillington" <herbal_remedies >Monday, April 19, 2010, 3:17 PM

Kudos, Bryan! My kids could have almost written this! My kids had lots of freedom, too. They also started their own businesses when young, and went to work at age 15 working as much as they could. They have a hard time relating to their peers because they are so immature, into partying, do not have high morals, and many have little character, if any at all. It is sad! I'm glad you see the light and want to keep your kids home where they belong! Thanks for sharing. I am sure many others will also relate and agree! Blessings~ Lori

"By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled."– John Taylor Gatto

 

He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19

 

herbal remediesbryan@academyofnatu ralhealing. comMon, 19 Apr 2010 16:08:36 -0400{Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

 

 

Truth about Public Scools

 

Home educating was great.It was pro-survival that I could learn with my parents in the morning and work or play in the afternoon. I started a business when I was 11 with my parents lawn mower and made enough to buy a boat & motor. Then I was selling fish and bringing them home for Mom to cook. The thing I most appreciated was that I was free to observe the world and learn from my observations and that I was allowed to work when I was young. Being able to make money taught me how manners and how business relationships worked. I would have never learned anything of the real world in a classroom. Now when I talk with my generation I find that they are immature and uneducated. I feel that public school didn't prepare them at all for the world and this is another reason for me to be thankful that I was home schooled.A question parents could ask their kids is what does government education really teach our youth? The answer you will probably hear is "not much, they just want us to pass the test so they give us the answers before we do the test." or "Our school doesn't really teach us anything; they only care about how many of us pass the test as their funding depends upon statics alone.They do teach us that we are ruled by government and since they put up the fence and tripled the cops on campus it really does feel like a prison." It is well known that public school is the place where kids can obtain every kind of drug. From crack cocaine to ecstasy and cough medicine to heroin. The worst are mind altering drugs that are sold out of lockers and the education kids teach each other like "dude you can get high if you inhale that can of air" or "watch me make a bong out of this Avocado" or the only way we can be secure is if we have numbers and join or start a gang." Public school teaches our kids to be criminals and also ironically prepares them for prison. The question is still the same; what does government education teach our youth? Promiscuity, laziness, drug education, fear of law enforcement, no production and lack of enthusiasm to start life as an adult appear to be a few but ask a kid for a more local report on your nearest public school. You'll be horrified. We will never send our daughter to a public school even if it means leaving the land of the free and the home of the brave. We will teach her so she will survive in this world and not waste her youth learning garbage!!!~21 year old

 

 

 

Hotmail has tools for the New Busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. Learn more.

 

The New Busy is not the too busy. Combine all your e-mail accounts with Hotmail. Get busy.

[Guest guest]

Well then I think you are the exception and not the rule.  And while 5 - 10% of children may come out of a public school " okay " that's not a chance I am willing to take with my kids, even if we upped those to numbers to 50%. 

AnellaOn Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 2:52 PM, Jules <jlermuseaux wrote:

 

 

 

 

 

I have to respectfully disagree with the generalization of you comments. While it's been 10 years since I went to public school, I attended a good one. It gave me opportunities that my parents alone could not. I know we are lucky to have a good school system where I live, many places do not and it becomes assumption that all public education is bad. I don't want to start a war of words, just point out that getting educated has less to do with the facilities and more to do with willingness. I have personally seen casualties of both home and public schooled people. High school grads that can't read well or home schooled that can't function outside of the home environment. It is the responsibility of the school to make sure you can read, write, do math and expose you to art and history. It is you parent responsibility to teach you life lessons so you function in the world.

Many Americans don't take responsibility for themselves, how are they going to make sure their kids are taught proper things? When I worked at a middle school, the biggest horror was what some parents thought was acceptable behavior. Don't blame the beast (government) as it is the sheeple who created it to take care of them instead of taking care of themselves. Anyone who decides what to do with an open mind and open eyes will succeed while those who don't want the responsibility will gladly let someone else make the decision for them adding power to the beast until it can't stand under its own weight.

 

Sorry to be long winded but I'm NOT a lazy promiscuous drug dealer from public school but an educated high school grad who learned not to take anything at face value-especially the government.

 

Jules

 

herbal remedies , Bryan Shillington <bryan wrote:

>

>

> Truth about Public Scools

>

>

> Home educating was great.

> It was pro-survival that I could learn with my parents in the

> morning and work or play in the afternoon. I started a business when

> I was 11 with my parents lawn mower and made enough to buy a boat &

> motor. Then I was selling fish and bringing them home for Mom to

> cook. The thing I most appreciated was that I was free to observe

> the world and learn from my observations and that I was allowed to

> work when I was young. Being able to make money taught me how

> manners and how business relationships worked. I would have never

> learned anything of the real world in a classroom. Now when I talk

> with my generation I find that they are immature and uneducated. I

> feel that public school didn't prepare them at all for the world and

> this is another reason for me to be thankful that I was home schooled.

>

> A question parents could ask their kids is what does government

> education really teach our youth? The answer you will probably hear

> is " not much, they just want us to pass the test so they give us the

> answers before we do the test. " or " Our school doesn't really teach

> us anything; they only care about how many of us pass the test as

> their funding depends upon statics alone. " " They do teach us that we

> are ruled by government and since they put up the fence and tripled

> the cops on campus it really does feel like a prison. "

>

> It is well known that public school is the place where kids can

> obtain every kind of drug. From crack cocaine to ecstasy and cough

> medicine to heroin. The worst are mind altering drugs that are sold

> out of lockers and the education kids teach each other like " dude

> you can get high if you inhale that can of air " or " watch me make a

> bong out of this Avocado " or the only way we can be secure is if we

> have numbers and join or start a gang. " Public school teaches our

> kids to be criminals and also ironically prepares them for prison.

> The question is still the same; what does government education teach

> our youth? Promiscuity, laziness, drug education, fear of law

> enforcement, no production and lack of enthusiasm to start life as

> an adult appear to be a few but ask a kid for a more local report on

> your nearest public school. You'll be horrified.

>

> We will never send our daughter to a public school even if it means

> leaving the land of the free and the home of the brave. We will

> teach her so she will survive in this world and not waste her youth

> learning garbage!!!

>

> ~21 year old

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Anella,

 

I have 8 kids, 4 were public schooled and 4 were home schooled. Long story short is it took 8 years to get the hubby to agree to home school (2nd marriage, 2 oldest kids from previous marriage), and by this time the 4 older kids were thoroughly entrenched in the public school and were horrified at the thought of coming home (hubby agreed) and so we yanked the 2nd grader who wanted to come home and never sent the other 3 to school. I do wish I had home schooled all 8 of them, but I can't go back.

 

I don't know how old your kids are (mine were small when I started this as this was protocol for all the kids), but my kids learned real quick not to tell me they were bored as I'd give them a chore list to do when they'd say this! It finally got to the point when they'd say, I'm bored, and then in the same breath they'd quickly reply, But I'll find something to do because I don't want to clean!!!! They knew how I fixed boredom!!! (lol)

 

Yes, kids will fight when they get bored. And yes, kids do and can become bored, but that is where they need to learn to find ways to entertain themselves. My kids had a lot of craft items (I had 4 girls at home home schooling at the time) that they could do (paints, glitter, cloth swatches, embroidery floss, cross-stitch patterns and material, thread, a sewing machine (age 6-8 is not too soon to start teaching kids on a machine or by hand!), markers, crayons, paste/glue/glue sticks, beads, and anything else you can imagine), tons of books, magazines, a telescope (just a cheapy one that had been mine when I was kid from 1970!), a camcorder (they loved making their own movies and still do!), cameras, bicycles, toys, and a pass to the pool in summer. Plenty of things to keep them occupied no matter what time of year it was.

 

Because 3 of my kids had never been in school (the oldest of the 4 had gone K-2), they had no idea what it meant to actually sit down and do lots of "school". We sometimes worked on math problems (maybe 5-10 a day); I'd work with whatever kid might need help with their phonics if they were learning to read (all read within weeks of starting this, except we did have 2 late readers, but I taught all 8 of my kids to read, including the public schooled kids), we always had a time of oral reading (this was non-negotiable with me, and I got to choose what we read and for how long), and the girls had those cheap work books from the store in math, spelling, English, and writing as they wanted these and got to choose what they wanted. They also got to choose when or if they wanted to work in these, and they always were finished before the end of the year as the kids enjoyed working in them. We also had a few school books that I'd found at yard sales or that had been mine that they sometimes worked in, if they felt like it. We also had Mad-Libs (a game the kids loved that taught them verbs, nouns, adverbs and adjectives with ease), and just so many resources. Besides the oral reading (I usually read a minumum of 1 hour a day), the kids had to keep a daily journal as I am not good at record keeping (our state does not insist on this but I thought it would help record what the kids did), and my kids have had an absolute blast going back and reading these as they wrote about what was going on that particular day. Their life is recorded in these notebooks. They are so glad I had them do this!

 

My kids cooked their own breakfast and lunch (from age 5/6 up when they could see safely over the stove), and they used to tell me what a "bad mommy" I was because I didn't cook for them like their friend's mommies did. I'd retort that no, I was a "good mommy" because they knew how to cook and their friends didn't! My kids all cook and bake, which they learned doing for themselves. I also used to tell them I never wanted to cheat them out of being able to do for themselves. They also learned how to mend their own clothes (hemming, tears and rips, buttons, darts), darn their own socks, do their own laundry (age 8 up), and many other invaluable life skills. Not because I couldn't do it for them, but because I wanted them to know how to do these things for themselves and be self sufficient. This included my boys who attended public school. All 8 of my kids learned in this manner whether they were home schooled or public schooled. Life skills is a dying art in our society/culture.

 

In summer and fall we did an assembly line deal when we canned. The kids helped harvest the veggies, helped wash and peel/cut/slice/blanch, and we canned together. They went fruit picking with me when we canned jams and jellies. They helped to do yard work, including gardening, and they had chores they were responsible for (all kids did these things). They learned to make bread, cakes, pies, and cookies. They learned how to fry chicken, make noodles, and make gravies. They learned how to do dishes, help clean the fridge, defrost the freezer, and clean showers and toilets.

 

We had friends who lived in the country so they helped gather eggs, feed the cows, pigs, and horse, and sometimes got to curry down the horse. They also helped to muck stalls. Mucking stalls earned them rides on the horse! They also got to climb trees and pick apples, to pick grapes, and to gather the hens into the henhouse. They loved it! This wasn't daily, maybe a handful of times per year, but it was so much fun for them.

 

I gave them a great deal of freedom. They were allowed to watch their favorite movie every day for 6 months (The Lord of the Rings), make foods from the movie, dress as Hobbits and walk to the library with dog hair glued on their toes for realism (honest!), and to make movies and hold plays based on this movie. As a result, each child found an interest based on the movie. One kid studied all about New Zealand and all about the main actors, then watched all their movies (from the library). Another kid studied all about 12th century England, a bit about Medievel Europe, the customs, the dress, and even the religion and superstitions. Another kid studied all about the actors, started a website, wrote her own stories based on the movie, and had followers on her site. The youngest just kind of mingled in with the others and did a bit of it all. I only got involved when asked. The movies are priceless! The kids were so creative and funny! We need to move these to DVD's before the VHS tapes goes the way of the 8 track and we lose them!

 

We live in the city and so they had a lot of freedom to roam with friends. They'd go on the bike trail (I had them carry paper work stating they were home schooled), they hung out at the library and got involved in the teen programs, did some writing for the monthly teen newsletter, another one volunteering at the library 2 mornings per week. These last things they obviously did as they got older (12 up).

 

One kid taught herself to make purses and wallets out of duct tape because she loved the Red Green Show. She had a friend who went to the local high school who sold items for her. Many of the other kids thought they were "cool" and wanted to know where she got them. A small cottage industry was born for awhile. This daughter was 13 at the time, she is now 21, married, and living out of state.

 

I would bore you to tears if I recounted all the silly and outlandish things my kids did. All the crazy things they did to make money (from lemonade stands to going door-to-door to sell their own self-written and self- illustrated books done by hand), had their own bank accounts at a young age, including their own checkbooks by age 16, and all went to work at age 15. They babysat for the neighbors, for their older siblings, and helped me with children I often babysat for. They were always doing.

 

Sometimes, in the dead of winter, we'd do a bit of "school" work (like the journals and maybe some reading) and then we'd pop corn, make pallets on the floor with blankets, and watch old shows of the Little Rascals, or Laurel and Hardy, or Abbot and Costello all day. My kids loved these! Maybe we'd watch Donald O'Connor in the Frances the Talking Mule movie or we'd watch a movie that was made from a book we'd just finished (My Side of the Mountain, Little Women, Where the Red Fern Grows, the Red Badge of Courage, or Treasure Island) and compare what we liked or didn't like about the movies compared to the books. These were rare times, maybe 1-3 times per year as I am not much of a TV person, though the kids loved many old shows and I had bought a lot of them for the kids or we'd borrow them from the library.

 

The kids loved to read and did a ton of reading. Each one had their own favorite authors and genres. No one had to read what they didn't like, though all had to listen to the books I read out loud. I read the books I knew they'd never pick up for themselves. One time I started to read the book The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare, and I got groans and complaints about how "stupid" it was. The next day was the same, but then when I put the book down, the oldest girl picked up the book and hid in her room all day until it was finished! She had loved it. Not only did she love it, but the next day we had to go to the library so she could get the other books by this same author (5 in all). I finished reading the book to the other girls but they didn't like it as well as this one had. I never knew who would like what or what interest these books might spark.

 

We played games I made up as we traveled in the car to various destinations. We played the states and capitols game, the times tables game, the identify the weeds on the side of the road or in the field game, the spelling games, the president games, and what ever else I wanted to make into a game. Kids are competitive and these games became horribly competitive! But times tables were learned, along with state capitals (including Europe's, some of Asia's, and some of Africa's and Canada's), weed identification, who was president when, and a host of other things. The only thing is I had to know this stuff!!!! So I had to brush up on the things I wanted the kids to know (like some of the capitals of Asia and Africa I didn't know!). Sometimes we'd have a few neighbor kids with us like when we were going to our church for VBS or Sunday School, and these kids told my kids I was a "cool" mom!!! Of course my kids sneered and rolled their eyes! They did not find it "cool" that I had turned our car into a place of learning while travelling places! But learn they did and it was fun. The neighbor kids sure thought it was fun (many were boys and we still know them today), as their parents never played those kinds of games with them. Imagine that, they found learning fun! And these were public schooled kids.

 

We had a pass to the pool in summer, one to the zoo, went to various museums and the art gallery, went to the Center of Science and Industry (COSI), took day trips to Amish country or other places of interest in our state, such as various caverns or state parks, went camping, sometimes just in the backyard, and occasionally met with other like-minded families. The kids at various times joined 4-H, and all wanted to do dance or gymnastics, but we couldn't afford these things. Some played sports a couple of times, and we never spent more than $500 for the entire school year on all 4 kids! I had a budget I had to keep.

 

The girls might want to do grammar at midnight in July, play Mad Libs instead of watch TV in the evenings, write skits and make movies with their friends, or just zone out alone on the back of the roof (one story high!) and watch/identify birds, or read a book during "school" hours. They are still doing these kinds of crazy things. One daughter, age 19 (out of school), just got back from a trip to Montreal with friends whom she'd met on the Internet and at concerts. They went to go see a band called WOW (not national yet), and they took the Greyhound bus! They had quite an experience/adventure, even getting stuck in NYC for 23 hours, filmed much of it, and it is now on Youtube for all the world to see. My kids are still making movies and recording their lives, just like when they were young. And this daughter is now on her way to Cleveland with other friends whom she met at concerts/knows via the web, to go see Honor Society (a band). Crazy! But she knows what she wants to do, has a job and her own money, makes plans, and does some crazy things. But she is a good kid who is not into drinking, drugs, partying, smoking, gangs, or any kind of trouble. She also loves to attend church every week and lives out her faith. So no harm.

 

Think of summer when there is no school. That is how we most often lived our lives. I like to say we lived in Perpetual Summer. We measured wall paper to hang, the girls helped dad roof the back of the house, we gardened and canned, we cooked and baked, we read and did crafts, we painted walls, we cleaned house, we sometimes did "school work", the kids played house, made forts, played out in the snow during "school" hours, and whiled away their days doing the things they wanted to do. Yet the girls have managed to all grow up educated and intelligent. Their personalities are all different, but they are also very similar and get along great. All are close, even the ones who attended public school. There is a large age gap of 17 years between the oldest and the youngest, and so there is a difference in the generations, but they are all still close.

 

Of the unschooled kids, the youngest one turns 18 tomorrow, two are married, one is expecting a baby in about 3 weeks, another one went to acting/modeling school just because she wanted to; all of them have jobs. They've turned into educated, fun, creative adults who are valued and appreciated by their supervisors because they actually work, and they are the leaders in the crowds they run with. They have all grown up normal and able to function properly in society. They are not social misfits who are backwards or uneducated. They set alarms and get to work on time. They know how to "stand in line" and they know how to "take orders" from authority. All the things that you hear that these unschooled kids won't be able to do because they were not trained in a school to conform. It's all lies. Unschooled/Relaxed kids are able to function very normally.

 

And best of all? They've all come to me and thanked me for unschooling them and giving them so much freedom. They have also thanked me for making them such capable adults! They've worked from age 15 up with their peers, and they can't stand the immaturity, the drama, the childishness, the churlishness, the lack of character, the laziness, and the lack of life skills and reasoning skills that these young people exhibit. My kids have often been appalled at how uneducated their peers are who attend or have graduated from public school. Many of these young people cannot make change from a dollar, can't make decisions or think for themselves, and are ignorant of real life. My kids literally feel they've been saved from all of this. That was the best gift I could have had when each kid, on their own and in their own time came to me and thanked me for the life they had growing up. It made me think of the Proverbs 31 woman whose "children rise up and call her blessed", and I was humbled by all of this.

 

And yes, there were bad days when my kids were brats and fought, when they were insolent and difficult, and when they took advantage of their freedom and trust so that we had to pull back the reins and make them earn that trust back. But they learned from all of these things, and it helped to build their character and make them who they are today.I hope I haven't bored you with all this reminiscing!!! I truly enjoyed being with my kids and would definitely do it all again. I have no regrets in how we lived our lives or did our educating. It was truly the best lifestyle we could have chosen.

 

Blessings,

 

Lori

"By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled."– John Taylor Gatto

 

He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19

 

 

herbal remedies From: anellarussoDate: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 08:14:08 -0400Re: {Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

 

 

Can you all talk about the specific type of schooling that worked for you? I have been doing what is essentially "school at home" with a curriculum that we all enjoy (most of the time, lol). But I have been looking into un-schooling or child led learning. My concern is that my children have never been in charge of their own time and so I would hear a lot of "mom I am bored" or just a lot of fighting. We do lots of supplemental stuff now too though, art museum, science museums, aquarium etc. etc. Anella

On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 4:17 PM, Lori Smith <homeschoolmom42 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:

 

 

 

Kudos, Bryan! My kids could have almost written this! My kids had lots of freedom, too. They also started their own businesses when young, and went to work at age 15 working as much as they could. They have a hard time relating to their peers because they are so immature, into partying, do not have high morals, and many have little character, if any at all. It is sad! I'm glad you see the light and want to keep your kids home where they belong! Thanks for sharing. I am sure many others will also relate and agree! Blessings~ Lori

"By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled."– John Taylor Gatto

 

He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19

 

 

herbal remedies From: bryan (AT) academyofnaturalhealing (DOT) comDate: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:08:36 -0400{Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

 

 

Truth about Public Scools

 

Home educating was great.It was pro-survival that I could learn with my parents in the morning and work or play in the afternoon. I started a business when I was 11 with my parents lawn mower and made enough to buy a boat & motor. Then I was selling fish and bringing them home for Mom to cook. The thing I most appreciated was that I was free to observe the world and learn from my observations and that I was allowed to work when I was young. Being able to make money taught me how manners and how business relationships worked. I would have never learned anything of the real world in a classroom. Now when I talk with my generation I find that they are immature and uneducated. I feel that public school didn't prepare them at all for the world and this is another reason for me to be thankful that I was home schooled.A question parents could ask their kids is what does government education really teach our youth? The answer you will probably hear is "not much, they just want us to pass the test so they give us the answers before we do the test." or "Our school doesn't really teach us anything; they only care about how many of us pass the test as their funding depends upon statics alone.They do teach us that we are ruled by government and since they put up the fence and tripled the cops on campus it really does feel like a prison." It is well known that public school is the place where kids can obtain every kind of drug. From crack cocaine to ecstasy and cough medicine to heroin. The worst are mind altering drugs that are sold out of lockers and the education kids teach each other like "dude you can get high if you inhale that can of air" or "watch me make a bong out of this Avocado" or the only way we can be secure is if we have numbers and join or start a gang." Public school teaches our kids to be criminals and also ironically prepares them for prison. The question is still the same; what does government education teach our youth? Promiscuity, laziness, drug education, fear of law enforcement, no production and lack of enthusiasm to start life as an adult appear to be a few but ask a kid for a more local report on your nearest public school. You'll be horrified. We will never send our daughter to a public school even if it means leaving the land of the free and the home of the brave. We will teach her so she will survive in this world and not waste her youth learning garbage!!!~21 year old

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

WOW, thank you so much for sharing all that.  It really helps me a lot!  Right now my children are left to themselves (or we play games) for English, Science, History, Art, Social Studies, PE, Reading, and foreign languages.  But I am having a hard time letting go of the structure with math and phonics.  I do let the phonics go once they are reading well.  But for math....I feel like how am I ever going to teach them long division if they don't know how to carry or borrow?  Did your college age children ever struggle with math once they tried college classes?  I'm trying to finish up my bachelor's and I am really struggling with the math!!

AnellaOn Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 10:05 PM, Lori Smith <homeschoolmom42 wrote:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Anella,

 

I have 8 kids, 4 were public schooled and 4 were home schooled. Long story short is it took 8 years to get the hubby to agree to home school (2nd marriage, 2 oldest kids from previous marriage), and by this time the 4 older kids were thoroughly entrenched in the public school and were horrified at the thought of coming home (hubby agreed) and so we yanked the 2nd grader who wanted to come home and never sent the other 3 to school. I do wish I had home schooled all 8 of them, but I can't go back.

 

I don't know how old your kids are (mine were small when I started this as this was protocol for all the kids), but my kids learned real quick not to tell me they were bored as I'd give them a chore list to do when they'd say this! It finally got to the point when they'd say, I'm bored, and then in the same breath they'd quickly reply, But I'll find something to do because I don't want to clean!!!! They knew how I fixed boredom!!! (lol)

 

Yes, kids will fight when they get bored. And yes, kids do and can become bored, but that is where they need to learn to find ways to entertain themselves. My kids had a lot of craft items (I had 4 girls at home home schooling at the time) that they could do (paints, glitter, cloth swatches, embroidery floss, cross-stitch patterns and material, thread, a sewing machine (age 6-8 is not too soon to start teaching kids on a machine or by hand!), markers, crayons, paste/glue/glue sticks, beads, and anything else you can imagine), tons of books, magazines, a telescope (just a cheapy one that had been mine when I was kid from 1970!), a camcorder (they loved making their own movies and still do!), cameras, bicycles, toys, and a pass to the pool in summer. Plenty of things to keep them occupied no matter what time of year it was.

 

Because 3 of my kids had never been in school (the oldest of the 4 had gone K-2), they had no idea what it meant to actually sit down and do lots of " school " . We sometimes worked on math problems (maybe 5-10 a day); I'd work with whatever kid might need help with their phonics if they were learning to read (all read within weeks of starting this, except we did have 2 late readers, but I taught all 8 of my kids to read, including the public schooled kids), we always had a time of oral reading (this was non-negotiable with me, and I got to choose what we read and for how long), and the girls had those cheap work books from the store in math, spelling, English, and writing as they wanted these and got to choose what they wanted. They also got to choose when or if they wanted to work in these, and they always were finished before the end of the year as the kids enjoyed working in them. We also had a few school books that I'd found at yard sales or that had been mine that they sometimes worked in, if they felt like it. We also had Mad-Libs (a game the kids loved that taught them verbs, nouns, adverbs and adjectives with ease), and just so many resources. Besides the oral reading (I usually read a minumum of 1 hour a day), the kids had to keep a daily journal as I am not good at record keeping (our state does not insist on this but I thought it would help record what the kids did), and my kids have had an absolute blast going back and reading these as they wrote about what was going on that particular day. Their life is recorded in these notebooks. They are so glad I had them do this!

 

My kids cooked their own breakfast and lunch (from age 5/6 up when they could see safely over the stove), and they used to tell me what a " bad mommy " I was because I didn't cook for them like their friend's mommies did. I'd retort that no, I was a  " good mommy " because they knew how to cook and their friends didn't! My kids all cook and bake, which they learned doing for themselves. I also used to tell them I never wanted to cheat them out of being able to do for themselves. They also learned how to mend their own clothes (hemming, tears and rips, buttons, darts), darn their own socks, do their own laundry (age 8 up), and many other invaluable life skills. Not because I couldn't do it for them, but because I wanted them to know how to do these things for themselves and be self sufficient. This included my boys who attended public school. All 8 of my kids learned in this manner whether they were home schooled or public schooled. Life skills is a dying art in our society/culture.

 

In summer and fall we did an assembly line deal when we canned. The kids helped harvest the veggies, helped wash and peel/cut/slice/blanch, and we canned together. They went fruit picking with me when we canned jams and jellies. They helped to do yard work, including gardening, and they had chores they were responsible for (all kids did these things). They learned to make bread, cakes, pies, and cookies. They learned how to fry chicken, make noodles, and make gravies. They learned how to do dishes, help clean the fridge, defrost the freezer, and clean showers and toilets.

 

We had friends who lived in the country so they helped gather eggs, feed the cows, pigs, and horse, and sometimes got to curry down the horse. They also helped to muck stalls. Mucking stalls earned them rides on the horse! They also got to climb trees and pick apples, to pick grapes, and to gather the hens into the henhouse. They loved it! This wasn't daily, maybe a handful of times per year, but it was so much fun for them.

 

I gave them a great deal of freedom. They were allowed to watch their favorite movie every day for 6 months (The Lord of the Rings), make foods from the movie, dress as Hobbits and walk to the library with dog hair glued on their toes for realism (honest!), and to make movies and hold plays based on this movie. As a result, each child found an interest based on the movie. One kid studied all about New Zealand and all about the main actors, then watched all their movies (from the library). Another kid studied all about 12th century England, a bit about Medievel Europe, the customs, the dress, and even the religion and superstitions. Another kid studied all about the actors, started a website, wrote her own stories based on the movie, and had followers on her site. The youngest just kind of mingled in with the others and did a bit of it all. I only got involved when asked. The movies are priceless! The kids were so creative and funny! We need to move these to DVD's before the VHS tapes goes the way of the 8 track and we lose them!

 

We live in the city and so they had a lot of freedom to roam with friends. They'd go on the bike trail (I had them carry paper work stating they were home schooled), they hung out at the library and got involved in the teen programs, did some writing for the monthly teen newsletter, another one volunteering at the library 2 mornings per week. These last things they obviously did as they got older (12 up).

 

One kid taught herself to make purses and wallets out of duct tape because she loved the Red Green Show. She had a friend who went to the local high school who sold items for her. Many of the other kids thought they were " cool " and wanted to know where she got them. A small cottage industry was born for awhile. This daughter was 13 at the time, she is now 21, married, and living out of state.

 

I would bore you to tears if I recounted all the silly and outlandish things my kids did. All the crazy things they did to make money (from lemonade stands to going door-to-door to sell their own self-written and self- illustrated books done by hand), had their own bank accounts at a young age, including their own checkbooks by age 16, and all went to work at age 15. They babysat for the neighbors, for their older siblings, and helped me with children I often babysat for. They were always doing.

 

Sometimes, in the dead of winter, we'd do a bit of " school " work (like the journals and maybe some reading) and then we'd pop corn, make pallets on the floor with blankets, and watch old shows of the Little Rascals, or Laurel and Hardy, or Abbot and Costello all day. My kids loved these! Maybe we'd watch Donald O'Connor in the Frances the Talking Mule movie or we'd watch a movie that was made from a book we'd just finished (My Side of the Mountain, Little Women, Where the Red Fern Grows, the Red Badge of Courage, or Treasure Island) and compare what we liked or didn't like about the movies compared to the books. These were rare times, maybe 1-3 times per year as I am not much of a TV person, though the kids loved many old shows and I had bought a lot of them for the kids or we'd borrow them from the library.

 

The kids loved to read and did a ton of reading. Each one had their own favorite authors and genres. No one had to read what they didn't like, though all had to listen to the books I read out loud. I read the books I knew they'd never pick up for themselves. One time I started to read the book The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare, and I got groans and complaints about how " stupid " it was. The next day was the same, but then when I put the book down, the oldest girl picked up the book and hid in her room all day until it was finished! She had loved it. Not only did she love it, but the next day we had to go to the library so she could get the other books by this same author (5 in all). I finished reading the book to the other girls but they didn't like it as well as this one had. I never knew who would like what or what interest these books might spark.

 

We played games I made up as we traveled in the car to various destinations. We played the states and capitols game, the times tables game, the identify the weeds on the side of the road or in the field game, the spelling games, the president games, and what ever else I wanted to make into a game. Kids are competitive and these games became horribly competitive! But times tables were learned, along with state capitals (including Europe's, some of Asia's, and some of Africa's and Canada's), weed identification, who was president when, and a host of other things. The only thing is I had to know this stuff!!!! So I had to brush up on the things I wanted the kids to know (like some of the capitals of Asia and Africa I didn't know!). Sometimes we'd have a few neighbor kids with us like when we were going to our church for VBS or Sunday School, and these kids told my kids I was a " cool " mom!!! Of course my kids sneered and rolled their eyes! They did not find it " cool " that I had turned our car into a place of learning while travelling places! But learn they did and it was fun. The neighbor kids sure thought it was fun (many were boys and we still know them today), as their parents never played those kinds of games with them. Imagine that, they found learning fun! And these were public schooled kids.

 

We had a pass to the pool in summer, one to the zoo, went to various museums and the art gallery, went to the Center of Science and Industry (COSI), took day trips to Amish country or other places of interest in our state, such as various caverns or state parks, went camping, sometimes just in the backyard, and occasionally met with other like-minded families. The kids at various times joined 4-H, and all wanted to do dance or gymnastics, but we couldn't afford these things. Some played sports a couple of times, and we never spent more than $500 for the entire school year on all 4 kids! I had a budget I had to keep.

 

The girls might want to do grammar at midnight in July, play Mad Libs instead of watch TV in the evenings, write skits and make movies with their friends, or just zone out alone on the back of the roof (one story high!) and watch/identify birds, or read a book during " school " hours. They are still doing these kinds of crazy things. One daughter, age 19 (out of school), just got back from a trip to Montreal with friends whom she'd met on the Internet and at concerts. They went to go see a band called WOW (not national yet), and they took the Greyhound bus! They had quite an experience/adventure, even getting stuck in NYC for 23 hours, filmed much of it, and it is now on Youtube for all the world to see. My kids are still making movies and recording their lives, just like when they were young. And this daughter is now on her way to Cleveland with other friends whom she met at concerts/knows via the web, to go see Honor Society (a band). Crazy! But she knows what she wants to do, has a job and her own money, makes plans, and does some crazy things. But she is a good kid who is not into drinking, drugs, partying, smoking, gangs, or any kind of trouble. She also loves to attend church every week and lives out her faith. So no harm.

 

Think of summer when there is no school. That is how we most often lived our lives. I like to say we lived in Perpetual Summer. We measured wall paper to hang, the girls helped dad roof the back of the house, we gardened and canned, we cooked and baked, we read and did crafts, we painted walls, we cleaned house, we sometimes did " school work " , the kids played house, made forts, played out in the snow during " school " hours, and whiled away their days doing the things they wanted to do. Yet the girls have managed to all grow up educated and intelligent. Their personalities are all different, but they are also very similar and get along great. All are close, even the ones who attended public school. There is a large age gap of 17 years between the oldest and the youngest, and so there is a difference in the generations, but they are all still close.

 

Of the unschooled kids, the youngest one turns 18 tomorrow, two are married, one is expecting a baby in about 3 weeks, another one went to acting/modeling school just because she wanted to; all of them have jobs. They've turned into educated, fun, creative adults who are valued and appreciated by their supervisors because they actually work, and they are the leaders in the crowds they run with. They have all grown up normal and able to function properly in society. They are not social misfits who are backwards or uneducated. They set alarms and get to work on time. They know how to " stand in line " and they know how to " take orders " from authority. All the things that you hear that these unschooled  kids won't be able to do because they were not trained in a school to conform. It's all lies. Unschooled/Relaxed kids are able to function very normally.

 

And best of all? They've all come to me and thanked me for unschooling them and giving them so much freedom. They have also thanked me for making them such capable adults! They've worked from age 15 up with their peers, and they can't stand the immaturity, the drama, the childishness, the churlishness, the lack of character, the laziness, and the lack of life skills and reasoning skills that these young people exhibit. My kids have often been appalled at how uneducated their peers are who attend or have graduated from public school. Many of these young people cannot make change from a dollar, can't make decisions or think for themselves, and are ignorant of real life. My kids literally feel they've been saved from all of this. That was the best gift I could have had when each kid, on their own and in their own time came to me and thanked me for the life they had growing up. It made me think of the Proverbs 31 woman whose " children rise up and call her blessed " , and I was humbled by all of this. 

 

And yes, there were bad days when my kids were brats and fought, when they were insolent and difficult, and when they took advantage of their freedom and trust so that we had to pull back the reins and make them earn that trust back. But they learned from all of these things, and it helped to build their character and make them who they are today.

I hope I haven't bored you with all this reminiscing!!! I truly enjoyed being with my kids and would definitely do it all again. I have no regrets in how we lived our lives or did our educating. It was truly the best lifestyle we could have chosen.

 

Blessings,

 

Lori 

  " By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled. " – John Taylor Gatto

 

He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19

    

 

 

herbal remedies From: anellarussoDate: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 08:14:08 -0400

Re: {Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies. 

 

 

Can you all talk about the specific type of schooling that worked for you?  I have been doing what is essentially " school at home " with a curriculum that we all enjoy (most of the time, lol).  But I have been looking into un-schooling or child led learning.  My concern is that my children have never been in charge of their own time and so I would hear a lot of " mom I am bored " or just a lot of fighting.  We do lots of supplemental stuff now too though, art museum, science museums, aquarium etc. etc.

Anella

On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 4:17 PM, Lori Smith <homeschoolmom42 wrote:

 

 

 

 

Kudos, Bryan! My kids could have almost written this! My kids had lots of freedom, too. They also started their own businesses when young, and went to work at age 15 working as much as they could. They have a hard time relating to their peers because they are so immature, into partying, do not have high morals, and many have little character, if any at all. It is sad!

 I'm glad you see the light and want to keep your kids home where they belong! Thanks for sharing. I am sure many others will also relate and agree! Blessings~ Lori  

 

  " By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled. " – John Taylor Gatto

 

He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19

    

 

 

herbal remedies From: bryan

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:08:36 -0400{Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies. 

 

 

Truth about Public Scools

 

Home educating was great.It was pro-survival that I could learn with my parents in the morning and work or play in the afternoon. I started a business when I was 11 with my parents lawn mower and made enough to buy a boat & motor. Then I was selling fish and bringing them home for Mom to cook. The thing I most appreciated was that I was free to observe the world and learn from my observations and that I was allowed to work when I was young. Being able to make money taught me how manners and how business relationships worked. I would have never learned anything of the real world in a classroom. Now when I talk with my generation I find that they are immature and uneducated. I feel that public school didn't prepare them at all for the world and this is another reason for me to be thankful that I was home schooled.

A question parents could ask their kids is what does government education really teach our youth? The answer you will probably hear is " not much, they just want us to pass the test so they give us the answers before we do the test. " or " Our school doesn't really teach us anything; they only care about how many of us pass the test as their funding depends upon statics alone. " " They do teach us that we are ruled by government and since they put up the fence and tripled the cops on campus it really does feel like a prison. "

It is well known that public school is the place where kids can obtain every kind of drug. From crack cocaine to ecstasy and cough medicine to heroin. The worst are mind altering drugs that are sold out of lockers and the education kids teach each other like " dude you can get high if you inhale that can of air " or " watch me make a bong out of this Avocado " or the only way we can be secure is if we have numbers and join or start a gang. " Public school teaches our kids to be criminals and also ironically prepares them for prison. The question is still the same; what does government education teach our youth? Promiscuity, laziness, drug education, fear of law enforcement, no production and lack of enthusiasm to start life as an adult appear to be a few but ask a kid for a more local report on your nearest public school. You'll be horrified.

We will never send our daughter to a public school even if it means leaving the land of the free and the home of the brave. We will teach her so she will survive in this world and not waste her youth learning garbage!!!

~21 year old

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Hey Jules,

Generalization. You are right and you have a very valid argument.

From observing my generation (their mannerisms, ethics level,

responsibility level and intelligence) I wrote the below.

All people are different. I could have specified that when stating what

public school teaches youths, some kids learn and some kids don't.

 

High Schools and Middle Schools are dope peddling central. This

is a very true generalization. I stand by it.

 

My generation is growing up in (to say the least) strange times. We

know much about the world and this technocratic society. We can't help

but see what we see.

Some of us (like myself) try speak out against what we see and what I

see is the below. I admit ignorance as to what public school was like

back then. That's history.

My mother who graduated in the 60's went to a very good school and it

was a public school.

What I wrote is simply what I observe in present time.

 

Thank you for what you said.

It made me look at it from a different point of view.

 

~B

 

 

 

On 4/20/2010 2:52 PM, Jules wrote:

 

 

I have to respectfully disagree with the generalization of you

comments. While it's been 10 years since I went to public school, I

attended a good one. It gave me opportunities that my parents alone

could not. I know we are lucky to have a good school system where I

live, many places do not and it becomes assumption that all public

education is bad. I don't want to start a war of words, just point out

that getting educated has less to do with the facilities and more to do

with willingness. I have personally seen casualties of both home and

public schooled people. High school grads that can't read well or home

schooled that can't function outside of the home environment. It is the

responsibility of the school to make sure you can read, write, do math

and expose you to art and history. It is you parent responsibility to

teach you life lessons so you function in the world.

Many Americans don't take responsibility for themselves, how are they

going to make sure their kids are taught proper things? When I worked

at a middle school, the biggest horror was what some parents thought

was acceptable behavior. Don't blame the beast (government) as it is

the sheeple who created it to take care of them instead of taking care

of themselves. Anyone who decides what to do with an open mind and open

eyes will succeed while those who don't want the responsibility will

gladly let someone else make the decision for them adding power to the

beast until it can't stand under its own weight.

 

Sorry to be long winded but I'm NOT a lazy promiscuous drug dealer from

public school but an educated high school grad who learned not to take

anything at face value-especially the government.

 

Jules

 

herbal remedies ,

Bryan Shillington <bryan wrote:

>

>

> Truth about Public Scools

>

>

> Home educating was great.

> It was pro-survival that I could learn with my parents in the

> morning and work or play in the afternoon. I started a business

when

> I was 11 with my parents lawn mower and made enough to buy a boat

&

> motor. Then I was selling fish and bringing them home for Mom to

> cook. The thing I most appreciated was that I was free to observe

> the world and learn from my observations and that I was allowed to

> work when I was young. Being able to make money taught me how

> manners and how business relationships worked. I would have never

> learned anything of the real world in a classroom. Now when I talk

> with my generation I find that they are immature and uneducated. I

> feel that public school didn't prepare them at all for the world

and

> this is another reason for me to be thankful that I was home

schooled.

>

> A question parents could ask their kids is what does government

> education really teach our youth? The answer you will probably hear

> is "not much, they just want us to pass the test so they give us

the

> answers before we do the test." or "Our school doesn't really teach

> us anything; they only care about how many of us pass the test as

> their funding depends upon statics alone.They do teach us that

we

> are ruled by government and since they put up the fence and tripled

> the cops on campus it really does feel like a prison."

>

> It is well known that public school is the place where kids can

> obtain every kind of drug. From crack cocaine to ecstasy and cough

> medicine to heroin. The worst are mind altering drugs that are sold

> out of lockers and the education kids teach each other like "dude

> you can get high if you inhale that can of air" or "watch me make a

> bong out of this Avocado" or the only way we can be secure is if we

> have numbers and join or start a gang." Public school teaches our

> kids to be criminals and also ironically prepares them for prison.

> The question is still the same; what does government education

teach

> our youth? Promiscuity, laziness, drug education, fear of law

> enforcement, no production and lack of enthusiasm to start life as

> an adult appear to be a few but ask a kid for a more local report

on

> your nearest public school. You'll be horrified.

>

> We will never send our daughter to a public school even if it means

> leaving the land of the free and the home of the brave. We will

> teach her so she will survive in this world and not waste her youth

> learning garbage!!!

>

> ~21 year old

>

[Guest guest]

We did spend some time learning to do long division (and short division for large numbers, which we learned from a school math book from 1934!), carrying and borrowing when the kids asked to learn. These problems were in the work books they liked to do on their own, but of course, some of the math they could not do on their own and so they would come ask for help. I once made two very rebellious children sit down with dad to learn to do long division as I got tired of hearing the whining about how it was toooo haaaard!!!! because they would not listen to me. Within 45 minutes sitting down with dad, both had understood the concept and then spent the next week doing problems in their books for "fun" to see who could do the problems the fastest! I told you my kids are competitive! That's right, it only took them 45 minutes to figure out the concept! I think they were around 10 and 11 1/2 at the time, cognitively ready to retain and apply such information.

 

I sometimes pushed math in some areas if I saw that I needed to, but usually the kids learned plenty playing games, working in their work books, playing games in the car, and in real life scenarios taking care of their own bank books, figuring out the profit and divvying up the spoils from one of their entreprenurial exploits, working a cash register at a local fast food joint, and moving on in life to other jobs. Algebra is not necessary unless one wants to go to college, and even then it takes about 6 months or less to learn algebra, so there is never a reason to say one "can't learn" what one needs when one needs it! If you have a kid who is wanting or needing to go to college to pursue a special dream, they'll be motivated to sit down and learn long division, algebra, or even calculus, if necessary to reach their dreams as they will see the relevancy of needing to know. They can learn from a DVD, a parent, a tutor, or even another friend who already knows the information. Anything you or your children want to learn is there for the learning, you just need to find out how to achieve it, and it is not hard to find this out.

 

One kid wanted to learn algebra so I bought her a work book (these are expensive!) and she took out a VHS tape from the library on basic algebra so she could learn at her own pace, stop the tape if she needed to, or replay if she needed to. She ended up learning enough to get her through the work book plus half of a regular school text book before she lost interest as she could not see how this was necessary for her at the time. Perhaps she will go back to this one day. But it will be her choice. She had become proficient to where she was in the book and then just decided she was finished and wanted to move on to something else. I don't remember what her interest was at the time that took her away from the math, but it was another learning experience that helped her to grow as a person.

 

I've only had three kids interested in college; one went for one quarter then decided he didn't really want to attend and is paying off a huge debt, and one is currently attending in the freshman year as she wants to be a mortician. Both were public schooled.

The next one I cover below.

 

The oldest home schooler helps her husband with an online ebay account as they sell a lot of stuff online, and they also have their own small business where they sell Dvd's, used game boxes, etc. Her husband also works in a video store, and my daughter babysits.

 

The next daughter married a man in the Army so she can't plan too much of anything right now, but she wants to open up her own Jersey Mike's franchise as the opportunity has been tossed around between her and her old boss (she worked for Jersey Mike's here in our town, loves the job, and when husband is deployed is coming back here to go back to work there). She and her husband eventually would like to own their own store once he is out of the military.

 

The next one has many ideas and likes, many dreams and aspirations (she is the one who put herself in Modeling/Acting classes), and she is now taking piano lessons, art lessons, and also working two jobs. She wants to go to film school out in California, but we've discouraged her as she would be terribly in debt once out of school as it would be based on our income, and there is no foreseeable future to us in this career at this time. She is upset we are not "supporting her", but with this economy we want her to wait and see if it bounces back and then we'll discuss this want. She could easily go in debt for $100,000+ with no job prospects in sight. Where this will all all lead to in the future, I don't know, but for now, it is on hold.

 

The youngest has no clue what she wants to do, but college is not in her future at this point as she is not interested. We respect our kids right to make their own paths in life, with or without college.

 

Blessings,

 

Lori

"By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled."– John Taylor Gatto

 

He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19

 

 

herbal remedies From: anellarussoDate: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:33:44 -0400Re: {Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

 

 

WOW, thank you so much for sharing all that. It really helps me a lot! Right now my children are left to themselves (or we play games) for English, Science, History, Art, Social Studies, PE, Reading, and foreign languages. But I am having a hard time letting go of the structure with math and phonics. I do let the phonics go once they are reading well. But for math....I feel like how am I ever going to teach them long division if they don't know how to carry or borrow? Did your college age children ever struggle with math once they tried college classes? I'm trying to finish up my bachelor's and I am really struggling with the math!!Anella

On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 10:05 PM, Lori Smith <homeschoolmom42 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:

 

 

 

Hi Anella, I have 8 kids, 4 were public schooled and 4 were home schooled. Long story short is it took 8 years to get the hubby to agree to home school (2nd marriage, 2 oldest kids from previous marriage), and by this time the 4 older kids were thoroughly entrenched in the public school and were horrified at the thought of coming home (hubby agreed) and so we yanked the 2nd grader who wanted to come home and never sent the other 3 to school. I do wish I had home schooled all 8 of them, but I can't go back. I don't know how old your kids are (mine were small when I started this as this was protocol for all the kids), but my kids learned real quick not to tell me they were bored as I'd give them a chore list to do when they'd say this! It finally got to the point when they'd say, I'm bored, and then in the same breath they'd quickly reply, But I'll find something to do because I don't want to clean!!!! They knew how I fixed boredom!!! (lol) Yes, kids will fight when they get bored. And yes, kids do and can become bored, but that is where they need to learn to find ways to entertain themselves. My kids had a lot of craft items (I had 4 girls at home home schooling at the time) that they could do (paints, glitter, cloth swatches, embroidery floss, cross-stitch patterns and material, thread, a sewing machine (age 6-8 is not too soon to start teaching kids on a machine or by hand!), markers, crayons, paste/glue/glue sticks, beads, and anything else you can imagine), tons of books, magazines, a telescope (just a cheapy one that had been mine when I was kid from 1970!), a camcorder (they loved making their own movies and still do!), cameras, bicycles, toys, and a pass to the pool in summer. Plenty of things to keep them occupied no matter what time of year it was. Because 3 of my kids had never been in school (the oldest of the 4 had gone K-2), they had no idea what it meant to actually sit down and do lots of "school". We sometimes worked on math problems (maybe 5-10 a day); I'd work with whatever kid might need help with their phonics if they were learning to read (all read within weeks of starting this, except we did have 2 late readers, but I taught all 8 of my kids to read, including the public schooled kids), we always had a time of oral reading (this was non-negotiable with me, and I got to choose what we read and for how long), and the girls had those cheap work books from the store in math, spelling, English, and writing as they wanted these and got to choose what they wanted. They also got to choose when or if they wanted to work in these, and they always were finished before the end of the year as the kids enjoyed working in them. We also had a few school books that I'd found at yard sales or that had been mine that they sometimes worked in, if they felt like it. We also had Mad-Libs (a game the kids loved that taught them verbs, nouns, adverbs and adjectives with ease), and just so many resources. Besides the oral reading (I usually read a minumum of 1 hour a day), the kids had to keep a daily journal as I am not good at record keeping (our state does not insist on this but I thought it would help record what the kids did), and my kids have had an absolute blast going back and reading these as they wrote about what was going on that particular day. Their life is recorded in these notebooks. They are so glad I had them do this! My kids cooked their own breakfast and lunch (from age 5/6 up when they could see safely over the stove), and they used to tell me what a "bad mommy" I was because I didn't cook for them like their friend's mommies did. I'd retort that no, I was a "good mommy" because they knew how to cook and their friends didn't! My kids all cook and bake, which they learned doing for themselves. I also used to tell them I never wanted to cheat them out of being able to do for themselves. They also learned how to mend their own clothes (hemming, tears and rips, buttons, darts), darn their own socks, do their own laundry (age 8 up), and many other invaluable life skills. Not because I couldn't do it for them, but because I wanted them to know how to do these things for themselves and be self sufficient. This included my boys who attended public school. All 8 of my kids learned in this manner whether they were home schooled or public schooled. Life skills is a dying art in our society/culture. In summer and fall we did an assembly line deal when we canned. The kids helped harvest the veggies, helped wash and peel/cut/slice/blanch, and we canned together. They went fruit picking with me when we canned jams and jellies. They helped to do yard work, including gardening, and they had chores they were responsible for (all kids did these things). They learned to make bread, cakes, pies, and cookies. They learned how to fry chicken, make noodles, and make gravies. They learned how to do dishes, help clean the fridge, defrost the freezer, and clean showers and toilets. We had friends who lived in the country so they helped gather eggs, feed the cows, pigs, and horse, and sometimes got to curry down the horse. They also helped to muck stalls. Mucking stalls earned them rides on the horse! They also got to climb trees and pick apples, to pick grapes, and to gather the hens into the henhouse. They loved it! This wasn't daily, maybe a handful of times per year, but it was so much fun for them. I gave them a great deal of freedom. They were allowed to watch their favorite movie every day for 6 months (The Lord of the Rings), make foods from the movie, dress as Hobbits and walk to the library with dog hair glued on their toes for realism (honest!), and to make movies and hold plays based on this movie. As a result, each child found an interest based on the movie. One kid studied all about New Zealand and all about the main actors, then watched all their movies (from the library). Another kid studied all about 12th century England, a bit about Medievel Europe, the customs, the dress, and even the religion and superstitions. Another kid studied all about the actors, started a website, wrote her own stories based on the movie, and had followers on her site. The youngest just kind of mingled in with the others and did a bit of it all. I only got involved when asked. The movies are priceless! The kids were so creative and funny! We need to move these to DVD's before the VHS tapes goes the way of the 8 track and we lose them! We live in the city and so they had a lot of freedom to roam with friends. They'd go on the bike trail (I had them carry paper work stating they were home schooled), they hung out at the library and got involved in the teen programs, did some writing for the monthly teen newsletter, another one volunteering at the library 2 mornings per week. These last things they obviously did as they got older (12 up). One kid taught herself to make purses and wallets out of duct tape because she loved the Red Green Show. She had a friend who went to the local high school who sold items for her. Many of the other kids thought they were "cool" and wanted to know where she got them. A small cottage industry was born for awhile. This daughter was 13 at the time, she is now 21, married, and living out of state. I would bore you to tears if I recounted all the silly and outlandish things my kids did. All the crazy things they did to make money (from lemonade stands to going door-to-door to sell their own self-written and self- illustrated books done by hand), had their own bank accounts at a young age, including their own checkbooks by age 16, and all went to work at age 15. They babysat for the neighbors, for their older siblings, and helped me with children I often babysat for. They were always doing. Sometimes, in the dead of winter, we'd do a bit of "school" work (like the journals and maybe some reading) and then we'd pop corn, make pallets on the floor with blankets, and watch old shows of the Little Rascals, or Laurel and Hardy, or Abbot and Costello all day. My kids loved these! Maybe we'd watch Donald O'Connor in the Frances the Talking Mule movie or we'd watch a movie that was made from a book we'd just finished (My Side of the Mountain, Little Women, Where the Red Fern Grows, the Red Badge of Courage, or Treasure Island) and compare what we liked or didn't like about the movies compared to the books. These were rare times, maybe 1-3 times per year as I am not much of a TV person, though the kids loved many old shows and I had bought a lot of them for the kids or we'd borrow them from the library. The kids loved to read and did a ton of reading. Each one had their own favorite authors and genres. No one had to read what they didn't like, though all had to listen to the books I read out loud. I read the books I knew they'd never pick up for themselves. One time I started to read the book The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare, and I got groans and complaints about how "stupid" it was. The next day was the same, but then when I put the book down, the oldest girl picked up the book and hid in her room all day until it was finished! She had loved it. Not only did she love it, but the next day we had to go to the library so she could get the other books by this same author (5 in all). I finished reading the book to the other girls but they didn't like it as well as this one had. I never knew who would like what or what interest these books might spark. We played games I made up as we traveled in the car to various destinations. We played the states and capitols game, the times tables game, the identify the weeds on the side of the road or in the field game, the spelling games, the president games, and what ever else I wanted to make into a game. Kids are competitive and these games became horribly competitive! But times tables were learned, along with state capitals (including Europe's, some of Asia's, and some of Africa's and Canada's), weed identification, who was president when, and a host of other things. The only thing is I had to know this stuff!!!! So I had to brush up on the things I wanted the kids to know (like some of the capitals of Asia and Africa I didn't know!). Sometimes we'd have a few neighbor kids with us like when we were going to our church for VBS or Sunday School, and these kids told my kids I was a "cool" mom!!! Of course my kids sneered and rolled their eyes! They did not find it "cool" that I had turned our car into a place of learning while travelling places! But learn they did and it was fun. The neighbor kids sure thought it was fun (many were boys and we still know them today), as their parents never played those kinds of games with them. Imagine that, they found learning fun! And these were public schooled kids. We had a pass to the pool in summer, one to the zoo, went to various museums and the art gallery, went to the Center of Science and Industry (COSI), took day trips to Amish country or other places of interest in our state, such as various caverns or state parks, went camping, sometimes just in the backyard, and occasionally met with other like-minded families. The kids at various times joined 4-H, and all wanted to do dance or gymnastics, but we couldn't afford these things. Some played sports a couple of times, and we never spent more than $500 for the entire school year on all 4 kids! I had a budget I had to keep. The girls might want to do grammar at midnight in July, play Mad Libs instead of watch TV in the evenings, write skits and make movies with their friends, or just zone out alone on the back of the roof (one story high!) and watch/identify birds, or read a book during "school" hours. They are still doing these kinds of crazy things. One daughter, age 19 (out of school), just got back from a trip to Montreal with friends whom she'd met on the Internet and at concerts. They went to go see a band called WOW (not national yet), and they took the Greyhound bus! They had quite an experience/adventure, even getting stuck in NYC for 23 hours, filmed much of it, and it is now on Youtube for all the world to see. My kids are still making movies and recording their lives, just like when they were young. And this daughter is now on her way to Cleveland with other friends whom she met at concerts/knows via the web, to go see Honor Society (a band). Crazy! But she knows what she wants to do, has a job and her own money, makes plans, and does some crazy things. But she is a good kid who is not into drinking, drugs, partying, smoking, gangs, or any kind of trouble. She also loves to attend church every week and lives out her faith. So no harm. Think of summer when there is no school. That is how we most often lived our lives. I like to say we lived in Perpetual Summer. We measured wall paper to hang, the girls helped dad roof the back of the house, we gardened and canned, we cooked and baked, we read and did crafts, we painted walls, we cleaned house, we sometimes did "school work", the kids played house, made forts, played out in the snow during "school" hours, and whiled away their days doing the things they wanted to do. Yet the girls have managed to all grow up educated and intelligent. Their personalities are all different, but they are also very similar and get along great. All are close, even the ones who attended public school. There is a large age gap of 17 years between the oldest and the youngest, and so there is a difference in the generations, but they are all still close. Of the unschooled kids, the youngest one turns 18 tomorrow, two are married, one is expecting a baby in about 3 weeks, another one went to acting/modeling school just because she wanted to; all of them have jobs. They've turned into educated, fun, creative adults who are valued and appreciated by their supervisors because they actually work, and they are the leaders in the crowds they run with. They have all grown up normal and able to function properly in society. They are not social misfits who are backwards or uneducated. They set alarms and get to work on time. They know how to "stand in line" and they know how to "take orders" from authority. All the things that you hear that these unschooled kids won't be able to do because they were not trained in a school to conform. It's all lies. Unschooled/Relaxed kids are able to function very normally. And best of all? They've all come to me and thanked me for unschooling them and giving them so much freedom. They have also thanked me for making them such capable adults! They've worked from age 15 up with their peers, and they can't stand the immaturity, the drama, the childishness, the churlishness, the lack of character, the laziness, and the lack of life skills and reasoning skills that these young people exhibit. My kids have often been appalled at how uneducated their peers are who attend or have graduated from public school. Many of these young people cannot make change from a dollar, can't make decisions or think for themselves, and are ignorant of real life. My kids literally feel they've been saved from all of this. That was the best gift I could have had when each kid, on their own and in their own time came to me and thanked me for the life they had growing up. It made me think of the Proverbs 31 woman whose "children rise up and call her blessed", and I was humbled by all of this. And yes, there were bad days when my kids were brats and fought, when they were insolent and difficult, and when they took advantage of their freedom and trust so that we had to pull back the reins and make them earn that trust back. But they learned from all of these things, and it helped to build their character and make them who they are today.I hope I haven't bored you with all this reminiscing!!! I truly enjoyed being with my kids and would definitely do it all again. I have no regrets in how we lived our lives or did our educating. It was truly the best lifestyle we could have chosen. Blessings, Lori

"By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled."– John Taylor Gatto

 

He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19

 

 

herbal remedies From: anellarusso Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 08:14:08 -0400Re: {Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

 

Can you all talk about the specific type of schooling that worked for you? I have been doing what is essentially "school at home" with a curriculum that we all enjoy (most of the time, lol). But I have been looking into un-schooling or child led learning. My concern is that my children have never been in charge of their own time and so I would hear a lot of "mom I am bored" or just a lot of fighting. We do lots of supplemental stuff now too though, art museum, science museums, aquarium etc. etc. Anella

On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 4:17 PM, Lori Smith <homeschoolmom42 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:

 

 

 

Kudos, Bryan! My kids could have almost written this! My kids had lots of freedom, too. They also started their own businesses when young, and went to work at age 15 working as much as they could. They have a hard time relating to their peers because they are so immature, into partying, do not have high morals, and many have little character, if any at all. It is sad! I'm glad you see the light and want to keep your kids home where they belong! Thanks for sharing. I am sure many others will also relate and agree! Blessings~ Lori

"By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled."– John Taylor Gatto He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19

 

herbal remedies From: bryan (AT) academyofnaturalhealing (DOT) comDate: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:08:36 -0400{Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

 

 

Truth about Public Scools

 

Home educating was great.It was pro-survival that I could learn with my parents in the morning and work or play in the afternoon. I started a business when I was 11 with my parents lawn mower and made enough to buy a boat & motor. Then I was selling fish and bringing them home for Mom to cook. The thing I most appreciated was that I was free to observe the world and learn from my observations and that I was allowed to work when I was young. Being able to make money taught me how manners and how business relationships worked. I would have never learned anything of the real world in a classroom. Now when I talk with my generation I find that they are immature and uneducated. I feel that public school didn't prepare them at all for the world and this is another reason for me to be thankful that I was home schooled.A question parents could ask their kids is what does government education really teach our youth? The answer you will probably hear is "not much, they just want us to pass the test so they give us the answers before we do the test." or "Our school doesn't really teach us anything; they only care about how many of us pass the test as their funding depends upon statics alone.They do teach us that we are ruled by government and since they put up the fence and tripled the cops on campus it really does feel like a prison." It is well known that public school is the place where kids can obtain every kind of drug. From crack cocaine to ecstasy and cough medicine to heroin. The worst are mind altering drugs that are sold out of lockers and the education kids teach each other like "dude you can get high if you inhale that can of air" or "watch me make a bong out of this Avocado" or the only way we can be secure is if we have numbers and join or start a gang." Public school teaches our kids to be criminals and also ironically prepares them for prison. The question is still the same; what does government education teach our youth? Promiscuity, laziness, drug education, fear of law enforcement, no production and lack of enthusiasm to start life as an adult appear to be a few but ask a kid for a more local report on your nearest public school. You'll be horrified. We will never send our daughter to a public school even if it means leaving the land of the free and the home of the brave. We will teach her so she will survive in this world and not waste her youth learning garbage!!!~21 year old

 

 

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My hat is off to you, Lori! In this day and age it seems as if most people don't know how to take care of themselves at all!!Trina

 

 

 

Anella Russo <anellarussoherbal remedies Sent: Wed, April 21, 2010 12:33:44 PMRe: {Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

WOW, thank you so much for sharing all that. It really helps me a lot! Right now my children are left to themselves (or we play games) for English, Science, History, Art, Social Studies, PE, Reading, and foreign languages. But I am having a hard time letting go of the structure with math and phonics. I do let the phonics go once they are reading well. But for math....I feel like how am I ever going to teach them long division if they don't know how to carry or borrow? Did your college age children ever struggle with math once they tried college classes? I'm trying to finish up my bachelor's and I am really struggling with the math!!Anella

On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 10:05 PM, Lori Smith <homeschoolmom42@ hotmail.com> wrote:

 

 

 

Hi Anella, I have 8 kids, 4 were public schooled and 4 were home schooled. Long story short is it took 8 years to get the hubby to agree to home school (2nd marriage, 2 oldest kids from previous marriage), and by this time the 4 older kids were thoroughly entrenched in the public school and were horrified at the thought of coming home (hubby agreed) and so we yanked the 2nd grader who wanted to come home and never sent the other 3 to school. I do wish I had home schooled all 8 of them, but I can't go back. I don't know how old your kids are (mine were small when I started this as this was protocol for all the kids), but my kids learned real quick not to tell me they were bored as I'd give them a chore list to do when they'd say this! It finally got to the point when they'd say, I'm bored, and then in the same breath they'd quickly reply, But I'll find something to do because I don't want to clean!!!! They

knew how I fixed boredom!!! (lol) Yes, kids will fight when they get bored. And yes, kids do and can become bored, but that is where they need to learn to find ways to entertain themselves. My kids had a lot of craft items (I had 4 girls at home home schooling at the time) that they could do (paints, glitter, cloth swatches, embroidery floss, cross-stitch patterns and material, thread, a sewing machine (age 6-8 is not too soon to start teaching kids on a machine or by hand!), markers, crayons, paste/glue/glue sticks, beads, and anything else you can imagine), tons of books, magazines, a telescope (just a cheapy one that had been mine when I was kid from 1970!), a camcorder (they loved making their own movies and still do!), cameras, bicycles, toys, and a pass to the pool in summer. Plenty of things to keep them occupied no matter what time of year it was. Because 3 of my kids had never been in school (the

oldest of the 4 had gone K-2), they had no idea what it meant to actually sit down and do lots of "school". We sometimes worked on math problems (maybe 5-10 a day); I'd work with whatever kid might need help with their phonics if they were learning to read (all read within weeks of starting this, except we did have 2 late readers, but I taught all 8 of my kids to read, including the public schooled kids), we always had a time of oral reading (this was non-negotiable with me, and I got to choose what we read and for how long), and the girls had those cheap work books from the store in math, spelling, English, and writing as they wanted these and got to choose what they wanted. They also got to choose when or if they wanted to work in these, and they always were finished before the end of the year as the kids enjoyed working in them. We also had a few school books that I'd found at yard sales or

that had been mine that they sometimes worked in, if they felt like it. We also had Mad-Libs (a game the kids loved that taught them verbs, nouns, adverbs and adjectives with ease), and just so many resources. Besides the oral reading (I usually read a minumum of 1 hour a day), the kids had to keep a daily journal as I am not good at record keeping (our state does not insist on this but I thought it would help record what the kids did), and my kids have had an absolute blast going back and reading these as they wrote about what was going on that particular day. Their life is recorded in these notebooks. They are so glad I had them do this! My kids cooked their own breakfast and lunch (from age 5/6 up when they could see safely over the stove), and they used to tell me what a "bad mommy" I was because I didn't cook for them like their friend's mommies did. I'd retort that no, I was a "good mommy" because they

knew how to cook and their friends didn't! My kids all cook and bake, which they learned doing for themselves. I also used to tell them I never wanted to cheat them out of being able to do for themselves. They also learned how to mend their own clothes (hemming, tears and rips, buttons, darts), darn their own socks, do their own laundry (age 8 up), and many other invaluable life skills. Not because I couldn't do it for them, but because I wanted them to know how to do these things for themselves and be self sufficient. This included my boys who attended public school. All 8 of my kids learned in this manner whether they were home schooled or public schooled. Life skills is a dying art in our society/culture. In summer and fall we did an assembly line deal when we canned. The kids helped harvest the veggies, helped wash and peel/cut/ slice/blanch, and we canned together. They went

fruit picking with me when we canned jams and jellies. They helped to do yard work, including gardening, and they had chores they were responsible for (all kids did these things). They learned to make bread, cakes, pies, and cookies. They learned how to fry chicken, make noodles, and make gravies. They learned how to do dishes, help clean the fridge, defrost the freezer, and clean showers and toilets. We had friends who lived in the country so they helped gather eggs, feed the cows, pigs, and horse, and sometimes got to curry down the horse. They also helped to muck stalls. Mucking stalls earned them rides on the horse! They also got to climb trees and pick apples, to pick grapes, and to gather the hens into the henhouse. They loved it! This wasn't daily, maybe a handful of times per year, but it was so much fun for them. I gave them a great deal of freedom.

They were allowed to watch their favorite movie every day for 6 months (The Lord of the Rings), make foods from the movie, dress as Hobbits and walk to the library with dog hair glued on their toes for realism (honest!), and to make movies and hold plays based on this movie. As a result, each child found an interest based on the movie. One kid studied all about New Zealand and all about the main actors, then watched all their movies (from the library). Another kid studied all about 12th century England, a bit about Medievel Europe, the customs, the dress, and even the religion and superstitions. Another kid studied all about the actors, started a website, wrote her own stories based on the movie, and had followers on her site. The youngest just kind of mingled in with the others and did a bit of it all. I only got involved when asked. The movies are priceless! The kids were so creative and funny! We

need to move these to DVD's before the VHS tapes goes the way of the 8 track and we lose them! We live in the city and so they had a lot of freedom to roam with friends. They'd go on the bike trail (I had them carry paper work stating they were home schooled), they hung out at the library and got involved in the teen programs, did some writing for the monthly teen newsletter, another one volunteering at the library 2 mornings per week. These last things they obviously did as they got older (12 up). One kid taught herself to make purses and wallets out of duct tape because she loved the Red Green Show. She had a friend who went to the local high school who sold items for her. Many of the other kids thought they were "cool" and wanted to know where she got them. A small cottage industry was born for awhile. This daughter was 13 at the time, she is now 21, married, and living out of

state. I would bore you to tears if I recounted all the silly and outlandish things my kids did. All the crazy things they did to make money (from lemonade stands to going door-to-door to sell their own self-written and self- illustrated books done by hand), had their own bank accounts at a young age, including their own checkbooks by age 16, and all went to work at age 15. They babysat for the neighbors, for their older siblings, and helped me with children I often babysat for. They were always doing. Sometimes, in the dead of winter, we'd do a bit of "school" work (like the journals and maybe some reading) and then we'd pop corn, make pallets on the floor with blankets, and watch old shows of the Little Rascals, or Laurel and Hardy, or Abbot and Costello all day. My kids loved these! Maybe we'd watch Donald O'Connor in the Frances the Talking Mule movie or we'd watch a movie that was made from a book we'd just

finished (My Side of the Mountain, Little Women, Where the Red Fern Grows, the Red Badge of Courage, or Treasure Island) and compare what we liked or didn't like about the movies compared to the books. These were rare times, maybe 1-3 times per year as I am not much of a TV person, though the kids loved many old shows and I had bought a lot of them for the kids or we'd borrow them from the library. The kids loved to read and did a ton of reading. Each one had their own favorite authors and genres. No one had to read what they didn't like, though all had to listen to the books I read out loud. I read the books I knew they'd never pick up for themselves. One time I started to read the book The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare, and I got groans and complaints about how "stupid" it was. The next day was the same, but then when I put the book down, the oldest girl picked up the book and hid in her room all day until it was

finished! She had loved it. Not only did she love it, but the next day we had to go to the library so she could get the other books by this same author (5 in all). I finished reading the book to the other girls but they didn't like it as well as this one had. I never knew who would like what or what interest these books might spark. We played games I made up as we traveled in the car to various destinations. We played the states and capitols game, the times tables game, the identify the weeds on the side of the road or in the field game, the spelling games, the president games, and what ever else I wanted to make into a game. Kids are competitive and these games became horribly competitive! But times tables were learned, along with state capitals (including Europe's, some of Asia's, and some of Africa's and Canada's), weed identification, who was president when, and a host of other things. The only thing is I had to know this stuff!!!! So I

had to brush up on the things I wanted the kids to know (like some of the capitals of Asia and Africa I didn't know!). Sometimes we'd have a few neighbor kids with us like when we were going to our church for VBS or Sunday School, and these kids told my kids I was a "cool" mom!!! Of course my kids sneered and rolled their eyes! They did not find it "cool" that I had turned our car into a place of learning while travelling places! But learn they did and it was fun. The neighbor kids sure thought it was fun (many were boys and we still know them today), as their parents never played those kinds of games with them. Imagine that, they found learning fun! And these were public schooled kids. We had a pass to the pool in summer, one to the zoo, went to various museums and the art gallery, went to the Center of Science and Industry (COSI), took day trips to Amish country or other places of interest in our state, such as various caverns

or state parks, went camping, sometimes just in the backyard, and occasionally met with other like-minded families. The kids at various times joined 4-H, and all wanted to do dance or gymnastics, but we couldn't afford these things. Some played sports a couple of times, and we never spent more than $500 for the entire school year on all 4 kids! I had a budget I had to keep. The girls might want to do grammar at midnight in July, play Mad Libs instead of watch TV in the evenings, write skits and make movies with their friends, or just zone out alone on the back of the roof (one story high!) and watch/identify birds, or read a book during "school" hours. They are still doing these kinds of crazy things. One daughter, age 19 (out of school), just got back from a trip to Montreal with friends whom she'd met on the Internet and at concerts. They went to go see a band called WOW (not national yet), and they took the

Greyhound bus! They had quite an experience/adventur e, even getting stuck in NYC for 23 hours, filmed much of it, and it is now on Youtube for all the world to see. My kids are still making movies and recording their lives, just like when they were young. And this daughter is now on her way to Cleveland with other friends whom she met at concerts/knows via the web, to go see Honor Society (a band). Crazy! But she knows what she wants to do, has a job and her own money, makes plans, and does some crazy things. But she is a good kid who is not into drinking, drugs, partying, smoking, gangs, or any kind of trouble. She also loves to attend church every week and lives out her faith. So no harm. Think of summer when there is no school. That is how we most often lived our lives. I like to say we lived in Perpetual Summer. We measured wall paper to hang, the girls helped dad roof the back of the house, we gardened and canned,

we cooked and baked, we read and did crafts, we painted walls, we cleaned house, we sometimes did "school work", the kids played house, made forts, played out in the snow during "school" hours, and whiled away their days doing the things they wanted to do. Yet the girls have managed to all grow up educated and intelligent. Their personalities are all different, but they are also very similar and get along great. All are close, even the ones who attended public school. There is a large age gap of 17 years between the oldest and the youngest, and so there is a difference in the generations, but they are all still close. Of the unschooled kids, the youngest one turns 18 tomorrow, two are married, one is expecting a baby in about 3 weeks, another one went to acting/modeling school just because she wanted to; all of them have jobs. They've turned into educated, fun, creative adults who are valued and appreciated by their

supervisors because they actually work, and they are the leaders in the crowds they run with. They have all grown up normal and able to function properly in society. They are not social misfits who are backwards or uneducated. They set alarms and get to work on time. They know how to "stand in line" and they know how to "take orders" from authority. All the things that you hear that these unschooled kids won't be able to do because they were not trained in a school to conform. It's all lies. Unschooled/Relaxed kids are able to function very normally. And best of all? They've all come to me and thanked me for unschooling them and giving them so much freedom. They have also thanked me for making them such capable adults! They've worked from age 15 up with their peers, and they can't stand the immaturity, the drama, the childishness, the churlishness, the lack of character, the laziness, and

the lack of life skills and reasoning skills that these young people exhibit. My kids have often been appalled at how uneducated their peers are who attend or have graduated from public school. Many of these young people cannot make change from a dollar, can't make decisions or think for themselves, and are ignorant of real life. My kids literally feel they've been saved from all of this. That was the best gift I could have had when each kid, on their own and in their own time came to me and thanked me for the life they had growing up. It made me think of the Proverbs 31 woman whose "children rise up and call her blessed", and I was humbled by all of this. And yes, there were bad days when my kids were brats and fought, when they were insolent and difficult, and when they took advantage of their freedom and trust so that we had to pull back the reins and make

them earn that trust back. But they learned from all of these things, and it helped to build their character and make them who they are today.I hope I haven't bored you with all this reminiscing! !! I truly enjoyed being with my kids and would definitely do it all again. I have no regrets in how we lived our lives or did our educating. It was truly the best lifestyle we could have chosen. Blessings, Lori

"By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled."– John Taylor Gatto

 

He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19

 

herbal remediesanellarusso@ gmail.comTue, 20 Apr 2010 08:14:08 -0400Re: {Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

 

Can you all talk about the specific type of schooling that worked for you? I have been doing what is essentially "school at home" with a curriculum that we all enjoy (most of the time, lol). But I have been looking into un-schooling or child led learning. My concern is that my children have never been in charge of their own time and so I would hear a lot of "mom I am bored" or just a lot of fighting. We do lots of supplemental stuff now too though, art museum, science museums, aquarium etc. etc. Anella

On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 4:17 PM, Lori Smith <homeschoolmom42@ hotmail.com> wrote:

 

 

 

Kudos, Bryan! My kids could have almost written this! My kids had lots of freedom, too. They also started their own businesses when young, and went to work at age 15 working as much as they could. They have a hard time relating to their peers because they are so immature, into partying, do not have high morals, and many have little character, if any at all. It is sad! I'm glad you see the light and want to keep your kids home where they belong! Thanks for sharing. I am sure many others will also relate and agree! Blessings~ Lori

"By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled."– John Taylor Gatto He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19

 

herbal remediesbryan@academyofnatu ralhealing. comMon, 19 Apr 2010 16:08:36 -0400{Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

 

 

Truth about Public Scools

 

Home educating was great.It was pro-survival that I could learn with my parents in the morning and work or play in the afternoon. I started a business when I was 11 with my parents lawn mower and made enough to buy a boat & motor. Then I was selling fish and bringing them home for Mom to cook. The thing I most appreciated was that I was free to observe the world and learn from my observations and that I was allowed to work when I was young. Being able to make money taught me how manners and how business relationships worked. I would have never learned anything of the real world in a classroom. Now when I talk with my generation I find that they are immature and uneducated. I feel that public school didn't prepare them at all for the world and this is another reason for me to be thankful that I was home schooled.A question parents could ask their kids is what does government education really teach our youth? The answer you will

probably hear is "not much, they just want us to pass the test so they give us the answers before we do the test." or "Our school doesn't really teach us anything; they only care about how many of us pass the test as their funding depends upon statics alone.They do teach us that we are ruled by government and since they put up the fence and tripled the cops on campus it really does feel like a prison." It is well known that public school is the place where kids can obtain every kind of drug. From crack cocaine to ecstasy and cough medicine to heroin. The worst are mind altering drugs that are sold out of lockers and the education kids teach each other like "dude you can get high if you inhale that can of air" or "watch me make a bong out of this Avocado" or the only way we can be secure is if we have numbers and join or start a gang." Public school teaches our kids to be criminals and also ironically prepares them for prison. The question is

still the same; what does government education teach our youth? Promiscuity, laziness, drug education, fear of law enforcement, no production and lack of enthusiasm to start life as an adult appear to be a few but ask a kid for a more local report on your nearest public school. You'll be horrified. We will never send our daughter to a public school even if it means leaving the land of the free and the home of the brave. We will teach her so she will survive in this world and not waste her youth learning garbage!!!~21 year old

 

 

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That is so very helpful.  Thank you so much taking the time to share.  AnellaOn Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 9:58 PM, Lori Smith <homeschoolmom42 wrote:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did spend some time learning to do long division (and short division for large numbers, which we learned from a school math book from 1934!), carrying and borrowing when the kids asked to learn. These problems were in the work books they liked to do on their own, but of course, some of the math they could not do on their own and so they would come ask for help. I once made two very rebellious children sit down with dad to learn to do long division as I got tired of hearing the whining about how it was toooo haaaard!!!! because they would not listen to me. Within 45 minutes sitting down with dad, both had understood the concept and then spent the next week doing problems in their books for  " fun " to see who could do the problems the fastest! I told you my kids are competitive! That's right, it only took them 45 minutes to figure out the concept! I think they were around 10 and 11 1/2 at the time, cognitively ready to retain and apply such information.

 

I sometimes pushed math in some areas if I saw that I needed to, but usually the kids learned plenty playing games, working in their work books, playing games in the car, and in real life scenarios taking care of their own bank books, figuring out the profit and divvying up the spoils from one of their entreprenurial exploits, working a cash register at a local fast food joint, and moving on in life to other jobs. Algebra is not necessary unless one wants to go to college, and even then it takes about 6 months or less to learn algebra, so there is never a reason to say one " can't learn " what one needs when one needs it! If you have a kid who is wanting or needing to go to college to pursue a special dream, they'll be motivated to sit down and learn long division, algebra, or even calculus, if necessary to reach their dreams as they will see the relevancy of needing to know. They can learn from a DVD, a parent, a tutor, or even another friend who already knows the information. Anything you or your children want to learn is there for the learning, you just need to find out how to achieve it, and it is not hard to find this out.

 

One kid wanted to learn algebra so I bought her a work book (these are expensive!) and she took out a VHS tape from the library on basic algebra so she could learn at her own pace, stop the tape if she needed to, or replay if she needed to. She ended up learning enough to get her through the work book plus half of a regular school text book before she lost interest as she could not see how this was necessary for her at the time. Perhaps she will go back to this one day. But it will be her choice. She had become proficient to where she was in the book and then just decided she was finished and wanted to move on to something else. I don't remember what her interest was at the time that took her away from the math, but it was another learning experience that helped her to grow as a person.

 

I've only had three kids interested in college; one went for one quarter then decided he didn't really want to attend and is paying off a huge debt, and one is currently attending in the freshman year as she wants to be a mortician. Both were public schooled.

The next one I cover below.

 

The oldest home schooler helps her husband with an online ebay account as they sell a lot of stuff online, and they also have their own small business where they sell Dvd's, used game boxes, etc. Her husband also works in a video store, and my daughter babysits.

 

The next daughter married a man in the Army so she can't plan too much of anything right now, but she wants to open up her own Jersey Mike's franchise as the opportunity has been tossed around between her and her old boss (she worked for Jersey Mike's here in our town, loves the job, and when husband is deployed is coming back here to go back to work there). She and her husband eventually would like to own their own store once he is out of the military.

 

The next one has many ideas and likes, many dreams and aspirations (she is the one who put herself in Modeling/Acting classes), and she is now taking piano lessons, art lessons, and also working two jobs. She wants to go to film school out in California, but we've discouraged her as she would be terribly in debt once out of school as it would be based on our income, and there is no foreseeable future to us in this career at this time. She is upset we are not " supporting her " , but with this economy we want her to wait and see if it bounces back and then we'll discuss this want. She could easily go in debt for $100,000+ with no job prospects in sight. Where this will all all lead to in the future, I don't know, but for now, it is on hold.

 

The youngest has no clue what she wants to do, but college is not in her future at this point as she is not interested. We respect our kids right to make their own paths in life, with or without college.

 

 

Blessings,

 

Lori 

  " By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled. " – John Taylor Gatto

 

He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19

    

 

 

herbal remedies From: anellarussoDate: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:33:44 -0400

Re: {Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies. 

 

 

WOW, thank you so much for sharing all that.  It really helps me a lot!  Right now my children are left to themselves (or we play games) for English, Science, History, Art, Social Studies, PE, Reading, and foreign languages.  But I am having a hard time letting go of the structure with math and phonics.  I do let the phonics go once they are reading well.  But for math....I feel like how am I ever going to teach them long division if they don't know how to carry or borrow?  Did your college age children ever struggle with math once they tried college classes?  I'm trying to finish up my bachelor's and I am really struggling with the math!!

Anella

On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 10:05 PM, Lori Smith <homeschoolmom42 wrote:

 

 

 

 

Hi Anella, I have 8 kids, 4 were public schooled and 4 were home schooled. Long story short is it took 8 years to get the hubby to agree to home school (2nd marriage, 2 oldest kids from previous marriage), and by this time the 4 older kids were thoroughly entrenched in the public school and were horrified at the thought of coming home (hubby agreed) and so we yanked the 2nd grader who wanted to come home and never sent the other 3 to school. I do wish I had home schooled all 8 of them, but I can't go back.

 I don't know how old your kids are (mine were small when I started this as this was protocol for all the kids), but my kids learned real quick not to tell me they were bored as I'd give them a chore list to do when they'd say this! It finally got to the point when they'd say, I'm bored, and then in the same breath they'd quickly reply, But I'll find something to do because I don't want to clean!!!! They knew how I fixed boredom!!! (lol)

 Yes, kids will fight when they get bored. And yes, kids do and can become bored, but that is where they need to learn to find ways to entertain themselves. My kids had a lot of craft items (I had 4 girls at home home schooling at the time) that they could do (paints, glitter, cloth swatches, embroidery floss, cross-stitch patterns and material, thread, a sewing machine (age 6-8 is not too soon to start teaching kids on a machine or by hand!), markers, crayons, paste/glue/glue sticks, beads, and anything else you can imagine), tons of books, magazines, a telescope (just a cheapy one that had been mine when I was kid from 1970!), a camcorder (they loved making their own movies and still do!), cameras, bicycles, toys, and a pass to the pool in summer. Plenty of things to keep them occupied no matter what time of year it was.

 Because 3 of my kids had never been in school (the oldest of the 4 had gone K-2), they had no idea what it meant to actually sit down and do lots of " school " . We sometimes worked on math problems (maybe 5-10 a day); I'd work with whatever kid might need help with their phonics if they were learning to read (all read within weeks of starting this, except we did have 2 late readers, but I taught all 8 of my kids to read, including the public schooled kids), we always had a time of oral reading (this was non-negotiable with me, and I got to choose what we read and for how long), and the girls had those cheap work books from the store in math, spelling, English, and writing as they wanted these and got to choose what they wanted. They also got to choose when or if they wanted to work in these, and they always were finished before the end of the year as the kids enjoyed working in them. We also had a few school books that I'd found at yard sales or that had been mine that they sometimes worked in, if they felt like it. We also had Mad-Libs (a game the kids loved that taught them verbs, nouns, adverbs and adjectives with ease), and just so many resources. Besides the oral reading (I usually read a minumum of 1 hour a day), the kids had to keep a daily journal as I am not good at record keeping (our state does not insist on this but I thought it would help record what the kids did), and my kids have had an absolute blast going back and reading these as they wrote about what was going on that particular day. Their life is recorded in these notebooks. They are so glad I had them do this!

 My kids cooked their own breakfast and lunch (from age 5/6 up when they could see safely over the stove), and they used to tell me what a " bad mommy " I was because I didn't cook for them like their friend's mommies did. I'd retort that no, I was a  " good mommy " because they knew how to cook and their friends didn't! My kids all cook and bake, which they learned doing for themselves. I also used to tell them I never wanted to cheat them out of being able to do for themselves. They also learned how to mend their own clothes (hemming, tears and rips, buttons, darts), darn their own socks, do their own laundry (age 8 up), and many other invaluable life skills. Not because I couldn't do it for them, but because I wanted them to know how to do these things for themselves and be self sufficient. This included my boys who attended public school. All 8 of my kids learned in this manner whether they were home schooled or public schooled. Life skills is a dying art in our society/culture.

 In summer and fall we did an assembly line deal when we canned. The kids helped harvest the veggies, helped wash and peel/cut/slice/blanch, and we canned together. They went fruit picking with me when we canned jams and jellies. They helped to do yard work, including gardening, and they had chores they were responsible for (all kids did these things). They learned to make bread, cakes, pies, and cookies. They learned how to fry chicken, make noodles, and make gravies. They learned how to do dishes, help clean the fridge, defrost the freezer, and clean showers and toilets.

 We had friends who lived in the country so they helped gather eggs, feed the cows, pigs, and horse, and sometimes got to curry down the horse. They also helped to muck stalls. Mucking stalls earned them rides on the horse! They also got to climb trees and pick apples, to pick grapes, and to gather the hens into the henhouse. They loved it! This wasn't daily, maybe a handful of times per year, but it was so much fun for them.

 I gave them a great deal of freedom. They were allowed to watch their favorite movie every day for 6 months (The Lord of the Rings), make foods from the movie, dress as Hobbits and walk to the library with dog hair glued on their toes for realism (honest!), and to make movies and hold plays based on this movie. As a result, each child found an interest based on the movie. One kid studied all about New Zealand and all about the main actors, then watched all their movies (from the library). Another kid studied all about 12th century England, a bit about Medievel Europe, the customs, the dress, and even the religion and superstitions. Another kid studied all about the actors, started a website, wrote her own stories based on the movie, and had followers on her site. The youngest just kind of mingled in with the others and did a bit of it all. I only got involved when asked. The movies are priceless! The kids were so creative and funny! We need to move these to DVD's before the VHS tapes goes the way of the 8 track and we lose them!

 We live in the city and so they had a lot of freedom to roam with friends. They'd go on the bike trail (I had them carry paper work stating they were home schooled), they hung out at the library and got involved in the teen programs, did some writing for the monthly teen newsletter, another one volunteering at the library 2 mornings per week. These last things they obviously did as they got older (12 up).

 One kid taught herself to make purses and wallets out of duct tape because she loved the Red Green Show. She had a friend who went to the local high school who sold items for her. Many of the other kids thought they were " cool " and wanted to know where she got them. A small cottage industry was born for awhile. This daughter was 13 at the time, she is now 21, married, and living out of state.

 I would bore you to tears if I recounted all the silly and outlandish things my kids did. All the crazy things they did to make money (from lemonade stands to going door-to-door to sell their own self-written and self- illustrated books done by hand), had their own bank accounts at a young age, including their own checkbooks by age 16, and all went to work at age 15. They babysat for the neighbors, for their older siblings, and helped me with children I often babysat for. They were always doing.

 Sometimes, in the dead of winter, we'd do a bit of " school " work (like the journals and maybe some reading) and then we'd pop corn, make pallets on the floor with blankets, and watch old shows of the Little Rascals, or Laurel and Hardy, or Abbot and Costello all day. My kids loved these! Maybe we'd watch Donald O'Connor in the Frances the Talking Mule movie or we'd watch a movie that was made from a book we'd just finished (My Side of the Mountain, Little Women, Where the Red Fern Grows, the Red Badge of Courage, or Treasure Island) and compare what we liked or didn't like about the movies compared to the books. These were rare times, maybe 1-3 times per year as I am not much of a TV person, though the kids loved many old shows and I had bought a lot of them for the kids or we'd borrow them from the library.

 The kids loved to read and did a ton of reading. Each one had their own favorite authors and genres. No one had to read what they didn't like, though all had to listen to the books I read out loud. I read the books I knew they'd never pick up for themselves. One time I started to read the book The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare, and I got groans and complaints about how " stupid " it was. The next day was the same, but then when I put the book down, the oldest girl picked up the book and hid in her room all day until it was finished! She had loved it. Not only did she love it, but the next day we had to go to the library so she could get the other books by this same author (5 in all). I finished reading the book to the other girls but they didn't like it as well as this one had. I never knew who would like what or what interest these books might spark.

 We played games I made up as we traveled in the car to various destinations. We played the states and capitols game, the times tables game, the identify the weeds on the side of the road or in the field game, the spelling games, the president games, and what ever else I wanted to make into a game. Kids are competitive and these games became horribly competitive! But times tables were learned, along with state capitals (including Europe's, some of Asia's, and some of Africa's and Canada's), weed identification, who was president when, and a host of other things. The only thing is I had to know this stuff!!!! So I had to brush up on the things I wanted the kids to know (like some of the capitals of Asia and Africa I didn't know!). Sometimes we'd have a few neighbor kids with us like when we were going to our church for VBS or Sunday School, and these kids told my kids I was a " cool " mom!!! Of course my kids sneered and rolled their eyes! They did not find it " cool " that I had turned our car into a place of learning while travelling places! But learn they did and it was fun. The neighbor kids sure thought it was fun (many were boys and we still know them today), as their parents never played those kinds of games with them. Imagine that, they found learning fun! And these were public schooled kids.

 We had a pass to the pool in summer, one to the zoo, went to various museums and the art gallery, went to the Center of Science and Industry (COSI), took day trips to Amish country or other places of interest in our state, such as various caverns or state parks, went camping, sometimes just in the backyard, and occasionally met with other like-minded families. The kids at various times joined 4-H, and all wanted to do dance or gymnastics, but we couldn't afford these things. Some played sports a couple of times, and we never spent more than $500 for the entire school year on all 4 kids! I had a budget I had to keep.

 The girls might want to do grammar at midnight in July, play Mad Libs instead of watch TV in the evenings, write skits and make movies with their friends, or just zone out alone on the back of the roof (one story high!) and watch/identify birds, or read a book during " school " hours. They are still doing these kinds of crazy things. One daughter, age 19 (out of school), just got back from a trip to Montreal with friends whom she'd met on the Internet and at concerts. They went to go see a band called WOW (not national yet), and they took the Greyhound bus! They had quite an experience/adventure, even getting stuck in NYC for 23 hours, filmed much of it, and it is now on Youtube for all the world to see. My kids are still making movies and recording their lives, just like when they were young. And this daughter is now on her way to Cleveland with other friends whom she met at concerts/knows via the web, to go see Honor Society (a band). Crazy! But she knows what she wants to do, has a job and her own money, makes plans, and does some crazy things. But she is a good kid who is not into drinking, drugs, partying, smoking, gangs, or any kind of trouble. She also loves to attend church every week and lives out her faith. So no harm.

 Think of summer when there is no school. That is how we most often lived our lives. I like to say we lived in Perpetual Summer. We measured wall paper to hang, the girls helped dad roof the back of the house, we gardened and canned, we cooked and baked, we read and did crafts, we painted walls, we cleaned house, we sometimes did " school work " , the kids played house, made forts, played out in the snow during " school " hours, and whiled away their days doing the things they wanted to do. Yet the girls have managed to all grow up educated and intelligent. Their personalities are all different, but they are also very similar and get along great. All are close, even the ones who attended public school. There is a large age gap of 17 years between the oldest and the youngest, and so there is a difference in the generations, but they are all still close.

 Of the unschooled kids, the youngest one turns 18 tomorrow, two are married, one is expecting a baby in about 3 weeks, another one went to acting/modeling school just because she wanted to; all of them have jobs. They've turned into educated, fun, creative adults who are valued and appreciated by their supervisors because they actually work, and they are the leaders in the crowds they run with. They have all grown up normal and able to function properly in society. They are not social misfits who are backwards or uneducated. They set alarms and get to work on time. They know how to " stand in line " and they know how to " take orders " from authority. All the things that you hear that these unschooled  kids won't be able to do because they were not trained in a school to conform. It's all lies. Unschooled/Relaxed kids are able to function very normally.

 And best of all? They've all come to me and thanked me for unschooling them and giving them so much freedom. They have also thanked me for making them such capable adults! They've worked from age 15 up with their peers, and they can't stand the immaturity, the drama, the childishness, the churlishness, the lack of character, the laziness, and the lack of life skills and reasoning skills that these young people exhibit. My kids have often been appalled at how uneducated their peers are who attend or have graduated from public school. Many of these young people cannot make change from a dollar, can't make decisions or think for themselves, and are ignorant of real life. My kids literally feel they've been saved from all of this. That was the best gift I could have had when each kid, on their own and in their own time came to me and thanked me for the life they had growing up. It made me think of the Proverbs 31 woman whose " children rise up and call her blessed " , and I was humbled by all of this. 

 And yes, there were bad days when my kids were brats and fought, when they were insolent and difficult, and when they took advantage of their freedom and trust so that we had to pull back the reins and make them earn that trust back. But they learned from all of these things, and it helped to build their character and make them who they are today.

I hope I haven't bored you with all this reminiscing!!! I truly enjoyed being with my kids and would definitely do it all again. I have no regrets in how we lived our lives or did our educating. It was truly the best lifestyle we could have chosen.

 Blessings, Lori 

  " By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled. " – John Taylor Gatto

 

He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19

    

 

 

herbal remedies From: anellarussoDate: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 08:14:08 -0400

Re: {Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies. 

 

Can you all talk about the specific type of schooling that worked for you?  I have been doing what is essentially " school at home " with a curriculum that we all enjoy (most of the time, lol).  But I have been looking into un-schooling or child led learning.  My concern is that my children have never been in charge of their own time and so I would hear a lot of " mom I am bored " or just a lot of fighting.  We do lots of supplemental stuff now too though, art museum, science museums, aquarium etc. etc.

Anella

On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 4:17 PM, Lori Smith <homeschoolmom42 wrote:

 

 

 

 

Kudos, Bryan! My kids could have almost written this! My kids had lots of freedom, too. They also started their own businesses when young, and went to work at age 15 working as much as they could. They have a hard time relating to their peers because they are so immature, into partying, do not have high morals, and many have little character, if any at all. It is sad!

 I'm glad you see the light and want to keep your kids home where they belong! Thanks for sharing. I am sure many others will also relate and agree! Blessings~ Lori  

 

  " By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled. " – John Taylor Gatto

 He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19

  

  

 

herbal remedies From: bryan

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:08:36 -0400{Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies. 

 

 

Truth about Public Scools

 

Home educating was great.It was pro-survival that I could learn with my parents in the morning and work or play in the afternoon. I started a business when I was 11 with my parents lawn mower and made enough to buy a boat & motor. Then I was selling fish and bringing them home for Mom to cook. The thing I most appreciated was that I was free to observe the world and learn from my observations and that I was allowed to work when I was young. Being able to make money taught me how manners and how business relationships worked. I would have never learned anything of the real world in a classroom. Now when I talk with my generation I find that they are immature and uneducated. I feel that public school didn't prepare them at all for the world and this is another reason for me to be thankful that I was home schooled.

A question parents could ask their kids is what does government education really teach our youth? The answer you will probably hear is " not much, they just want us to pass the test so they give us the answers before we do the test. " or " Our school doesn't really teach us anything; they only care about how many of us pass the test as their funding depends upon statics alone. " " They do teach us that we are ruled by government and since they put up the fence and tripled the cops on campus it really does feel like a prison. "

It is well known that public school is the place where kids can obtain every kind of drug. From crack cocaine to ecstasy and cough medicine to heroin. The worst are mind altering drugs that are sold out of lockers and the education kids teach each other like " dude you can get high if you inhale that can of air " or " watch me make a bong out of this Avocado " or the only way we can be secure is if we have numbers and join or start a gang. " Public school teaches our kids to be criminals and also ironically prepares them for prison. The question is still the same; what does government education teach our youth? Promiscuity, laziness, drug education, fear of law enforcement, no production and lack of enthusiasm to start life as an adult appear to be a few but ask a kid for a more local report on your nearest public school. You'll be horrified.

We will never send our daughter to a public school even if it means leaving the land of the free and the home of the brave. We will teach her so she will survive in this world and not waste her youth learning garbage!!!

~21 year old

 

 

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On 4/22/2010 4:53 AM, Trina wrote:

 

 

 

My hat is off to you, Lori! In this day and age it seems as if

most people don't know how to take care of themselves at all!!

Trina  

 

 

 

 

 

Anella Russo <anellarusso >

herbal remedies

Wed, April 21,

2010 12:33:44 PM

Re: {Herbal

Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

 

 

 

WOW, thank you so much for sharing all that.  It really helps me a

lot! 

Right now my children are left to themselves (or we play games) for

English, Science, History, Art, Social Studies, PE, Reading, and

foreign languages.  But I am having a hard time letting go of the

structure with math and phonics.  I do let the phonics go once they are

reading well.  But for math....I feel like how am I ever going to teach

them long division if they don't know how to carry or borrow?  Did your

college age children ever struggle with math once they tried college

classes?  I'm trying to finish up my bachelor's and I am really

struggling with the math!!

Anella

 

 

On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 10:05 PM, Lori Smith

<homeschoolmom42@

hotmail.com> wrote:

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Anella,

 

I have 8 kids, 4 were public schooled and 4 were home schooled. Long

story short is it took 8 years to get the hubby to agree to home school

(2nd marriage, 2 oldest kids from previous marriage), and by this time

the 4 older kids were thoroughly entrenched in the public school and

were horrified at the thought of coming home (hubby agreed) and so we

yanked the 2nd grader who wanted to come home and never sent the other

3 to school. I do wish I had home schooled all 8 of them, but I can't

go back.

 

I don't know how old your kids are (mine were small when I started this

as this was protocol for all the kids), but my kids learned real quick

not to tell me they were bored as I'd give them a chore list to do when

they'd say this! It finally got to the point when they'd say, I'm

bored, and then in the same breath they'd quickly reply, But I'll find

something to do because I don't want to clean!!!! They knew how I fixed

boredom!!! (lol)

 

Yes, kids will fight when they get bored. And yes, kids do and can

become bored, but that is where they need to learn to find ways to

entertain themselves. My kids had a lot of craft items (I had 4 girls

at home home schooling at the time) that they could do (paints,

glitter, cloth swatches, embroidery floss, cross-stitch patterns and

material, thread, a sewing machine (age 6-8 is not too soon to start

teaching kids on a machine or by hand!), markers, crayons,

paste/glue/glue sticks, beads, and anything else you can imagine), tons

of books, magazines, a telescope (just a cheapy one that had been mine

when I was kid from 1970!), a camcorder (they loved making their own

movies and still do!), cameras, bicycles, toys, and a pass to the pool

in summer. Plenty of things to keep them occupied no matter what time

of year it was.

 

Because 3 of my kids had never been in school (the oldest of the 4 had

gone K-2), they had no idea what it meant to actually sit down and do

lots of "school". We sometimes worked on math problems (maybe 5-10 a

day); I'd work with whatever kid might need help with their phonics if

they were learning to read (all read within weeks of starting this,

except we did have 2 late readers, but I taught all 8 of my kids to

read, including the public schooled kids), we always had a time of oral

reading (this was non-negotiable with me, and I got to choose what we

read and for how long), and the girls had those cheap work books from

the store in math, spelling, English, and writing as they wanted these

and got to choose what they wanted. They also got to choose when or if

they wanted to work in these, and they always were finished before the

end of the year as the kids enjoyed working in them. We also had a few

school books that I'd found at yard sales or that had been mine that

they sometimes worked in, if they felt like it. We also had Mad-Libs (a

game the kids loved that taught them verbs, nouns, adverbs and

adjectives with ease), and just so many resources. Besides the oral

reading (I usually read a minumum of 1 hour a day), the kids had to

keep a daily journal as I am not good at record keeping (our state does

not insist on this but I thought it would help record what the kids

did), and my kids have had an absolute blast going back and reading

these as they wrote about what was going on that particular day. Their

life is recorded in these notebooks. They are so glad I had them do

this!

 

My kids cooked their own breakfast and lunch (from age 5/6 up when they

could see safely over the stove), and they used to tell me what a "bad

mommy" I was because I didn't cook for them like their friend's mommies

did. I'd retort that no, I was a "good mommy" because they knew how to

cook and their friends didn't! My kids all cook and bake, which they

learned doing for themselves. I also used to tell them I never wanted

to cheat them out of being able to do for themselves. They also learned

how to mend their own clothes (hemming, tears and rips, buttons,

darts), darn their own socks, do their own laundry (age 8 up), and many

other invaluable life skills. Not because I couldn't do it for

them, but because I wanted them to know how to do these things for

themselves and be self sufficient. This included my boys who attended

public school. All 8 of my kids learned in this manner whether they

were home schooled or public schooled. Life skills is a dying art in

our society/culture.

 

In summer and fall we did an assembly line deal when we canned. The

kids helped harvest the veggies, helped wash and peel/cut/

slice/blanch, and we canned together. They went fruit picking with me

when we canned jams and jellies. They helped to do yard work, including

gardening, and they had chores they were responsible for (all kids did

these things). They  learned to make bread, cakes, pies, and cookies.

They learned how to fry chicken, make noodles, and make gravies. They

learned how to do dishes, help clean the fridge, defrost the freezer,

and clean showers and toilets.

 

We had friends who lived in the country so they helped gather eggs,

feed the cows, pigs, and horse, and sometimes got to curry down the

horse. They also helped to muck stalls. Mucking stalls earned them

rides on the horse! They also got to climb trees and pick apples, to

pick grapes, and to gather the hens into the henhouse. They loved it!

This wasn't daily, maybe a handful of times per year, but it was so

much fun for them.

 

I gave them a great deal of freedom. They were allowed to watch their

favorite movie every day for 6 months (The Lord of the Rings), make

foods from the movie, dress as Hobbits and walk to the library with dog

hair glued on their toes for realism (honest!), and to make movies and

hold plays based on this movie. As a result, each child found an

interest based on the movie. One kid studied all about New Zealand and

all about the main actors, then watched all their movies (from the

library). Another kid studied all about 12th century England, a bit

about Medievel Europe, the customs, the dress, and even the religion

and superstitions. Another kid studied all about the actors, started

a website, wrote her own stories based on the movie, and had followers 

on her site. The youngest just kind of mingled in with the others

and did a bit of it all. I only got involved when asked. The movies are

priceless! The kids were so creative and funny! We need to move these

to DVD's before the VHS tapes goes the way of the 8 track and we lose

them!

 

We live in the city and so they had a lot of freedom to roam with

friends. They'd go on the bike trail (I had them carry paper work

stating they were home schooled), they hung out at the library and got

involved in the teen programs, did some writing for the monthly teen

newsletter, another one volunteering at the library 2 mornings per

week. These last things they obviously did as they got older (12 up).

 

One kid taught herself to make purses and wallets out of duct tape

because she loved the Red Green Show. She had a friend who went to the

local high school who sold items for her. Many of the other kids

thought they were "cool" and wanted to know where she got them. A small

cottage industry was born for awhile. This daughter was 13 at the time,

she is now 21, married, and living out of state.

 

I would bore you to tears if I recounted all the silly and outlandish

things my kids did. All the crazy things they did to make money (from

lemonade stands to going door-to-door to sell their own self-written

and self- illustrated books done by hand), had their own bank accounts

at a young age, including their own checkbooks by age 16, and all went

to work at age 15. They babysat for the neighbors, for their older

siblings, and helped me with children I often babysat for. They were

always doing.

 

Sometimes, in the dead of winter, we'd do a bit of "school" work (like

the journals and maybe some reading) and then we'd pop corn, make

pallets on the floor with blankets, and watch old shows of the Little

Rascals, or Laurel and Hardy, or Abbot and Costello all day. My kids

loved these! Maybe we'd watch Donald O'Connor in the Frances the

Talking Mule movie or we'd watch a movie that was made from a book

we'd just finished (My Side of the Mountain, Little Women, Where the

Red Fern Grows, the Red Badge of Courage, or Treasure Island) and

compare what we liked or didn't like about the movies compared to the

books. These were rare times, maybe 1-3 times per year as I am not much

of a TV person, though the kids loved many old shows and I had bought a

lot of them for the kids or we'd borrow them from the library.

 

The kids loved to read and did a ton of reading. Each one had their own

favorite authors and genres. No one had to read what they didn't like,

though all had to listen to the books I read out loud. I read the books

I knew they'd never pick up for themselves. One time I started to read

the book The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare,

and I got groans and complaints about how "stupid" it was. The next day

was the same, but then when I put the book down, the oldest girl picked

up the book and hid in her room all day until it was finished! She had

loved it. Not only did she love it, but the next day we had to go to

the library so she could get the other books by this same author (5 in

all). I finished reading the book to the other girls but they didn't

like it as well as this one had. I never knew who would like what or

what interest these books might spark.

 

We played games I made up as we traveled in the car to various

destinations. We played the states and capitols game, the times tables

game, the identify the weeds on the side of the road or in the field

game, the spelling games, the president games, and what ever else I

wanted to make into a game. Kids are competitive and these games became

horribly competitive! But times tables were learned, along with state

capitals (including Europe's, some of Asia's, and some of Africa's and

Canada's), weed identification, who was president when, and a host of

other things. The only thing is I had to know this stuff!!!! So I had

to brush up on the things I wanted the kids to know (like some of the

capitals of Asia and Africa I didn't know!). Sometimes we'd have a few

neighbor kids with us like when we were going to our church for VBS or

Sunday School, and these kids told my kids I was a "cool" mom!!! Of

course my kids sneered and rolled their eyes! They did not find it

"cool" that I had turned our car into a place of learning while

travelling places! But learn they did and it was fun. The neighbor kids

sure thought it was fun (many were boys and we still know them today),

as their parents never played those kinds of games with them. Imagine

that, they found learning fun! And these were public schooled kids.

 

We had a pass to the pool in summer, one to the zoo, went to various

museums and the art gallery, went to the Center of Science and Industry

(COSI), took day trips to Amish country or other places of interest in

our state, such as various caverns or state parks, went camping,

sometimes just in the backyard, and occasionally met with other

like-minded families. The kids at various times joined 4-H, and all

wanted to do dance or gymnastics, but we couldn't afford these things.

Some played sports a couple of times, and we never spent more than $500

for the entire school year on all 4 kids! I had a budget I had to keep.

 

The girls might want to do grammar at midnight in July, play Mad Libs

instead of watch TV in the evenings, write skits and make movies with

their friends, or just zone out alone on the back of the roof (one

story high!) and watch/identify birds, or read a book during "school"

hours. They are still doing these kinds of crazy things. One daughter,

age 19 (out of school), just got back from a trip to Montreal with

friends whom she'd met on the Internet and at concerts. They 

went to go see a band called WOW (not national yet), and they took the

Greyhound bus! They had quite an experience/adventur e, even getting

stuck in NYC for 23 hours, filmed much of it, and it is now on Youtube

for all the world to see. My kids are still making movies and recording

their lives, just like when they were young. And this daughter is now

on her way to Cleveland with other friends whom she met at

concerts/knows via the web, to go see Honor Society (a band). Crazy!

But she knows what she wants to do, has a job and her own money, makes

plans, and does some crazy things. But she is a good kid who is not

into drinking, drugs, partying, smoking, gangs, or any kind of trouble.

She also loves to attend church every week and lives out her faith. So

no harm.

 

Think of summer when there is no school. That is how we most often

lived our lives. I like to say we lived in Perpetual Summer. We

measured wall paper to hang, the girls helped dad roof the back of the

house, we gardened and canned, we cooked and baked, we read and did

crafts, we painted walls, we cleaned house, we sometimes did "school

work", the kids played house, made forts, played out in the snow during

"school" hours, and whiled away their days doing the things they wanted

to do. Yet the girls have managed to all grow up educated and

intelligent. Their personalities are all different, but they are also

very similar and get along great. All are close, even the ones who

attended public school. There is a large age gap of 17 years between

the oldest and the youngest, and so there is a difference in the

generations, but they are all still close.

 

Of the unschooled kids, the youngest one turns 18 tomorrow, two are

married, one is expecting a baby in about 3 weeks, another one went to

acting/modeling school just because she wanted to; all of them have

jobs. They've turned into educated, fun, creative adults who are valued

and appreciated by their supervisors because they actually work,

and they are the leaders in the crowds they run with. They have all

grown up normal and able to function properly in society. They are not

social misfits who are backwards or uneducated. They set alarms and get

to work on time. They know how to "stand in line" and they know how to

"take orders" from authority. All the things that you hear that these

unschooled  kids won't be able to do because they were not trained in

a school to conform. It's all lies. Unschooled/Relaxed kids are able to

function very normally.

 

And best of all? They've all come to me and thanked me for unschooling

them and giving them so much freedom. They have also thanked me for

making them such capable adults! They've worked from age 15 up with

their peers, and they can't stand the immaturity, the drama, the

childishness, the churlishness, the lack of character, the laziness,

and the lack of life skills and reasoning skills that these young

people exhibit. My kids have often been appalled at how uneducated

their peers are who attend or have graduated from public school. Many

of these young people cannot make change from a dollar, can't make

decisions or think for themselves, and are ignorant of real life. My

kids literally feel they've been saved from all of this. That was the

best gift I could have had when each kid, on their own and in their own

time came to me and thanked me for the life they had growing up.

It made me think of the Proverbs 31 woman whose "children rise up and

call her blessed", and I was humbled by all of this. 

 

And yes, there were bad days when my kids were brats and fought, when

they were insolent and difficult, and when they took advantage of their

freedom and trust so that we had to pull back the reins and make them

earn that trust back. But they learned from all of these things, and it

helped to build their character and make them who they are today.

 

I hope I haven't bored you with all this reminiscing! !! I truly

enjoyed being with my kids and would definitely do it all again. I have

no regrets in how we lived our lives or did our educating. It was truly

the best lifestyle we could have chosen.

 

Blessings,

 

Lori 

 

 

  "By

preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers -

backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher

colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has

ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even

though they may be thoroughly schooled."– John

Taylor Gatto

 

He who cultivates his land will have

plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty.

Proverbs 28:19

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

herbal remedies@

. com

anellarusso@

gmail.com

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 08:14:08 -0400

Re: {Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

 

 

 

 

Can you all talk about the specific type of schooling that

worked for you?  I have been doing what is essentially "school at home"

with a curriculum that we all enjoy (most of the time, lol).  But I

have been looking into un-schooling or child led learning.  My concern

is that my children have never been in charge of their own time and so

I would hear a lot of "mom I am bored" or just a lot of fighting.  We

do lots of supplemental stuff now too though, art museum, science

museums, aquarium etc. etc.

Anella

 

On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 4:17 PM, Lori Smith <homeschoolmom42@

hotmail.com> wrote:

 

 

 

 

 

Kudos, Bryan!

 

My kids could have almost written this! My kids had lots of freedom,

too. They also started their own businesses when young, and went to

work at age 15 working as much as they could. They have a hard time

relating to their peers because they are so immature, into partying, do

not have high morals, and many have little character, if any at all. It

is sad!

 

I'm glad you see the light and want to keep your kids home where they

belong!

 

Thanks for sharing. I am sure many others will also relate and agree!

 

Blessings~

 

Lori

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  "By

preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers -

backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher

colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has

ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even

though they may be thoroughly schooled."– John

Taylor Gatto

 

He who cultivates his land will have plenty

of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs

28:19

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

herbal remedies@

. com

 

bryan@academyofnatu

ralhealing. com

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:08:36 -0400

{Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

 

 

 

 

 

Truth about Public Scools

Home educating was great.

It was pro-survival that I could learn with my parents in the morning

and work or play in the afternoon. I started a business when I was 11

with my parents lawn mower and made enough to buy a boat & motor.

Then I was selling fish and bringing them home for Mom to cook. The

thing I most appreciated was that I was free to observe the world and

learn from my observations and that I was allowed to work when I was

young. Being able to make money taught me how manners and how business

relationships worked. I would have never learned anything of the real

world in a classroom. Now when I talk with my generation I find that

they are immature and uneducated. I feel that public school didn't

prepare them at all for the world and this is another reason for me to

be thankful that I was home schooled.

 

A question parents could ask their kids is what does government

education really teach our youth? The answer you will probably hear is

"not much, they just want us to pass the test so they give us the

answers before we do the test." or "Our school doesn't really teach us

anything; they only care about how many of us pass the test as their

funding depends upon statics alone.They do teach us that we are

ruled by government and since they put up the fence and tripled the

cops on campus it really does feel like a prison."

 

It is well known that public school is the place where kids can obtain

every kind of drug. From crack cocaine to ecstasy and cough medicine to

heroin. The worst are mind altering drugs that are sold out of lockers

and the education kids teach each other like "dude you can get high if

you inhale that can of air" or "watch me make a bong out of this

Avocado" or the only way we can be secure is if we have numbers and

join or start a gang." Public school teaches our kids to be criminals

and also ironically prepares them for prison. The question is still the

same; what does government education teach our youth? Promiscuity,

laziness, drug education, fear of law enforcement, no production and

lack of enthusiasm to start life as an adult appear to be a few but ask

a kid for a more local report on your nearest public school. You'll be

horrified.

 

We will never send our daughter to a public school even if it means

leaving the land of the free and the home of the brave. We will teach

her so she will survive in this world and not waste her youth learning

garbage!!!

 

~21 year old

 

 

 

 

 

Hotmail has tools for the New Busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your

inbox. Learn more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hotmail. Get busy.

[Guest guest]

Very Well Done Lori.

You're tops ;o)))

Best,

Doc

 

On 4/20/2010 10:05 PM, Lori Smith wrote:

 

 

Hi Anella,

 

I have 8 kids, 4 were public schooled and 4 were home schooled. Long

story short is it took 8 years to get the hubby to agree to home school

(2nd marriage, 2 oldest kids from previous marriage), and by this time

the 4 older kids were thoroughly entrenched in the public school and

were horrified at the thought of coming home (hubby agreed) and so we

yanked the 2nd grader who wanted to come home and never sent the other

3 to school. I do wish I had home schooled all 8 of them, but I can't

go back.

 

I don't know how old your kids are (mine were small when I started this

as this was protocol for all the kids), but my kids learned real quick

not to tell me they were bored as I'd give them a chore list to do when

they'd say this! It finally got to the point when they'd say, I'm

bored, and then in the same breath they'd quickly reply, But I'll find

something to do because I don't want to clean!!!! They knew how I fixed

boredom!!! (lol)

 

Yes, kids will fight when they get bored. And yes, kids do and can

become bored, but that is where they need to learn to find ways to

entertain themselves. My kids had a lot of craft items (I had 4 girls

at home home schooling at the time) that they could do (paints,

glitter, cloth swatches, embroidery floss, cross-stitch patterns and

material, thread, a sewing machine (age 6-8 is not too soon to start

teaching kids on a machine or by hand!), markers, crayons,

paste/glue/glue sticks, beads, and anything else you can imagine), tons

of books, magazines, a telescope (just a cheapy one that had been mine

when I was kid from 1970!), a camcorder (they loved making their own

movies and still do!), cameras, bicycles, toys, and a pass to the pool

in summer. Plenty of things to keep them occupied no matter what time

of year it was.

 

Because 3 of my kids had never been in school (the oldest of the 4 had

gone K-2), they had no idea what it meant to actually sit down and do

lots of "school". We sometimes worked on math problems (maybe 5-10 a

day); I'd work with whatever kid might need help with their phonics if

they were learning to read (all read within weeks of starting this,

except we did have 2 late readers, but I taught all 8 of my kids to

read, including the public schooled kids), we always had a time of oral

reading (this was non-negotiable with me, and I got to choose what we

read and for how long), and the girls had those cheap work books from

the store in math, spelling, English, and writing as they wanted these

and got to choose what they wanted. They also got to choose when or if

they wanted to work in these, and they always were finished before the

end of the year as the kids enjoyed working in them. We also had a few

school books that I'd found at yard sales or that had been mine that

they sometimes worked in, if they felt like it. We also had Mad-Libs (a

game the kids loved that taught them verbs, nouns, adverbs and

adjectives with ease), and just so many resources. Besides the oral

reading (I usually read a minumum of 1 hour a day), the kids had to

keep a daily journal as I am not good at record keeping (our state does

not insist on this but I thought it would help record what the kids

did), and my kids have had an absolute blast going back and reading

these as they wrote about what was going on that particular day. Their

life is recorded in these notebooks. They are so glad I had them do

this!

 

My kids cooked their own breakfast and lunch (from age 5/6 up when they

could see safely over the stove), and they used to tell me what a "bad

mommy" I was because I didn't cook for them like their friend's mommies

did. I'd retort that no, I was a "good mommy" because they knew how to

cook and their friends didn't! My kids all cook and bake, which they

learned doing for themselves. I also used to tell them I never wanted

to cheat them out of being able to do for themselves. They also learned

how to mend their own clothes (hemming, tears and rips, buttons,

darts), darn their own socks, do their own laundry (age 8 up), and many

other invaluable life skills. Not because I couldn't do it for

them, but because I wanted them to know how to do these things for

themselves and be self sufficient. This included my boys who attended

public school. All 8 of my kids learned in this manner whether they

were home schooled or public schooled. Life skills is a dying art in

our society/culture.

 

In summer and fall we did an assembly line deal when we canned. The

kids helped harvest the veggies, helped wash and peel/cut/slice/blanch,

and we canned together. They went fruit picking with me when we canned

jams and jellies. They helped to do yard work, including gardening, and

they had chores they were responsible for (all kids did these

things). They learned to make bread, cakes, pies, and cookies. They

learned how to fry chicken, make noodles, and make gravies. They

learned how to do dishes, help clean the fridge, defrost the freezer,

and clean showers and toilets.

 

We had friends who lived in the country so they helped gather eggs,

feed the cows, pigs, and horse, and sometimes got to curry down the

horse. They also helped to muck stalls. Mucking stalls earned them

rides on the horse! They also got to climb trees and pick apples, to

pick grapes, and to gather the hens into the henhouse. They loved it!

This wasn't daily, maybe a handful of times per year, but it was so

much fun for them.

 

I gave them a great deal of freedom. They were allowed to watch their

favorite movie every day for 6 months (The Lord of the Rings), make

foods from the movie, dress as Hobbits and walk to the library with dog

hair glued on their toes for realism (honest!), and to make movies and

hold plays based on this movie. As a result, each child found an

interest based on the movie. One kid studied all about New Zealand and

all about the main actors, then watched all their movies (from the

library). Another kid studied all about 12th century England, a bit

about Medievel Europe, the customs, the dress, and even the religion

and superstitions. Another kid studied all about the actors, started

a website, wrote her own stories based on the movie,

and had followers on her site. The youngest just kind of mingled in

with the others and did a bit of it all. I only got involved when

asked. The movies are priceless! The kids were so creative and funny!

We need to move these to DVD's before the VHS tapes goes the way of the

8 track and we lose them!

 

We live in the city and so they had a lot of freedom to roam with

friends. They'd go on the bike trail (I had them carry paper work

stating they were home schooled), they hung out at the library and got

involved in the teen programs, did some writing for the monthly teen

newsletter, another one volunteering at the library 2 mornings per

week. These last things they obviously did as they got older (12 up).

 

One kid taught herself to make purses and wallets out of duct tape

because she loved the Red Green Show. She had a friend who went to the

local high school who sold items for her. Many of the other kids

thought they were "cool" and wanted to know where she got them. A small

cottage industry was born for awhile. This daughter was 13 at the time,

she is now 21, married, and living out of state.

 

I would bore you to tears if I recounted all the silly and outlandish

things my kids did. All the crazy things they did to make money (from

lemonade stands to going door-to-door to sell their own self-written

and self- illustrated books done by hand), had their own bank accounts

at a young age, including their own checkbooks by age 16, and all went

to work at age 15. They babysat for the neighbors, for their older

siblings, and helped me with children I often babysat for. They were

always doing.

 

Sometimes, in the dead of winter, we'd do a bit of "school" work (like

the journals and maybe some reading) and then we'd pop corn, make

pallets on the floor with blankets, and watch old shows of the Little

Rascals, or Laurel and Hardy, or Abbot and Costello all day. My kids

loved these! Maybe we'd watch Donald O'Connor in the Frances the

Talking Mule movie or we'd watch a movie that was made from a book

we'd just finished (My Side of the Mountain, Little Women, Where the

Red Fern Grows, the Red Badge of Courage, or Treasure Island) and

compare what we liked or didn't like about the movies compared to the

books. These were rare times, maybe 1-3 times per year as I am not much

of a TV person, though the kids loved many old shows and I had bought a

lot of them for the kids or we'd borrow them from the library.

 

The kids loved to read and did a ton of reading. Each one had their own

favorite authors and genres. No one had to read what they didn't like,

though all had to listen to the books I read out loud. I read the books

I knew they'd never pick up for themselves. One time I started to read

the book The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare,

and I got groans and complaints about how "stupid" it was. The next day

was the same, but then when I put the book down, the oldest girl picked

up the book and hid in her room all day until it was finished! She had

loved it. Not only did she love it, but the next day we had to go to

the library so she could get the other books by this same author (5 in

all). I finished reading the book to the other girls but they didn't

like it as well as this one had. I never knew who would like what or

what interest these books might spark.

 

We played games I made up as we traveled in the car to various

destinations. We played the states and capitols game, the times tables

game, the identify the weeds on the side of the road or in the field

game, the spelling games, the president games, and what ever else I

wanted to make into a game. Kids are competitive and these games became

horribly competitive! But times tables were learned, along with state

capitals (including Europe's, some of Asia's, and some of Africa's and

Canada's), weed identification, who was president when, and a host of

other things. The only thing is I had to know this stuff!!!! So I had

to brush up on the things I wanted the kids to know (like some of the

capitals of Asia and Africa I didn't know!). Sometimes we'd have a few

neighbor kids with us like when we were going to our church for VBS or

Sunday School, and these kids told my kids I was a "cool" mom!!! Of

course my kids sneered and rolled their eyes! They did not find it

"cool" that I had turned our car into a place of learning while

travelling places! But learn they did and it was fun. The neighbor kids

sure thought it was fun (many were boys and we still know them today),

as their parents never played those kinds of games with them. Imagine

that, they found learning fun! And these were public schooled kids.

 

We had a pass to the pool in summer, one to the zoo, went to various

museums and the art gallery, went to the Center of Science and Industry

(COSI), took day trips to Amish country or other places of interest in

our state, such as various caverns or state parks, went camping,

sometimes just in the backyard, and occasionally met with other

like-minded families. The kids at various times joined 4-H, and all

wanted to do dance or gymnastics, but we couldn't afford these things.

Some played sports a couple of times, and we never spent more than $500

for the entire school year on all 4 kids! I had a budget I had to keep.

 

The girls might want to do grammar at midnight in July, play Mad Libs

instead of watch TV in the evenings, write skits and make movies with

their friends, or just zone out alone on the back of the roof (one

story high!) and watch/identify birds, or read a book during "school"

hours. They are still doing these kinds of crazy things. One daughter,

age 19 (out of school), just got back from a trip to Montreal with

friends whom she'd met on the Internet and at concerts. They went to go

see a band called WOW (not national yet), and they took the Greyhound

bus! They had quite an experience/adventure, even getting stuck in

NYC for 23 hours, filmed much of it, and it is now on Youtube for all

the world to see. My kids are still making movies and recording their

lives, just like when they were young. And this daughter is now on her

way to Cleveland with other friends whom she met at concerts/knows via

the web, to go see Honor Society (a band). Crazy! But she knows what

she wants to do, has a job and her own money, makes plans, and does

some crazy things. But she is a good kid who is not into drinking,

drugs, partying, smoking, gangs, or any kind of trouble. She also loves

to attend church every week and lives out her faith. So no harm.

 

Think of summer when there is no school. That is how we most often

lived our lives. I like to say we lived in Perpetual Summer. We

measured wall paper to hang, the girls helped dad roof the back of the

house, we gardened and canned, we cooked and baked, we read and did

crafts, we painted walls, we cleaned house, we sometimes did "school

work", the kids played house, made forts, played out in the snow during

"school" hours, and whiled away their days doing the things they wanted

to do. Yet the girls have managed to all grow up educated and

intelligent. Their personalities are all different, but they are also

very similar and get along great. All are close, even the ones who

attended public school. There is a large age gap of 17 years between

the oldest and the youngest, and so there is a difference in the

generations, but they are all still close.

 

Of the unschooled kids, the youngest one turns 18 tomorrow, two are

married, one is expecting a baby in about 3 weeks, another one went to

acting/modeling school just because she wanted to; all of them have

jobs. They've turned into educated, fun, creative adults who are valued

and appreciated by their supervisors because they actually work,

and they are the leaders in the crowds they run with. They have all

grown up normal and able to function properly in society. They are not

social misfits who are backwards or uneducated. They set alarms and get

to work on time. They know how to "stand in line" and they know how to

"take orders" from authority. All the things that you hear that these

unschooled  kids won't be able to do because they were not trained in

a school to conform. It's all lies. Unschooled/Relaxed kids are able to

function very normally.

 

And best of all? They've all come to me and thanked me for unschooling

them and giving them so much freedom. They have also thanked me for

making them such capable adults! They've worked from age 15 up with

their peers, and they can't stand the immaturity, the drama, the

childishness, the churlishness, the lack of character, the laziness,

and the lack of life skills and reasoning skills that these young

people exhibit. My kids have often been appalled at how uneducated

their peers are who attend or have graduated from public school. Many

of these young people cannot make change from a dollar, can't make

decisions or think for themselves, and are ignorant of real life. My

kids literally feel they've been saved from all of this. That was the

best gift I could have had when each kid, on their own and in their own

time came to me and thanked me for the life they had growing up.

It made me think of the Proverbs 31 woman whose "children rise up and

call her blessed", and I was humbled by all of this. 

 

And yes, there were bad days when my kids were brats and fought, when

they were insolent and difficult, and when they took advantage of their

freedom and trust so that we had to pull back the reins and make them

earn that trust back. But they learned from all of these things, and it

helped to build their character and make them who they are today.

 

I hope I haven't bored you with all this reminiscing!!! I truly

enjoyed being with my kids and would definitely do it all again. I have

no regrets in how we lived our lives or did our educating. It was truly

the best lifestyle we could have chosen.

 

Blessings,

 

Lori 

 

 

  "By

preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers -

backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher

colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has

ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even

though they may be thoroughly schooled."– John

Taylor Gatto

 

He who cultivates his land will have plenty

of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs

28:19

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

herbal remedies

anellarusso

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 08:14:08 -0400

Re: {Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

 

 

 

 

Can you all talk about the specific type of

schooling that worked for you?  I have been doing what is essentially

"school at home" with a curriculum that we all enjoy (most of the time,

lol).  But I have been looking into un-schooling or child led

learning.  My concern is that my children have never been in charge of

their own time and so I would hear a lot of "mom I am bored" or just a

lot of fighting.  We do lots of supplemental stuff now too though, art

museum, science museums, aquarium etc. etc.

Anella

 

On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 4:17 PM, Lori

Smith <homeschoolmom42 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com>

wrote:

 

 

 

 

 

Kudos, Bryan!

 

My kids could have almost written this! My kids had lots of freedom,

too. They also started their own businesses when young, and went to

work at age 15 working as much as they could. They have a hard time

relating to their peers because they are so immature, into partying, do

not have high morals, and many have little character, if any at all. It

is sad!

 

I'm glad you see the light and want to keep your kids home where they

belong!

 

Thanks for sharing. I am sure many others will also relate and agree!

 

Blessings~

 

Lori

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  "By preventing a free market in education, a

handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from

compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials

suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have

an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled."– John Taylor Gatto

 

He who cultivates his land will have plenty

of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs

28:19

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

herbal remedies

 

bryan (AT) academyofnaturalhealing (DOT) com

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:08:36 -0400

{Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

 

 

 

 

 

Truth about Public Scools

Home educating was great.

It was pro-survival that I could learn with my parents in the morning

and work or play in the afternoon. I started a business when I was 11

with my parents lawn mower and made enough to buy a boat & motor.

Then I was selling fish and bringing them home for Mom to cook. The

thing I most appreciated was that I was free to observe the world and

learn from my observations and that I was allowed to work when I was

young. Being able to make money taught me how manners and how business

relationships worked. I would have never learned anything of the real

world in a classroom. Now when I talk with my generation I find that

they are immature and uneducated. I feel that public school didn't

prepare them at all for the world and this is another reason for me to

be thankful that I was home schooled.

 

A question parents could ask their kids is what does government

education really teach our youth? The answer you will probably hear is

"not much, they just want us to pass the test so they give us the

answers before we do the test." or "Our school doesn't really teach us

anything; they only care about how many of us pass the test as their

funding depends upon statics alone.They do teach us that we are

ruled by government and since they put up the fence and tripled the

cops on campus it really does feel like a prison."

 

It is well known that public school is the place where kids can obtain

every kind of drug. From crack cocaine to ecstasy and cough medicine to

heroin. The worst are mind altering drugs that are sold out of lockers

and the education kids teach each other like "dude you can get high if

you inhale that can of air" or "watch me make a bong out of this

Avocado" or the only way we can be secure is if we have numbers and

join or start a gang." Public school teaches our kids to be criminals

and also ironically prepares them for prison. The question is still the

same; what does government education teach our youth? Promiscuity,

laziness, drug education, fear of law enforcement, no production and

lack of enthusiasm to start life as an adult appear to be a few but ask

a kid for a more local report on your nearest public school. You'll be

horrified.

 

We will never send our daughter to a public school even if it means

leaving the land of the free and the home of the brave. We will teach

her so she will survive in this world and not waste her youth learning

garbage!!!

 

~21 year old

 

 

 

 

 

Hotmail has tools for the New Busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your

inbox. Learn

more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The New Busy is not the too busy. Combine all your e-mail

accounts with Hotmail. Get busy.

[Guest guest]

Yes I agree I have all kinds of new ideas now! Thanks so much for taking your time to educate us!

Kathy

 

-

Doc

herbal remedies

Thursday, April 22, 2010 1:55 PM

Re: {Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

Very Well Done Lori.You're tops ;o)))Best,DocOn 4/20/2010 10:05 PM, Lori Smith wrote:

Hi Anella, I have 8 kids, 4 were public schooled and 4 were home schooled. Long story short is it took 8 years to get the hubby to agree to home school (2nd marriage, 2 oldest kids from previous marriage), and by this time the 4 older kids were thoroughly entrenched in the public school and were horrified at the thought of coming home (hubby agreed) and so we yanked the 2nd grader who wanted to come home and never sent the other 3 to school. I do wish I had home schooled all 8 of them, but I can't go back. I don't know how old your kids are (mine were small when I started this as this was protocol for all the kids), but my kids learned real quick not to tell me they were bored as I'd give them a chore list to do when they'd say this! It finally got to the point when they'd say, I'm bored, and then in the same breath they'd quickly reply, But I'll find something to do because I don't want to clean!!!! They knew how I fixed boredom!!! (lol) Yes, kids will fight when they get bored. And yes, kids do and can become bored, but that is where they need to learn to find ways to entertain themselves. My kids had a lot of craft items (I had 4 girls at home home schooling at the time) that they could do (paints, glitter, cloth swatches, embroidery floss, cross-stitch patterns and material, thread, a sewing machine (age 6-8 is not too soon to start teaching kids on a machine or by hand!), markers, crayons, paste/glue/glue sticks, beads, and anything else you can imagine), tons of books, magazines, a telescope (just a cheapy one that had been mine when I was kid from 1970!), a camcorder (they loved making their own movies and still do!), cameras, bicycles, toys, and a pass to the pool in summer. Plenty of things to keep them occupied no matter what time of year it was. Because 3 of my kids had never been in school (the oldest of the 4 had gone K-2), they had no idea what it meant to actually sit down and do lots of "school". We sometimes worked on math problems (maybe 5-10 a day); I'd work with whatever kid might need help with their phonics if they were learning to read (all read within weeks of starting this, except we did have 2 late readers, but I taught all 8 of my kids to read, including the public schooled kids), we always had a time of oral reading (this was non-negotiable with me, and I got to choose what we read and for how long), and the girls had those cheap work books from the store in math, spelling, English, and writing as they wanted these and got to choose what they wanted. They also got to choose when or if they wanted to work in these, and they always were finished before the end of the year as the kids enjoyed working in them. We also had a few school books that I'd found at yard sales or that had been mine that they sometimes worked in, if they felt like it. We also had Mad-Libs (a game the kids loved that taught them verbs, nouns, adverbs and adjectives with ease), and just so many resources. Besides the oral reading (I usually read a minumum of 1 hour a day), the kids had to keep a daily journal as I am not good at record keeping (our state does not insist on this but I thought it would help record what the kids did), and my kids have had an absolute blast going back and reading these as they wrote about what was going on that particular day. Their life is recorded in these notebooks. They are so glad I had them do this! My kids cooked their own breakfast and lunch (from age 5/6 up when they could see safely over the stove), and they used to tell me what a "bad mommy" I was because I didn't cook for them like their friend's mommies did. I'd retort that no, I was a "good mommy" because they knew how to cook and their friends didn't! My kids all cook and bake, which they learned doing for themselves. I also used to tell them I never wanted to cheat them out of being able to do for themselves. They also learned how to mend their own clothes (hemming, tears and rips, buttons, darts), darn their own socks, do their own laundry (age 8 up), and many other invaluable life skills. Not because I couldn't do it for them, but because I wanted them to know how to do these things for themselves and be self sufficient. This included my boys who attended public school. All 8 of my kids learned in this manner whether they were home schooled or public schooled. Life skills is a dying art in our society/culture. In summer and fall we did an assembly line deal when we canned. The kids helped harvest the veggies, helped wash and peel/cut/slice/blanch, and we canned together. They went fruit picking with me when we canned jams and jellies. They helped to do yard work, including gardening, and they had chores they were responsible for (all kids did these things). They learned to make bread, cakes, pies, and cookies. They learned how to fry chicken, make noodles, and make gravies. They learned how to do dishes, help clean the fridge, defrost the freezer, and clean showers and toilets. We had friends who lived in the country so they helped gather eggs, feed the cows, pigs, and horse, and sometimes got to curry down the horse. They also helped to muck stalls. Mucking stalls earned them rides on the horse! They also got to climb trees and pick apples, to pick grapes, and to gather the hens into the henhouse. They loved it! This wasn't daily, maybe a handful of times per year, but it was so much fun for them. I gave them a great deal of freedom. They were allowed to watch their favorite movie every day for 6 months (The Lord of the Rings), make foods from the movie, dress as Hobbits and walk to the library with dog hair glued on their toes for realism (honest!), and to make movies and hold plays based on this movie. As a result, each child found an interest based on the movie. One kid studied all about New Zealand and all about the main actors, then watched all their movies (from the library). Another kid studied all about 12th century England, a bit about Medievel Europe, the customs, the dress, and even the religion and superstitions. Another kid studied all about the actors, started a website, wrote her own stories based on the movie, and had followers on her site. The youngest just kind of mingled in with the others and did a bit of it all. I only got involved when asked. The movies are priceless! The kids were so creative and funny! We need to move these to DVD's before the VHS tapes goes the way of the 8 track and we lose them! We live in the city and so they had a lot of freedom to roam with friends. They'd go on the bike trail (I had them carry paper work stating they were home schooled), they hung out at the library and got involved in the teen programs, did some writing for the monthly teen newsletter, another one volunteering at the library 2 mornings per week. These last things they obviously did as they got older (12 up). One kid taught herself to make purses and wallets out of duct tape because she loved the Red Green Show. She had a friend who went to the local high school who sold items for her. Many of the other kids thought they were "cool" and wanted to know where she got them. A small cottage industry was born for awhile. This daughter was 13 at the time, she is now 21, married, and living out of state. I would bore you to tears if I recounted all the silly and outlandish things my kids did. All the crazy things they did to make money (from lemonade stands to going door-to-door to sell their own self-written and self- illustrated books done by hand), had their own bank accounts at a young age, including their own checkbooks by age 16, and all went to work at age 15. They babysat for the neighbors, for their older siblings, and helped me with children I often babysat for. They were always doing. Sometimes, in the dead of winter, we'd do a bit of "school" work (like the journals and maybe some reading) and then we'd pop corn, make pallets on the floor with blankets, and watch old shows of the Little Rascals, or Laurel and Hardy, or Abbot and Costello all day. My kids loved these! Maybe we'd watch Donald O'Connor in the Frances the Talking Mule movie or we'd watch a movie that was made from a book we'd just finished (My Side of the Mountain, Little Women, Where the Red Fern Grows, the Red Badge of Courage, or Treasure Island) and compare what we liked or didn't like about the movies compared to the books. These were rare times, maybe 1-3 times per year as I am not much of a TV person, though the kids loved many old shows and I had bought a lot of them for the kids or we'd borrow them from the library. The kids loved to read and did a ton of reading. Each one had their own favorite authors and genres. No one had to read what they didn't like, though all had to listen to the books I read out loud. I read the books I knew they'd never pick up for themselves. One time I started to read the book The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare, and I got groans and complaints about how "stupid" it was. The next day was the same, but then when I put the book down, the oldest girl picked up the book and hid in her room all day until it was finished! She had loved it. Not only did she love it, but the next day we had to go to the library so she could get the other books by this same author (5 in all). I finished reading the book to the other girls but they didn't like it as well as this one had. I never knew who would like what or what interest these books might spark. We played games I made up as we traveled in the car to various destinations. We played the states and capitols game, the times tables game, the identify the weeds on the side of the road or in the field game, the spelling games, the president games, and what ever else I wanted to make into a game. Kids are competitive and these games became horribly competitive! But times tables were learned, along with state capitals (including Europe's, some of Asia's, and some of Africa's and Canada's), weed identification, who was president when, and a host of other things. The only thing is I had to know this stuff!!!! So I had to brush up on the things I wanted the kids to know (like some of the capitals of Asia and Africa I didn't know!). Sometimes we'd have a few neighbor kids with us like when we were going to our church for VBS or Sunday School, and these kids told my kids I was a "cool" mom!!! Of course my kids sneered and rolled their eyes! They did not find it "cool" that I had turned our car into a place of learning while travelling places! But learn they did and it was fun. The neighbor kids sure thought it was fun (many were boys and we still know them today), as their parents never played those kinds of games with them. Imagine that, they found learning fun! And these were public schooled kids. We had a pass to the pool in summer, one to the zoo, went to various museums and the art gallery, went to the Center of Science and Industry (COSI), took day trips to Amish country or other places of interest in our state, such as various caverns or state parks, went camping, sometimes just in the backyard, and occasionally met with other like-minded families. The kids at various times joined 4-H, and all wanted to do dance or gymnastics, but we couldn't afford these things. Some played sports a couple of times, and we never spent more than $500 for the entire school year on all 4 kids! I had a budget I had to keep. The girls might want to do grammar at midnight in July, play Mad Libs instead of watch TV in the evenings, write skits and make movies with their friends, or just zone out alone on the back of the roof (one story high!) and watch/identify birds, or read a book during "school" hours. They are still doing these kinds of crazy things. One daughter, age 19 (out of school), just got back from a trip to Montreal with friends whom she'd met on the Internet and at concerts. They went to go see a band called WOW (not national yet), and they took the Greyhound bus! They had quite an experience/adventure, even getting stuck in NYC for 23 hours, filmed much of it, and it is now on Youtube for all the world to see. My kids are still making movies and recording their lives, just like when they were young. And this daughter is now on her way to Cleveland with other friends whom she met at concerts/knows via the web, to go see Honor Society (a band). Crazy! But she knows what she wants to do, has a job and her own money, makes plans, and does some crazy things. But she is a good kid who is not into drinking, drugs, partying, smoking, gangs, or any kind of trouble. She also loves to attend church every week and lives out her faith. So no harm. Think of summer when there is no school. That is how we most often lived our lives. I like to say we lived in Perpetual Summer. We measured wall paper to hang, the girls helped dad roof the back of the house, we gardened and canned, we cooked and baked, we read and did crafts, we painted walls, we cleaned house, we sometimes did "school work", the kids played house, made forts, played out in the snow during "school" hours, and whiled away their days doing the things they wanted to do. Yet the girls have managed to all grow up educated and intelligent. Their personalities are all different, but they are also very similar and get along great. All are close, even the ones who attended public school. There is a large age gap of 17 years between the oldest and the youngest, and so there is a difference in the generations, but they are all still close. Of the unschooled kids, the youngest one turns 18 tomorrow, two are married, one is expecting a baby in about 3 weeks, another one went to acting/modeling school just because she wanted to; all of them have jobs. They've turned into educated, fun, creative adults who are valued and appreciated by their supervisors because they actually work, and they are the leaders in the crowds they run with. They have all grown up normal and able to function properly in society. They are not social misfits who are backwards or uneducated. They set alarms and get to work on time. They know how to "stand in line" and they know how to "take orders" from authority. All the things that you hear that these unschooled kids won't be able to do because they were not trained in a school to conform. It's all lies. Unschooled/Relaxed kids are able to function very normally. And best of all? They've all come to me and thanked me for unschooling them and giving them so much freedom. They have also thanked me for making them such capable adults! They've worked from age 15 up with their peers, and they can't stand the immaturity, the drama, the childishness, the churlishness, the lack of character, the laziness, and the lack of life skills and reasoning skills that these young people exhibit. My kids have often been appalled at how uneducated their peers are who attend or have graduated from public school. Many of these young people cannot make change from a dollar, can't make decisions or think for themselves, and are ignorant of real life. My kids literally feel they've been saved from all of this. That was the best gift I could have had when each kid, on their own and in their own time came to me and thanked me for the life they had growing up. It made me think of the Proverbs 31 woman whose "children rise up and call her blessed", and I was humbled by all of this. And yes, there were bad days when my kids were brats and fought, when they were insolent and difficult, and when they took advantage of their freedom and trust so that we had to pull back the reins and make them earn that trust back. But they learned from all of these things, and it helped to build their character and make them who they are today.I hope I haven't bored you with all this reminiscing!!! I truly enjoyed being with my kids and would definitely do it all again. I have no regrets in how we lived our lives or did our educating. It was truly the best lifestyle we could have chosen. Blessings, Lori

"By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled."– John Taylor Gatto

 

He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19

 

 

herbal remedies From: anellarusso Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 08:14:08 -0400Re: {Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

 

Can you all talk about the specific type of schooling that worked for you? I have been doing what is essentially "school at home" with a curriculum that we all enjoy (most of the time, lol). But I have been looking into un-schooling or child led learning. My concern is that my children have never been in charge of their own time and so I would hear a lot of "mom I am bored" or just a lot of fighting. We do lots of supplemental stuff now too though, art museum, science museums, aquarium etc. etc. Anella

On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 4:17 PM, Lori Smith <homeschoolmom42 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:

 

 

 

Kudos, Bryan! My kids could have almost written this! My kids had lots of freedom, too. They also started their own businesses when young, and went to work at age 15 working as much as they could. They have a hard time relating to their peers because they are so immature, into partying, do not have high morals, and many have little character, if any at all. It is sad! I'm glad you see the light and want to keep your kids home where they belong! Thanks for sharing. I am sure many others will also relate and agree! Blessings~ Lori

"By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled."– John Taylor Gatto He who cultivates his land will have plenty of food, but from idle pursuits a man has his fill of poverty. Proverbs 28:19

 

herbal remedies From: bryan (AT) academyofnaturalhealing (DOT) comDate: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:08:36 -0400{Herbal Remedies} Stay in school little kiddies.

 

 

Truth about Public Scools

Home educating was great.It was pro-survival that I could learn with my parents in the morning and work or play in the afternoon. I started a business when I was 11 with my parents lawn mower and made enough to buy a boat & motor. Then I was selling fish and bringing them home for Mom to cook. The thing I most appreciated was that I was free to observe the world and learn from my observations and that I was allowed to work when I was young. Being able to make money taught me how manners and how business relationships worked. I would have never learned anything of the real world in a classroom. Now when I talk with my generation I find that they are immature and uneducated. I feel that public school didn't prepare them at all for the world and this is another reason for me to be thankful that I was home schooled.A question parents could ask their kids is what does government education really teach our youth? The answer you will probably hear is "not much, they just want us to pass the test so they give us the answers before we do the test." or "Our school doesn't really teach us anything; they only care about how many of us pass the test as their funding depends upon statics alone.They do teach us that we are ruled by government and since they put up the fence and tripled the cops on campus it really does feel like a prison." It is well known that public school is the place where kids can obtain every kind of drug. From crack cocaine to ecstasy and cough medicine to heroin. The worst are mind altering drugs that are sold out of lockers and the education kids teach each other like "dude you can get high if you inhale that can of air" or "watch me make a bong out of this Avocado" or the only way we can be secure is if we have numbers and join or start a gang." Public school teaches our kids to be criminals and also ironically prepares them for prison. The question is still the same; what does government education teach our youth? Promiscuity, laziness, drug education, fear of law enforcement, no production and lack of enthusiasm to start life as an adult appear to be a few but ask a kid for a more local report on your nearest public school. You'll be horrified. We will never send our daughter to a public school even if it means leaving the land of the free and the home of the brave. We will teach her so she will survive in this world and not waste her youth learning garbage!!!~21 year old

 

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