The Homeschool Thing

So the question of the month is definitely "how is the homeschool thing going?" My honest answer is that 'The Homeschool Thing' is going great! We actually call The Homeschool Thing "CAVA" (Cah-VUH), which stands for California Virtual Academy. CAVA is a WASC accredited online charter school - we have an on-call teacher that we can meet with at any time (4x a year is required), and Elijah will be included in state standardized testing.

We are homeschooling because we feel that our children can get a better education at home. If they excel in one subject, they will not be stuck at the same pace as the rest of a classroom full of kids, and they are behind in something, they will get the help they need and never be overlooked and advanced before they are ready. In a brick and mortar school classroom, there is 1 teacher to about 30 kids. For every lesson, there will be kids that get it, and gets that don't. Even if 1/3 of the class isn't getting it, the teacher only has so much time that she can spend on the lesson before she has to move on, leaving those kids still not getting it. This will never happen to my children. Already I am seeing how Elijah is able to advance more quickly than if he was in an actual classroom. We are in the 4th week and Elijah is several lessons ahead in math and phonics, because he already knew a lot going into kindergarten. In a classroom, he would still be doing a lot of review, much of which he will loudly tell you he finds boring because he already knows it - he is ready to LEARN!

I'm not a teacher, and luckily I don't need to be. Right now I am with Elijah during his school time, because he needs me there to help guide him and help him stay focused. As he gets older, Elijah will logon to his online school schedule, and receive his daily instructions online. Some of them will be self-led online lessons, some offline, and some will be done in an online classroom where he can communicate via computer headset and keyboard. I will be here to help him figure things out, and he also has his teacher who is on-call 40 hours a week.

"But what about socialization?" I think this is the top question posed to homeschooling families. So let me ask the brick and mortar school families this: Pick one - Did you send your kids to school for a) an education, or b) so they could socialize?

First of all, I would like to point out that public schools do not provide much of an environment for socialization anymore. Kids are rushed through lunch, and given minimal free time. In fact, many schools have cut out regular recess all together. So I guess the kids are socializing during class? We spend our learning time learning. Socialization happens plenty during play dates, story times, sports, church, enrichment programs and field trips (yes, real field trips, with other kids! Like our dairy farm tour :). I have yet to come across a homeschooler that was not super-dedicated to their child, and I don't think for a second that any of these people, that have put hours of research and planning into homeschooling, are ignoring or dismissing the fact that their kid needs to be interacting with other kids. I especially don't think these people are missing the fact when it is every non-homeschooler's #1 concern.

I have not had a lot of experience with homeschooled families, but did meet several on our recent trip to Organic Pastures. The kids were aged 1-9, and introduced themselves to one another, played together, and even exchanged numbers. When you looked around, you just saw a group of normal, happy little kids. As another CAVA mom on our field trip joked to me, "I am the one that needs socialization!" :)

Ribbit.

My mom sent me the link to these cupcakes, and I just had to try them. There's actually a lot of cute ideas on that site that I will be trying, but the frog cupcakes were just too cute to put off. When I shared the idea amongst my friends, one of them suggested I make them as part of a lesson on the life cycle of a frog. I know, my friends are smart, right? Me, not so much. To share my pictures of this frog cupcake project is to show you that I was not paying very good attention to the recipe. I think I just got a little too excited and winged it while I was at the store. I didn't buy mini M&Ms! There, I said it! And on top of it, I was only able to find enough green M&Ms to do 2 cupcakes... out of all the bags of candy I bought. GRR! I will make them again, and do it right. The boys were thrilled :)

Organic Pastures

Today we went on a field trip to Organic Pastures dairy farm in the sticks of Fresno. Organic Pastures is a family owned and operated farm that produces and sells raw milk and raw milk products. Our tour guide was Kaleigh, whose shirt stated "Mom in Training" - Kaleigh's dad, the CEO, informed us at the beginning of our tour that his daughter was expecting their first grandchild, a boy, and was due in January (I thought that was cute lol). The kids on the field trip ranged in age from 1 to 9 years old. The tour guide kept the facts simple and most of the tour was spent just checking out the cows in the main pasture.

We learned that they have several different types of cows at Organic Pastures - Not just Jersey, Holstein and French Normandys, but lots of cows that are a combination of those 3. The Combo-Cows produce the best milk, which gets to be up to 75% cream.

We walked around the labor and delivery pasture and were greeted by an assortment of Happy Cows (if you live in California, you've seen the commercials!). They were very friendly and allowed the kids to pet them.

While in the L&D pasture, we met a cow named Boo. Boo is a PETA sponsored cow that was going to be slaughtered because she only had 3 teats. So PETA adopted Boo, and she now lives in the main pen at Organic Pastures. National Geographic took interest in this cow, and when they came out to photograph her, they discovered she has 4 teats. PETA comes and hangs out with Boo, brushes her and walks around with her. She has no tags and has a large bell around her neck to help PETA to identify her.

As you can see here, Boo is also a friendly cow :)

After we left the Mama's and Papa's (there was a few bulls in there, too) we hopped in our cars and cruised across the property to where they keep the calves. The calves are kept in solitary pens from 3 days to 2 weeks old, it helps to keep them safe from coyotes. They are then shuffled around different pens, depending on their age, and eventually land themselves in the L&D pasture that they were born in :) We loved the calves! They were a little nervous due to all of the action, but a couple of them were curious enough to be pet, and even nursed on our fingers.













We finished up our tour by tasting some raw milk, and chocolate colostrum, both of which were pretty good. I really can't afford to spend $8 for a gallon of milk, but if I could I would probably switch to raw milk. The benefits sounds pretty awesome.