I read some incredibly amusing and enjoyable books in a series called The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. They are truly magic books. They made me both laugh and cry outloud as I read them. They were just so real. The main character, Precious Ramotswe, is a detective and the books are all about her adventures in Botswana solving situtations of the folks who live in her community. At first glance these books are very simple and indeed they are an easy read but they are chock full of profound advice. Precious muses at one point, “Everyone thinks we all want to be American, why would I want to be American? They are always hurrying around.” Exactly, is what I said to myself when I read that and guilty as charged. Maybe I need to move to Botswana.

Sometimes I think if my kids went off on the yellow school bus I’d have some time to actually clean the toilets and clear the dining room table where we do all our work but then I think who cares. One day when my kids are gone I’ll have a tidy and quiet house, VERY quiet and I’ll probably miss the noise and mess. Isn’t life an irony sometimes.

In the meantime I need a spell to cast on myself so I can put the brakes on and sit for a cup of tea and just look out the window and watch the magic in my own back yard.

Mimi

Back to Mr. Ron Clark who at this point is rather famous having a movie made about him played by Matthew Perry, appearing on Oprah and becoming Disney’s teacher of the year in 2000 (I’m not so sure I’d want that award ??). What advice does he give so that other normal teachers can become magic teachers? It isn’t complicated stuff actually, the first thing he says is that you have to make your classroom like a family. Gee, that’s pretty easy for us homeschoolers, our classroom *is* a family! He says kids also need to feel a part of their community another bell went off in my head saying, gee we live and work in our community every single day not just on weekends.

He used the novel idea to make the kids memorize every single adult’s name in the entire school and soon the cafeteria staff got to know the students and were invested in their success. He taught his students life skills like how to greet people, to look them in the face and use their names with Mr. or Mrs. I know I’ll sound so negative because we certainly don’t live in an ideal world but shouldn’t parents be teaching their own kids simple life skills like how to speak to people and how to relate to the world and how to care for themselves and others?

Well I know there are many, many kids all over the US not just in Harlem who are not taught the simple things they need to be a productive valuable person in their community, never-mind the advanced academics they’ll need to succeed. In no way would I want to belittle anything that Mr. Clark or any other public school teacher has done. Certainly he has done some serious *magic*. To Mr. Clark and the many others like him I say, you guys rock! You deserve more pay frankly but your payment comes in the form of your successful students, even though it should be reflected in your paycheck.

If you are homeschooling your kids then you’re ahead of the game and frankly you probably don’t even need a magic wand after all. You do magic every day by being with your kids and giving them what they most need, your time, your life and your financial resources . Your classroom is a family, you are part of the community daily and if you’re not you should be or you’re missing out on a great part of homeschooling, where some real magic occurs.

Mimi

Have you ever stopped to watch a humingbird? Now if that’s not magic than I don’t know what is. I know there are certainly physicists who can explain how exactly they propel themselves and just how many times they beat their tiny wings but I haven’t seen one reproduced in a lab yet. I see the humingbirds every day just outside my window. My plastic humingbird feeder was one of the best under five dollar investments I made. I was also watching the magic of millions of ants in my yard today and how they can carry multiple times their weight. How come we are so much bigger and can’t do the same? It is one of those magic things I wonder about. No matter how technosaavy we get sometimes we are unable to explain the simplest things. Magic is all around us and I plan to write about it in this homeschool blog.

I guess I should have left the best for last because it doesn’t feel right to eat dessert first but anyway, on to the ordinary. I am busy as a bee as usual getting things in order and suddenly I remembered that even though I worked out the academics well, at least on paper, I have not yet purchased all the materials I plan to use. Now if there were the kind of magic where money grew on trees I would just order them up today but since it doesn’t and we stretch the finances I guess I’ll wait until September when I have a bit more. I don’t think anyone’s brain will atrophy by then.

I guess I will go back and end on the magic note and remind all you alert readers that there is magic everywhere just open your eyes and you will see it.

Mimi

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the downside to homeschooling. Maybe I’m just in a reflective phase, thinking about lots of things. Everything has a downside. Sometimes I get a bit frustrated with the bubbling enthusiasm of homeschoolers who at times seem unable to admit there are some difficulties to the homeschooling lifestyle. Maybe that’s why I chose the “spooky blue” theme colors for this new blog.

Don’t get me wrong I’m in no danger of putting my kids in school. I’d rather have them sitting in front of MTV all day eating popcorn and drinking coke which would be far less unhealthy than being in a public school and this is not a joke, well at least it’s not meant to be a joke. Also, even though I get exasperated I am still inspired most of the time. I love great books and I love working with my kids on their projects and seeing them turning into individuals with opinions based on information they have attained. It’s just the house which seems to be at a constant state of disarray and the car rides hither and yon and they lack of money to pay for the multitudinous activities they are now interested in doing.

On the grand scale of life these problems are rather small though on the day to day basis they can seem a bit larger. At least if I want I can dream of the magic wand to wave and have the house instantly tidy or the kids not fighting or the bills paid. In the meantime I’ll just continue to try creative ways to organize, compromise, and economize just like I have been for the past ten years.