I always imagined homeschool like public schools, but at home. Instead, I’m on my own. That’s probably what I’m not used to. Already several people at school that I see when I go to art or strings are very confused when they see that I have a visiter badge.

I’m going to be home schooled until high school. I spend my time with my violin, researching, and reading, and math.

Kirsten and I feel very fortunate that Hayley had Mrs. Arnold this year. She has great command of her students and exudes compassion for them.

Hayley was Star of the Day

Hayley got to sit in the rocking chair

Hayley reads her book to Kirsten

The Flying Dog, illustrated by Hayley Danler

The slideshow was phenomenal!

Hayley's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Arnold

She did a fantastic job writing and illustrating her book. She discussed classes of animals, geology and the environment, dietary requirements, evolution, extinction and predation.

While reading her book she skipped the following sentence so as not to offend her classmates or their parents:

None of anything is made by Mother Nature or God. It’s all called Science.

After each pupil read their book the group was allowed one comment and one question. After one boy read about “little stars” Jenna asked, “How do you know the stars are small unless you’ve seen one up close?” Brilliant question, I thought.

Jenna listened as Miss Holland addressed the audience

Jenna read to us a non-fiction book

Jenna read to our group her book, All About Wildlife

Jenna likes the science section best

Jenna and Thomas, a past crush

Jenna and her second grade teacher, Miss Holland

We talked about the requirements (flag, banner, six to ten items) and design. She did a lot of research on Arizona and the things that makes it unique and special. She made a list of possible items and revised it several times after I explained why certain items were neither unique nor special (e.g. high pollution).

She also learned to design on paper before construction. We went to the craft store to purchase Styrofoam and the hardware store for spray paint. She helped me select pictures online and then cut out the prints before laminating. Kirsten sewed the banner out of one of my old t-shirts and Skye wrote “ARIZONA” on each side. We all helped attach floral wire to each item. Skye placed the items on the float according to their importance.

We ordered the flag online. Skye picked it up from my mailbox on the way home from school last week.

The items:

• John McCain
• Wyatt Earp
• Observatory/dark skies
• Meteor Crater
• Petrified wood
• Cactus wren
• Copper
• Grand Canyon mules

It was a great opportunity for us to bond. Skye learned, I hope, to have a larger vision and to do everything with excellence. I think she’ll be able to use some of the techniques she learned in future projects. She was quite proud of the results, which makes me happy.

The back side of Arizona

Great Seal of the State of Arizona - 1912

Copper, a meteor, and John

Senator John McCain (R)

I drove Skye and her float to school

What troubled me about our meeting were a couple of statements made by her teacher.

She doesn’t give more homework because, quite frankly, it wouldn’t get done. The students are too involved with extracurricular activities, video games, and television. She said that for many parents academics takes a back seat to everything else in their children’s busy schedules.

She said her primary responsibility is to work with the pupils who struggle the most. Anything she does to challenge Skye and other bright kids, such as assigning independent work or helping them with advanced concepts, is beyond what is required. She has limited time and resources and is mandated to focus on the kids who need the most help. If it weren’t for her teacher making extra efforts Skye would be left to teach herself or simply go at a much slower pace than she is capable.

The slow kids wouldn’t need as much remedial instruction from teachers if parents were more cognizant of and responsible about their obligations to their children’s education. The buck must always stop with the parent, not the school or the teacher.

Skye’s teacher is wonderful (and smokin’ hot!). She cares deeply about Skye as a person and a student. She goes out of her way to give Skye challenging work and to insure she is not bored. Skye is also on the math team and in the gifted and talented program for math and reading (at a fifth-grade level)! She is getting what she needs. But we are fortunate. Skye has a great teacher in a great school. Most children across the country aren’t so lucky.

I’m glad President Obama wants to improve our education system. I’m glad he budgeted for massive increases in education spending in the stimulus packages and budget. But what we need is a fundamental change in our culture. We cannot hope to make a difference in education until we, as a nation, begin to value intellect and learning. Throwing money at teachers and books and computers is important, but it won’t be enough.

Parents and children are consumed by American Idol and Hannah Montana and it’s ruining our country. Newspapers are stopping their presses and letting go seasoned reporters. The problem with our schools is not failed programs, it’s a culture that celebrates triviality and has too little regard for intellect, reason and learning.

Parents, turn off the television. Take your kid out of all but one extracurricular activity so they’ll have time to devote to their studies. Ask them about their homework and insure it is completed. And, finally, subscribe to a newspaper, read it, and discuss it with your children. Ask them for their opinion and challenge their minds. Resist feeding them the answers. Your lackadaisical parenting is negatively affecting my kids’ progress.

Hayley made a stuffed fish in her art class. It’s isn’t a fish you could filet and eat for dinner. Nor could it swim in the ocean. It’s mostly made of paper. They drew with oil crayons over the paint. With the red crayon Hayley made lipstick. Then they cut out fish shapes, stapled the edges together and stuffed them with newspaper.

Hayley's stuffed fish (with lipstick)

Jenna’s art teacher, Mrs. Noble, had Jenna’s class make self-portraits for the museum exhibition. Jenna chose the fabric for her shirt because she likes birds and nature. They used paint for the background. Jenna made the mouth small because she doesn’t shout or smile with her teeth showing. She chose long brown hair to match her own. She said to me, “I like putting style into my artwork.”

Jenna's self-portrait

Skye’s art teacher, Mrs. Digregorio, read a book titled “The Fairy House” about a girl who makes a fairy house out of materials she find in nature. Mrs. Digregorio had the fourth graders make their own fairy houses. The materials for Skye’s project were partially gathered from our back woods. Skye’s fairy house has two fairy-size beds, a table with chairs and a spear.

Skye's fairy house

Hayley at the beach

Hayley plays in the sand

My favorite thing we did last year is when we went to Ben and Jerry’s. When we went to Ben and Jerry’s we could see a bunch of stuff about ice cream and how they make it. The reason it is my favorite thing is because we saw cool stuff and got to try ice cream.

Jenna, Skye and me at Ben and Jerry's in Vermont

Another thing we did in 2008 is we went to a Flickr meetup. We went hiking in the woods while my dad took a lot of pictures.

We went to Boston, also. We stayed at a hotel by the beach. We had a big breakfast at the hotel. Our room was pretty. We got to go swimming. In Boston we played for a little while by a fountain and went to the Museum of Science.

Also, in 2008, we went to the Children’s Museum of Maine. We had a fun time there playing on the fire truck, store, space shuttle, and sawmill.

Hayley slides down the fire pole

My first day of kindergarten I was shy. The only people that I wasn’t shy to was Miranda and Joseph. In kindergarten we get to learn each others’ names. I also get to meet new people that aren’t in my class. My favorite “special” in kindergarten is computer because we get to play on KidPix. On KidPix you can draw pictures. My teacher is Mrs. Arnold. She is nice. I was shy on the bus, but not to everybody, like Rachael and Ariana.

Hayley rides the bus her first day of kindergarten

We went to lighthouses a lot. I like walking on rocks to get to the lighthouses.

You go girl. I love you, Kir.

She also aced (100%) every category of the math portion of the Nurse Entrance Test (NET) and earned a composite score on the entire exam that puts her in the 96th percentile of the nation! Hooray!

I think she deserves lunch at Gilbert’s Chowder House, at least. ;)

This morning I was so excited to go to the play of “A Christmas Carol.” My dad asked to chaperon earlier during the month, so he got to. The number one reason he offered to chaperon is to ride on the bus. He hasn’t rode a bus since he was a kid. Three more reasons he offered to chaperon is so he can see Mr. Reinhartsen, spend time with me, and watch the play. When I got to school I couldn’t wait until 9:05 am. That was the time we were supposed to get on the bus. I did the day starter (morning time work) I’m supposed to do in the morning. I waited and kept looking at the clock. I was so excited. Soon they called us to the front doors. I got to see my old friends from my class last year because they are in fifth grade reading. Mr. Reinhartsen wanted all the reading kids to come to “A Christmas Carol”. Suddenly I saw the bus and my dad, so we got on.

While we were on the bus I taught my dad Concentration 64, Tom Boy, (those are hand shakes) and talked to him.

When we got there we sat in comfy seats. Before we watched the play we had to sing “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. They divided the audience into twelve groups, one for each day. When it was our turn we had to stand and sing our part and do our hand motions. It was fun. Finally we started watching the play. It was really good. Some parts were so scary I gasped! It was about a grouchy man named Ebenezer Scrooge who hated people and Christmas so he was haunted by three spirits. At the very end he had a happy life and he was nice to people. It was the best play I’ve seen in a long time. After the first act we got to eat a donut.

On the bus ride home my dad and I did a debate about god. When we got to C.K. Burns, I said good-bye to daddy and went inside. Since we were late for the regular lunch time, Mrs. Walton said we could eat lunch in the classroom while we work. We ate a pasta kind of stuff, strawberry juice with cut up strawberries, bread, and chocolate milk.

When we got home there were fresh-baked cupcakes on the counter. Mommy told us that we could decorate them. It was fun. I did cool designs.

That was my day.

Since it’s getting to be Festibond we did a little bit of Festibond stuff at school. We got to put designs on our antlers. We took one long piece of lined paper. Then we traced our hands and cut them out of brown paper. Mrs. Arnold put our name on the paper after we put our designs on it. The first sticker was Santa. The next sticker was a candy cane. The next sticker was a reindeer. The last sticker is holly.

The way to make a circle to put it on our head is first to put the paper around our head then carefully take it off while it was connected still. Then we stapled it. Then we stapled the antlers. And then we got to put them on for the whole time we were in school.

Hayley