Monthly Archives:

January 2006

Cricket's Thoughts

Homeschool Not About Books

Although structure is important, sometimes parents forget that homeschool is NOT just about books and supplies.

Sometimes in our excitement to homeschool, we replicate the very things that cause our children problems in school.

I know several families who homeschool on a shoestring budget.

One of my boys hated anything that LOOKED like learning. If it was in a book, he was sure he didn’t want anything to do with it. The more I pushed, the more he pushed back. Learning became a time of stress rather than a time of wonder and joy.

Although his IQ is well above normal, he has some serious learning challenges.

The last thing he wanted to do was work on fractions or learn anything about history.

The stress of our power struggle was increasing.

The counselor had advised that I back off the books for a few weeks and allow him some space. Just give him somewhat of a break.

I decided to take him on a “field trip” to see Sequoyah’s cabin and home site just outside Sallisaw, Oklahoma. (Sequoyah was the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet.) Although he was quiet the entire day, he appeared to be paying attention to the man guiding him through everything. He especially spent a lot of time staring at the cabin, but again, not saying much.

On the way home, I remember thinking, okay, another great idea down the drain.

My mind was racing with ideas on how I could somehow get his attention, but he wasn’t having any part of it.

The next morning he woke up early and headed straight outside. He was building a tree house and NOTHING was going to distract him. No amount of encouragement was going to bring him in that house to work with “books”.

This went on for a week.

He would stay out there for hours, coming in only to grab a sandwich and take it with him, and to sleep at night. I was just reaching the point of thinking his counselor needed counseling because this was NOT working. Backing off was taking him even further away from learning.

At the end of the week, he came in the house filthy and soaked in sweat. He had a huge smile on his face as he was asking me if he could show me something. I followed him out, but I was absolutely positive he was going to show me something disgusting, like a huge snake.

He led me straight to the tree house and asked me to go inside.

Now let me tell you, from the outside this tree house looked pretty atrocious, but I was keeping my comments to myself because I knew how hard he had worked on it. However, I was extremely concerned that he was not INSIDE LEARNING.

Reluctantly, I began climbing the homemade ladder up the side of the tree. When I got to the top and peeked inside I was totally shocked.

I can still recall the feeling of complete astonishment at what I was seeing.

The inside of this tree house looked like a miniature replica of Sequoyah’s cabin.

I could not believe the detail, right down to using rope for the bed. It was absolutely incredible.

On the floor beside the bed were some scribbling notes, from him using the fractions I was desperately trying to teach him. Turned out he had taught himself as needed, with all the measuring he had been doing. He then told me the story of Sequoyah and how fascinated he was by it all.

That day, and many times in his life, instead of me teaching my son, my son taught me.

He continues to do so now as an adult.
 

Thanks For Being A Part Of My Life!

Cricket Walker

Cricket's Thoughts

Homeschool Outside The Box

I wanted to give another example of “thinking outside the box” when homeschooling.

As I mentioned in an earlier article, my son struggled with learning disabilities.

They labeled him dyslexic, and he never quite got past that. Six years into public school he had not learned to print or sign his name.

This had a tremendous impact on his self confidence and increased his rebellion when it came to anything involving “learning”.

I knew that if I could somehow teach him to sign his name that he might have some confidence to want to learn more.

Paper and pencil were out of the question at this point, as it led to serious arguments.

I began to research everything I could get my hands on. Finally, a possible solution was right in front of my face.

I asked my son if he would go shopping with me. He was absolutely willing if it meant we were leaving the house and learning behind.

Off to Wal-Mart we went.

We bought 20 cans of shaving cream.

He was absolutely positive that I had lost my mind.

When we got home, I told him that I needed him to cover the table in shaving cream.

Of course he had a blast making sure that not only the table, but both of us were covered in that dang shaving cream.

We began drawing things in the shaving cream.

Pretty soon I showed him how easy it was to DRAW his name in it and erase it as often as he wanted.

We ended up with one heck of a mess to clean up, but we were both laughing.

About 90 minutes into it, my son could DRAW his name, both first and last.

All this to say . . .

Relax and have fun . . .

If you let them, your child will show you how to teach them.
 

Thanks For Being A Part Of My Life!

Cricket Walker

Very Short Stories

Some Folks Age Gracefully

Some folks age gracefully.

I am not one of those people.

Tonight I took one look in the mirror and realized that the gray hairs I was seeing could no longer be confused with gentle highlights.

Now some folks look great with gray sprinkled through their hair.

I am not one of those people.

I grabbed my keys, jumped in the truck and headed straight to the nearest store.

It was time to fool mother nature and paint the “highlights” any dang color I please.

Do you have any idea how many shades of brown there are?

I assumed I was looking for either medium brown or dark brown. It did not take more than a few moments to realize how seriously mistaken I was. How in the heck can there be 22 shades a brown? Isn’t there one that is just plain Jane brown?

Add that to figuring out just how permanent you want this new color to be, and it is no wonder women spend hours in the hair care aisle. Just how permanent can hair color be?

If I trim my hair every six weeks, doesn’t than mean that EVENTUALLY the color will be gone?

Nevertheless, I am just not brave enough to try anything with the word permanent in it. I want something that will disappear in 24 washes or less.

Does this mean if I despise the results I can wash my hair 24 times the same night and go back to the gentle gray highlights?

Finally I get home with my coveted box of youth. With much help from Haley comparing my hair with every box on the shelf, we come to the conclusion that my hair must be light chestnut brown.

As I begin reading all of the warnings, I am wondering if the gentle highlighted grey hair is preferable to what may be a risk of all of my hair falling out or my scalp being burned. Determined to regain the hair color of my youth I continue.

Why is it that the commercials show a woman smiling through this process and experiencing pure bliss, while I am busy trying to figure out how women put this stuff in their hair, but not on the walls and ceiling? I am also seriously concerned about the fact that the box swears this stuff will wash back out, but not even pure bleach is getting the dribbles off the counter.

There should be a warning on the box that you should not even consider looking in the mirror during the processing time. All of the sudden serious panic overwhelms me as the color I am seeing in the mirror doesn’t look anything like the box. How is it that light chestnut brown has now turned jet black on my hair?

Any sane woman immediately begins to pray and furiously scrub this smelly chit back out of her hair.

Why on earth am I putting myself through this?

What was I thinking?

After washing my hair 12 of the 24 times, I realize that this stuff is not getting any lighter. As I glance at the bleach, momentarily contemplating the risk, I become very aware of why they warn the women that their hair may fall out. Obviously there is something in these fumes that drives women near pure stupidity.

Thankfully, I realize that household bleach is not a likely solution and I instead begin planning how I will make room in the bathroom for my computer because I am NOT coming out of this bathroom until my hair has returned to normal.

Hoping beyond hope that blow drying my hair will somehow make even a slight difference, I spend the next 30 minutes standing on a wet towel while holding electricity in my hand. Obviously I have lost all sense of reason.

Finally I get the courage to open my eyes and peek in the mirror.

WOW!

It really does look like the color on the box!

Dang!

What took me so long to decide to do this?

What I really want to know is if it is this traumatic every time?

If I used 12 of my 24 washes up already, does that mean I am going to go through this all again in less than two weeks?

Maybe next time I will leave this process to the pros while keeping my back safely to the mirror during the entire process.

I need to make a pot of coffee.

This new experience has left me exhausted!

Thanks For Being A Part Of My Life!

Cricket Walker

Very Short Stories

Valuable Lesson Learned

Someone was watching out for us here in our little corner of the world today.

Our home is at the top of a fairly long curved driveway, which is pretty steep. The driveway is paved and curls around the back, for easy access to our shop.

I left my truck there right at the corner of the house, so that we could unload groceries. I never went back out and moved it under the carport on the other side.

Haley got in my truck and was sitting in the front seat, probably pretending to drive, while she was cleaning her papers out of the truck. In the process, she somehow knocked the truck out of gear (5 on the floor) without realizing it. When she got out of the truck and closed the door, it began rolling backwards.

I heard her terrified screaming that the truck was rolling, and ran as fast as I could, but it was picking up a high rate of speed very rapidly. The truck was headed straight for the highway.

At the last minute, now moving at a significant rate of speed, it turned through the corner of the yard and highway, into a small space between heavy trees, only a couple inches wider than my truck. Picking up speed now, almost as if someone was on the accelerator. (still going backwards)

I realized that the truck was either going to end up slamming into the trees, or unforgivably into a herd of Black Angus Cattle with new calves.

Unbelievably, the truck took one last turn and headed back up the hill on the complete opposite side of the house, finally coming to a gentle stop against the hill.

Somehow that truck never touched a single person, vehicle, animal or tree on its wild ride through the countryside.

Adding to this incredible twist of fate, there was a road block a few miles up the highway today. (State police stop vehicles to verify possession of a license and that the vehicle does not contain alcohol.) During the trucks backwards descent, there was absolutely no traffic passing by.

Immediately following the truck finally coming to a stop, they apparently let all of the cars through and suddenly there were a dozen cars going by at about 60 miles an hour.

When I realize how easily someone could have lost their life today, simply because I didn’t set my emergency brake, it makes me totally sick to my stomach.

I learned a very valuable lesson today, and feel very blessed.
 

Thanks For Being A Part Of My Life!

Cricket Walker