Our second interview is with Tara Wagner from TheOrganicSister.com. She and her husband Justin unschool their 10 year old son Zeb.

FAMILY HACK: Please introduce us to your family members–names, ages, and a brief description of personalities, interests, parents’ occupations, etc.–whatever you feel comfortable sharing.

Tara Wagner: My husband Justin was born in WI, but raised in Las Vegas. He works as a finish carpenter in the commercial sector doing lots of pretty work on the giant casinos. Someday he’d like to have a farm and a woodworking shop, but not until after we do some traveling. He’s the most laid-back in our family, but also the most adventerous. He loves homebrewing beer and riding his motorcycle.

I, Tara, was born and raised in Las Vegas. I went to public school until leaving in the 9th grade and deschooling through high school. I worked as an independent massage therapist and owned a massage company, but found much more happiness in choosing to stay home with Zeb. I’m usually the catalyst behind most of our ”beyond crunchy” choices, I live and breathe sustainability, and love photography and blogging.

Zeb is 10 years old and is a 1st grade dropout. He loves computers, video games and LEGOs. He is currently working on a production set for LEGO Star Wars movies and plans to begin making stop-motion animation videos out of his studio (aka, bedroom). He’s also interested in politics and would be happy to tell you his opinion on just about any social matter.

Right now we live in Las Vegas on an “urban homestead” in the making but soon we’ll be packing up and hitting the road in an RV, as we look for a new home and community.

FH: When and how did you first become interested in homeschooling? What factors were involved in your decision to homeschool?

TW: Even though I was technically homeschooled myself, the option never occured to me unti Zeb was struggling in school. It was his unhappiness and our fear of his “record” that first led us to homeschooling. What started as a temporary solution quickly became a lifestyle change as we found unschooling. In school, Zeb was stressed from all the pressure to perform, upset over tasks he saw no purpose in, confused over things he was not yet ready for and discouraged by the teaching methods. He was subject to scrutiny and judgement and folded under the pressure. Having him in a positive, supportive environment that allows us to learn at his pace and focus on his interests has given him room to slowly decompress and branch out. The deschooling process still isn’t over for him but he’s feeling more confident every day.

FH: What was your own educational experience like growing up? How did that experience influence your decision to homeschool your own children?

TW: Justin went through school like most everyone, doing what was needed without questioning too much or finding too much passion and fitting nicely in the average range. I loved grade school and was in the gifted program. Middle school brought about so much peer competition and pressure to fit in that I began to lose interest but it wasn’t until high school that I became bored with the work, disgusted with the environment and frustrated over the school’s indifference of either problem that I left.

At the time Zeb started school, very little of this was taken into account. In our minds, school was just what you did. But looking back we can see how school shaped our thoughts of ourselves, limited our ideas of what was possible and boxed us in. I wish I had been introduced to these thoughts when Zeb was younger but am glad we recognized the same things happening to him at school. It all played a part in our decision to unschool.

FH: How would you describe your homeschooling philosophy? Do you use a specific method or curriculum?

TW: We are unschoolers – living and learning without the use of curricula. We’ve found he learns best when we set up an environment that is conducive to growth, facilitate his learning by providing resources and experiences and then get out of his way. We build off his interests, and allow him to explore without time constraints or limits. Unschooling has empowered his sense of responsibility, freedom, respect and self-discipline. It’s also inspired us, as parents, to explore our own interests and have more fun.

Unschooling takes a large amount of faith and trust, as well as dedication and work on our part as parents. But living and learning together in a fun and interesting way has changed our relationships and our lives.

FH: Do you belong to any homeschool organizations?

TW: Not at this time but I’m hoping to begin working with a local group in establishing an educational resource center for homeschoolers in Las Vegas.

FH: Do you meet with other homeschoolers on a regular basis?

TW: Yes! We meet every week with our local unschooling group and spend the entire day playing at the park together. I’m not sure where I’d be without the wonderful support for the local mamas, papas and kids in our group. We also visit museums, zoos and other places of interest, participate in a hiking group, occassionally go indoor rock climbing, and meet for an annual camping trip with our local group, as well as go to nationwide unschooling gatherings.

FH: What educational opportunities or resources in your community have you made use of?”

TW: The library is on the top of the list, of course. In addition to their books and DVDs, we love to attend the free art exhibits, and community activities they offer. We also enjoy our local museums and facilities such as Springs Preserve or Gilcrease Nature Sanctuary. And being Vegas, we get to visit the numerous offerings of the strip and its many traveling events. We also love the Civil war reenactments, and the Ren Fair. We’ve volunteered in reestablishing habitat in a local marsh and Zeb volunteers regularly with his Grandma for Ronald McDonald House.

FH: Do you have a daily homeschool routine or does your daily schedule vary from day to day?

TW: Unschooling’s day-to-day routine looks a lot like anyone else’s Saturday or summer vacation. We get up when we feel rested, anywhere between 6am and 10am, eat when we’re hungry and pursue our interests in between. There are certain things we routinely do, but very little is scheduled.

FH: What does a typical day and/or week look like for your family?

TW: A typical day usually begins with Justin off to work before we’re awake. I’m usually up before Zeb and head out to the garden before it gets too hot to water, prune, harvest or feed the tortoises and chickens. Zeb and I usually spend our mornings online – blogging, playing World of Warcraft, watching YouTube videos or reading articles. We usually are back and forth from each other’s computers to share something cool or interesting or discuss something one of us is reading.

Then we might play games, build LEGOs, cook or bake something, clean up the house, listen to music, go to the library, visit a museum, go for a hike, ask and Google questions, play djembes (African drums), go to the park, visit family members, veg out, watch a movie, read, collect eggs, take and edit photos, color, draw or paint.

FH: What have you found most rewarding about homeschooling?

TW: Flexibility! We recently made the decision to sell our home and RV around the country for a year or more. That is something we’d never had the courage or ability to do without unschooling inspiring us to follow our own dreams. On top of that is the way it has helped us be better to each other – it’s not easy being around each other all day if we don’t enjoy each other’s company. Unschooling has also given us the courage to question everything and find solutions that may be outside the “norm” but work perfectly well for all of us.

FH: What have you found most challenging about homeschooling? What are the biggest stressors in trying to do a good job of homeschooling your children?

TW: Unschooling came naturally for us and hasn’t given us many challenges, at least in relation to his education. We see him learning and growing all the time and the proof is evident. However, unschooling challenges us to trust our child and parent from that place of trust. Trustful parenting didn’t come easy for us. As John Holt said “To trust children we must first learn to trust ourselves, and most of us were taught as children that we could not be trusted.”

Because unschooling and homeschooling requires you to spend a lot of time with your kids, it’s important to build healthy, respectful relationships. And since we came from typical upbringings, this forced us to re-examine our parenting skills and make some very important changes that we were able to ignore when he went to school.

FH: How has your homeschooling experience differed from your expectations?

TW: Hmm, I think we thought deschooling would take the “one month per year of school” as suggested. But for us deschooling really means healing from a traumatic experience, which we now realize doesn’t come with a formula or time-frame. Also, in the very beginning, I thought we’d be doing school-at-home. We tried it with Zeb but it just doesn’t fit his learning style.

And I don’t think I ever considered the possibility of how life-changing it would be. I assumed it would fit into our life at that time but instead it turned everything on its head, made us rethink our goals and refocus our priorities.

FH: If you have been homeschooling for several years, what changes have you found yourself making as you discover more about your kids as learners, and rethink educational goals and methods?

TW: All of the changes Justin and I made have been internal as we’ve grown to understand our own personalities better. We’ve been able to pinpoint our strengths and work to accept our weaknesses. We’ve been more flexible and willing to try new things. I’ve discovered our learning styles as well as our ”doing” styles (Justin is a visual-tactile learner who maps everything in his head then sits back and relaxes; I am tactile-verbal, have to discuss everything and write it all out; Zeb is kinesthetic-audible, learns through questions and answers and prefers group participation to working alone). All of our changes have been in finding ways to work with ourselves and each other, rather than against our own natures.

FH: Do you have a long-term plan for how long you will homeschool?

TW: For as long as Zeb is happy. We trust his choices and if at any time he decides to choose school we will fully support his decision.

FH: How has homeschooling affected your lives as parents? How do you balance homeschooling with your own need for grown-up time?

TW: As I mentioned before, we’re much better parents now – more patient, more accepting, more trusting. Spending all day with someone is the best motivation to creating healthy relationships. We enjoy the time we spend with Zeb and don’t differentiate between grown-up time and family-time. But as individuals, we all need time to ourselves or away from each other. Zeb spends most Friday afternoons with his Grandma, and plans sleepovers regularly with friends. Justin and I use that time to go on a date, visit friends, catch up on quiet time or sleep, or just relax alone or together.

FH: What challenges and benefits have you found in homeschooling more than one child? How has your family’s particular combination of ages, genders, personalities, interests, etc., shaped your homeschool as a whole?

TW: One of the challenges to having an only child is that Zeb doesn’t have a built-in playmate. He’s always been an independent child so it’s never been much of an issue until recently as he desires more than mom and dad to hang around. So we schedule regular playdates and sleepovers and maintain as much of a social life as any one of us can stand. Because we all have different social needs (introvert, extrovert, highly sensitive people, etc) it’s sometimes a balancing act. Pursuing our own individual interests and respecting each other’s boundaries takes practice but certainly creates an environment of trust.

FH: How do you make homeschooling work for your family’s schedule and lifestyle? Has a parent’s work/schedule changed to accommodate homeschooling? Does a parent work from home?

TW: I owned a massage therapy company prior to unschooling and sold it shortly after withdrawing Zeb from school. Since then I’ve worked off and on as a massage therapist, seeing private clients on occasion. Sometimes it’s a balancing act with our schedules but usually it’s dealt with like anything else – with flexibility. Justin’s work in construction means he’s usually home by early afternoon which opens up a lot of time to play or go places together. But because we don’t follow a rigid plan, and because we use every experience to learn from, it all becomes another educational moment.

FH: What, if any, misunderstandings about homeschooling have you encountered from your family, friends, neighbors, etc.

TW: Most people express concerns from a place of love. They only want what is best and have little understanding of unschooling or its possibilities. We’ve been told unschooling is a “detriment to society”, that Zeb will not be able to find a job, that he’s missing out on learning to handle bullies or go to the prom, and that he couldn’t possibly learn trigonomotry without public school. Sometimes I try to educate them on our methods and choices, sometimes I validate their fears and assure them I’m keeping a close eye on his “progress”, and sometimes I just agree to disagree and go on our merry way.

FH: How do you answer questions about your kids “socialization” ?

TW: Usually with something snarky like “I’d rather my son not learn his social skills from 30 other ten year olds.” Usually if they’ve met him, they know he’s well “socialized”, so the topic rarely comes up.

FH: What encouraging signs have you seen that homeschooling will prepare your children well for adulthood?

TW: Zeb is very confident in his choices. He doesn’t allow anyone to make choices for him and he always advocates for the little guy. He’s strongly opinionated and knows what he believes and why. He’s kind, gets along easily in most crowds and absorbs interesting information easily. I have no idea what he’ll choose to do at any time in his life but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was involved in helping people, working with animals or involved in politics. If he’s anything like us, he probably won’t settle on doing one thing.

FH: If you could pick a famous person, living or dead, to homeschool your kids for the day, who would you choose and why?

TW: Oh tough question! I guess it would depend on what week it was. This week I’d have to say someone like George Washington or Ron Paul, since he’s been immensely interested in politics and our political history. Maybe Steven Spielberg last week when he was working on creating his movies. And Jane Goodall, Michael Pollan or Rachel Carson for the times he’s worried about the environment, animals and his role in it all.

FH: What is your homeschool “dream scenario”?–if time, place, money, location, etc., were no object…

TW: Selling most of what we own, buying an old Winnebago and traveling the country for awhile. Wait! We’re about to do that next spring! Well, I’ll tack on traveling the world, too.

This is an ongoing series. Our first interview with Jen McKinnon is here. If you are a homeschooling family interested in being profiled, please contact us.

Hannah and I recently did a guest lecture at the University of Virginia. In this 10 minute excerpt, I swear a little, make fun of Bono, and probably piss off small retail shop owners. Deal with it. It’s the truth.

TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

Best types of business for a mobile lifestyle? Products are better than services. I tend to do a whole bunch of service businesses, but products are better than services, because a product you make it once and sell it a bunch of times and every time it makes money. A service? You or somebody you hire, which a lot of times is the case in my case, has to actually be there.

So, as much as you may think that being a rock star or a movie star might be a really great life. When U2 showed up down here put on their little tootie fruity show? Bono had to show up and sing. When you pay your money and go and see U2. Four guys had to fly in from Ireland and put on their little shiny pants and get up there and flop around, but every time they sell a cd they don’t have to do that. It’s a very different model, products versus a service.

The internet is better than physical. If you’re going to sell something, sell it on the internet. Don’t sell it physically. Physically you have to show up and stand around. Physical retail establishments blow my mind. The idea that you have to show up every day at a place kills your mobility right away — you’ve got to open the door at 9:30 and close it at 9:30 (or whatever) and the whole time you’re just standing around just in case someone might want to buy a latte. Just in case. Two hours in the middle of the day, no one comes in? Guess what? You’re still standing there, or somebody you hire is still standing there. It’s just bad for mobility to have some sort of physical storefront or any kind of place that you physically have to go.

Selling information can also be a product, don’t forget about that. If you can create a tutorial, an ebook, some sort of dvd series that teaches something — that is a great product. That’s something that can’t be knocked off by Chinese prison labor. You make some sunglasses and you fire out the back of them (or something) and you think they’re the coolest thing ever (or Crocs for Christ’s sake — what the hell’s with that?) and all of a sudden somebody can knock them off and you know that Chinese prison laborers, or Indonesian school children are making those things for a fraction of the cost and they’re just going to eat your market in six months. Information as a product is a good one

Industry wise there’s no big rule — like don’t do food businesses or don’t do Graphic Design businesses.

Let’s take books for example. Opening a book store can be best or worst. Amazon is a great example of a best case scenario, they sell a lot of product in addition to books, but they sell a lot of product and it’s all on the internet, so there’s no physical store front. Conversely, if you have a small book store in a downtown mall. I feel for you man, I feel for you. You’re still sitting around doing nothing for hours a day, while people wander in “just looking”. Jeff Bezos isn’t sitting round listening to “just looking” he’s building his rocket ship to the moon or whatever crazy shit he’s into — that guy has a fire. Excuse my language by the way, I’m a bit of a naughty boy, sorry if I’ve offended anybody.

Another thing to think about with businesses is micro-entrepreneurship. That’s just a fancy way of saying you do a lot of different things — a little bit of this and a little of that — and that’s really a great way to do business. Rather than thinking “what’s my big idea?”, “what’s that thing that’s going to make me a millionaire?”. Think “what’s going to buy me beer this weekend?”. Scale it down.

Like she said, I do a ridiculous number of things.

Yellowfish is my primary business, no doubt. Pays the mortgage, pays the plane tickets, pays for Fat Jack’s little happy pants and all that stuff. That is a business that generates a six figure income. Over $100,000 a year, for those of you who aren’t good with numbers.

Family Hack is something we started a couple of years ago as a way to just answer questions people would have when they’d meet us. A friend would say “Michael and Hannah just got back from Argentina.”
“Really what did you do there?”
“We just went down for a fun, just hung out for a month.”
“Who watched your kids?”
“We took the kids.”
“But, what about school?”
“We homeschool.”
There were all these questions…
“How do you do that?”

We decided we’d start a website — put up how we did that and that’s how it started.
Now it’s veered into some sort of mishmash of house hold tips, home school articles and all kinds of weird stuff, but that’s how it started. Two years ago it started just as a site with all these sort of little goofy articles about how we live our life and now, as she said, earlier this year the site was peaking at over a million unique visitors a month, it just went crazy. It has steadily grown. That site alone makes a five figure income every year. So that’s another example of micro-enterpenership We have Yellow Fish making a six figure income and Family Hack making a five figure income.

Then I have Campaign Fox, which we’ve just launched very recently (just a couple of weeks ago), which is an email marketing service. My clients can go on, they’re already into email marketing — “hey let’s send an email news letter to our clients”, that kind of stuff. So I said, let’s make that for you, rather than giving business to someone else. We have clients built in, who already want this, and I’m just going to do this myself. So we built this system that they can go in and whey can do their own newsletter, build it themselves, I don’t have to get involved and every time they send it, I get paid. So that’s a great example of a service business that’s actually a product business.

Another one is MacHintsandTips.com. By the way, Campaign Fox makes a four figure income, it’s right now probably generating a couple of thousand dollars a year. It’s just got started and I’m estimating. That’s a couple of thousand dollars. That’s a new Macbook Pro. I like that! I’ll take that free Macbook Pro. Mac Hints and Tips.com — speaking of mac books — that’s a site that I do with a partner of mine. He had ninety-five hundred macintosh hints and tips in a database and I said that is valuable and so, I as part of my fifty percent compensation in the site, designed the site, got the whole thing online, up and working, searchable, keywords and all that stuff tagged and his job is to put tips up on the site. He does all the work on a daily basis, I do all the front end stuff. That’s another site that generates a four figure income.

What else am I doing? AdJack. AdJack is this Youtube for commercials where you can win money. You watch five commercials, you’re entered in the sweepstakes and you can win half a million bucks. That I just own part of. I don’t get any money on a daily basis, but if it goes public and stock prices raises? Boom! If it gets bought by a private investment company, or whatever? I get a chunk. I just built that site for equity (or ownership, that’s just a fancy way of saying ownership).

Again, setting your business goals is important upfront.

Let’s say you wanted to start a bookstore. If you say “I want to be the next Amazon.com”, you’re going to fail. You’re always going to be a failure, even if you have ten bookstores all round the Virginia region and they’re rocking and you have a hundred employees, and everybody’s all happy and you’re voted entrepreneur of the year. If you wanted to be Amazon.com you’re a failure, you’re still a failure, because of the way you set your goal. Lower your expectation. Everyone’s trying to be Steve Jobs for Christ’s sake. Just be happy.

If you decided, “you know what I’m going to open a bookstore, but I just want enough money to buy beer on the weekend. That’s what I want. I want to buy a pizza so I don’t have to cook one night a week”. Go to the Goodwill. Go to the used book aisle, pull off a dozen books, go over and list them as used books on Amazon and you’ll make enough money to buy beer this weekend, you have a bookstore. So there’s a huge range between amazon.com and selling used books on Amazon. You’re still in business.

Don’t get intimidated by this idea that you have to employees and that sort of stuff. I have no employees, not one. Every single person who works for me is a contractor, they’re hired for a specific task. Now I have contractors in my design businesses that have been with me for years, They work almost full time, that’s the way it works. If I slow down one of those contractors doesn’t get work that week, but I’m not out of work.

In that spirit, we’ve asked some homeschooling families a series of questions about how they homeschool, what challenges they face, how homeschooling fits with family life overall, etc. We hope you enjoy their stories as much as we did!

This is an ongoing series — if you are a homeschooling family interested in being profiled, please contact us.

Our first interview is with our always-inspiring friend Jennifer McKinnon from www.jenthemom.com. She and her husband Chuck homeschool four beautiful children…

FAMILY HACK: Please introduce us to your family members–names, ages, and a brief description of personalities, interests, parents’ occupations, etc.–whatever you feel comfortable sharing.

Jen McKinnon: We are a family of six, four children and two eccentric parents. Chuck, 36, went to school in Alberta Canada. He is extremely intelligent and for Junior High School was sent to a gifted school. He learned quickly that the school did more research about the students than providing a higher education for the students. It was at this school that he believed that education coincided very little with the reputation of the school and more with the style of teaching. Chuck is now a Usability Specialist working on some very exciting projects. He is working for a company that doesn’t have an office, allowing all employees to work from home. This allows us to strike a great balance between work and family.

I am 29. I am originally from North Las Vegas, Nevada. I grew up with very little money and in a neighborhood that was known for its violence and crime. I learned to fear going to school and realized that teachers and staff have very little control over the matters that are important and abuse their power over the things they can control. I have been a blogger since 2003. I have written articles for several birthing magazines in my area as well as a parenting site online. My eccentricities include being involved in organizations that support women’s right and at the same time taking great pride in my domestic abilities.

My oldest child is Jason,9. He is my builder. He loves Lego and is always adding to his Lego city. He has started moving into woodworking and built a go cart out of odds and ends from the garage. He’s also great at sketching drawings, gymnastics and learning breakdancing movies off of online videos. He has inherited impatience from both his parents and a distaste for math from me. I have had to learn to be creative with the way I present his schoolwork.

Jocelyn,7 is my voracious reader. She is an amazing reader and loves using her imagination to change the stories. She is reading Chronicles of Narnia right now. She’s also very gifted with her social abilities. She can be friends with anyone and loves them for their strengths and has patience with children that may need patience. Jocelyn learns things very quickly and enjoys moving on to new projects. For her I try to have a variety of activities available that I can pull out as she is ready to progress.

I also have two little ones. David is 3 and Laurelyn just turned 1. It’s a balancing act, trying to have time to teach the older kids and still be aware of what the little ones are doing. David is my tank. He’s all boy and likes to build and break things. He’s obsessed with tanks, monster trucks and construction vehicles. He loves to pretend and he’ll walk around all day pretending to be a soldier or a monster or a superhero. Laurelyn is my baby. She was the first baby I was able to have at home with a midwife. She’s adorable and I love snuggling her and playing with her.

FH: When and how did you first become interested in homeschooling? What factors were involved in your decision to homeschool?

JM: Chuck and I talked about the possibility when Jason was an infant. We weren’t sure if conventional schooling would be best for our kids. We didn’t trust that the public school system had our child’s best interests at heart. When Jason was in first grade things started to get difficult with his teacher. Jason was struggling badly enough for me to take him to the doctor who said that we had a very stressed six year old. The teacher was in her first year and she was struggling with all of the personalities in the classroom and some of the children were struggling because of it. We decided to pull him out of schooling and homeschool him before he gave up on learning all together.

FH: What was your own educational experience like growing up? How did that experience influence your decision to homeschool your own children?

JM: Chuck felt that the time spent in schools was a waste of time that he could have spent actually learning. I felt that schools were a place of insecurities and abuse of power.

FH: How would you describe your homeschooling philosophy? Do you use a specific method or curriculum?

JM: I believe we are eclectic. We do some unit study work and some book work and some unschooling approaches as well. I try to use all different approaches to schooling because I have such different personalities in our home. We are all readers so we do a lot of reading each day. This year we are using more books than we ever have before. I fell in love with Susan Wise Bauer and now we are using her Writing With Ease. My kids love map work and they love learning about the figures of history so we’re also using her Story of the World curriculum.

We’ve also decided to use Saxon Math every day and there has been some switch flipped in my kids’ heads because they’re loving it so far. I’m ordering Jessie Wise’s First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind as well so I’m looking forward to that coming in the mail. I love buying my homeschool books online. Who on Earth wants to go shopping with a brood as big as mine?

FH: Do you belong to any homeschool organizations?

JM: I belong to our local community homeschooling organization and I participate on my homeschool board yahoo forum.

FH: Do you meet with other homeschoolers on a regular basis?

JM: I wish I met with other homescholers more often but I find that we’re always meeting with kids wherever we go. Being part of the community homeschool association allows us to attend regular social gatherings as often as we want.

FH: What educational opportunities or resources in your community have you made use of?”

JM: We frequent the library weekly at least and we visit our Science Center regularly. The kids participate in some of the classes and field trips that the local community association puts together like fencing, gymnastics, camping as wells as trips to the Zoo, local farms. Homeschoolers seem to be community oriented and our local homeschoolers are trying to make it easier for locals to get information and access to local growers. This has been a great learning experience for the kids about our own consumption and how our food is grown.

FH: Do you have a daily homeschool routine or does your daily schedule vary from day to day?

JM: We try to stick to a schedule as long as the schedule serves us and not the other way around.

FH: What does a typical day and/or week look like for your family?

JM: Generally we have a schedule. After breakfast Laurelyn has a nap, David watches a movie and the older kids and I start school. By the time David’s movie is finished the older kids are involved in their different projects and are less likely to be distracted by him. We go outside for the afternoon and do hands on learning with the different subjects the kids especially interested in on any given day.

Our weeks looks busy every other day. I try to have every other day be a slower day so the kids don’t get burnt out from all their after school activities.

FH: What have you found most rewarding about homeschooling?

JM: I love the freedom. We can go to the fire station because one of the kids wants to know what the firemen wear to keep them from burning in the fires or we can read all day and putt off our ‘book studies’ until tomorrow. I love the self confidence that homeschooling has given back to my kids, especially Jason. I love watching one of my kids find a question they want answered and searching for the answer on their own. They know they can come to me if they want but they also know that they have all the ability they need to find information. I am proud of my kids every day for their ingenuity.

FH: What have you found most challenging about homeschooling? What are the biggest stressors in trying to do a good job of homeschooling your children?

JM: My time is no longer divided by long quiet spaces while the kids are at school. I have to manage my personal time very well or I will easily get behind. My biggest stressor is having the ideas for our homeschool day organized so that I can be ready with information and activities when they’re minds are ready to absorb it. I worry that I’m not doing enough.

FH: How has your homeschooling experience differed from your expectations?

JM: I thought that homeschooling would be like a full time job, just like it is for public school teachers. I expected to be working on homeschooling constantly. I have found that once my first year and a half was over and I had gotten over my fear of failing my children that I am more than capable and I can do I with less time than I expected. I know now where to go and what I want to do to be prepared for school in the morning. It’s actually a lot easier that I expected and it’s much easier than having them in public school because my time is mine to manage.

FH: If you have been homeschooling for several years, what changes have you found yourself making as you discover more about your kids as learners, and rethink educational goals and methods?

JM: I’ve only been homeschooling for 2 ½ years but so far I’ve discovered that book work is not the best approach for my kids. If we are going to use a book we don’t do every lesson from front to back. Instead we pick and choose and as soon as they have grasped the concepts we move on to the next lesson we choose.

FH: Do you have a long-term plan for how long you will homeschool?

JM: My plan is to homeschool as long as it is working for my kids. If they are still learning and developing a love for learning then I will homeschool until they’re going off to university.

FH: How has homeschooling affected your lives as parents? How do you balance homeschooling with your own need for grown-up time?

JM: I think homeschooling has been great on my marriage. Chuck is very supportive and he is extremely appreciative and impressed with everything I do for our family. It allows him to appreciate his good fortune in marrying such a wonderful and humble person, don’t you think? Chuck and I balance our school, work and family time by making our Friday night dates very important. If for some reason we can’t go out then we set aside some time to watch a movie or go for a walk.

FH: What challenges and benefits have you found in homeschooling more than one child? How has your family’s particular combination of ages, genders, personalities, interests, etc., shaped your homeschool as a whole?

JM: We have a relaxed and fun environment because that’s the only way to keep the kids’ attention when there’s two little kids that need my attention as well. We also have to be relaxed because we get interrupted by snack time or nursing time or nap time or snack time again. I love having several ages and personalities though because it keeps it fun and I am always needing to find some new way of doing things. It makes it enjoyable for me as well. I like change.

FH: How do you make homeschooling work for your family’s schedule and lifestyle? Has a parent’s work/schedule changed to accommodate homeschooling? Does a parent work from home?

JM: My husband is now working from home so that we can better take advantage of the local independent advantage of homeschooling. I can homeschool the kids from anywhere so we might as well do some traveling, right?

FH: What, if any, misunderstandings about homeschooling have you encountered from your family, friends, neighbors, etc.

JM: I have started having people do pop quizzes on my kids but I quickly point out how rude that is. I feel like I have been met with lots of support although I don’t have any friends who have started homeschooling.

FH: How do you answer questions about your kids “socialization” ?

JM: I’ve only had people who don’t know me well ask about social interaction. People who know me know that my kids get plenty of social interaction.

FH: What encouraging signs have you seen that homeschooling will prepare your children well for adulthood?

JM: My kids are self starters. They decide they want to see something or build something or know about something and they set off to get it themselves. They have also had great opportunities to learn about their community because we are out in the community more often then if they were in public school.

FH: If you could pick a famous person, living or dead, to homeschool your kids for the day, who would you choose and why?

JM: My mom. I believe that children need to feel loved in order to learn and the only person who can love my children almost as much as I do would be my mom. She’s also a natural teacher and fun to boot.

FH: What is your homeschool “dream scenario”?–if time, place, money, location, etc., were no object…

JM: My dream scenario would be us living in France temporarily. Chuck will be out getting pain au chocolats for breakfast while the kids and I started our homeschooling day. We will do school on a blanket under a shady tree while the little ones are playing in the garden. When Chuck gets back we all sit together eating our breakfast and discussing what we’re learning about. We end school with lunch and then spend the afternoon exploring the area and learning about the history of where we are. That would be perfect!

This is an ongoing series — if you are a homeschooling family interested in being profiled, please contact us.

My Mom whooped another common sense kitchen tip on us recently. So, I turned the video camera on her and had her show us how she keeps grilled shrimp moist and steady on a skewer.

Finally, be sure to soak your wooden skewers in water before you skewer your shriimp. It keeps them from bursting into flames.

BTW, do I get any points for not making any lame “shrimp on the barbie” jokes?

Special guests Susie, Jack (and Hannah) help me demonstrate how a damp paper towel can change your life. Well, maybe not change your life, but it will help keep that flexible cutting board from creeping off to Nova Scotia.

“There are Five Environments you can live in on this planet. There’s The City. The Desert. The Mountains. The Plains. And The Beach.

You can live in combinations of them. Maybe a city in the desert, or in the mountains by the ocean. Or you could choose just one. Out in the plains somewhere, perhaps.

But you need to get out there and travel, and figure out where you thrive.

Some places you’ll go to and you’ll feel yourself wither. Your brain will fog up, your body won’t respond to your thoughts and desires, and you’ll feel sad and angry.

You need to find out which of the Five Environments are yours. If you belong by the ocean, then the mountains will ruin you. If you’re suited for the blue solitude of the plains, then the city will be a tight, roaring prison cell that’ll eat you alive.

He was right. I’ve traveled and tested his theory and he was absolutely right. There are Five Environments.   If you find the right combination, or the perfect singularity, your life will click…into…place. You will click into place.”

This story resonated with me. I spent decades in a city that didn’t fit me. While living there I read a book called Life 2.0. It profiled dozens of people who had left large coastal cities and thrived in smaller towns. Like a woman who worked in high finance who left New York for South Dakota.

I was inspired by the stories of how technology made working remotely possible, but I was skeptical about the people being happier. Then, I moved to a place that made me feel great, like I could do anything. As Patton Oswalt said. “Everything clicked”.

So, I decided to think about the places I’ve been in my life and how they made me feel. Below are a just a few and how I would sum them up in a sentence or two:

Charlottesville, VA – (Mountains & Plains)
Family, literary, casual, lovely and historic.
I love it here. I feel creative, clearheaded and relaxed.
photo by: Tim Jarrett

San Diego, CA – (Beach & City)
Physical, active, singles – no seasons, perfect weather you take for granted.
A popular favorite that makes me feel out of sync and nervous.
photo by: Tomcio77

Buenos Aires, Argentina – (City)
Stylish, smart, creative, a nightime city.
This place gives me a buzz…in a good way. I feel inspired, energized and balanced.
photo by: Ana Cotta

Rhone Valley, France – (Mountains & Plains)
Food & wine, agriculture, nature, earth, seasons and time, tradition.
I felt warm and alive in the Southern Rhone, while the Northern Rhone felt vacant and dim. What a difference a few miles made.
photo by: Michael Davis

Kauai, Hawaii – (Beach)
Tropical, relaxed, dramatic scenery, feels small, remote and disconnected.
I could live on the lush, rainy north side of the island. The dry and sunny south side was pretty but felt generic
photo by: Jeff McNeill

What are you best and worst environment experiences? Let us know in the comments below.

Traveling the world sans pants just got a lot cooler.  Google’s Street View has always been a great way to see panoramas of streets from all over the world. Today they’ve added some great improvements.

Instead of having to inch along streets using those evil forward and backward arrows, you can now use their spiffy new “pancake” to get around. Check out this short video to get the lowdown.

Solution: Get out the hair-dryer … apply heat to the sticker … after heating up the sticker — it will then easily pull off (without leaving much residue). The remaining residue can be removed by using a touch of lighter fluid on a rag.

Warning: Once the culprit realizes his/her sticker is gone, they will seize the opportunity to put a new sticker in its place. If this happens — repeat the ’solution’ (you may find yourself hopelessly in an endless loop). Consider yourself plugged Greg.

via Gregory M Brettell of Reno, NV
Greg kindly asked us to shamelessly plug a Memorial Day tribute he created featuring original music.

TR McCormick of Dillingham, Alaska shared this useful tip:

If you lose anything on a floor and cannot find it. Use a flashlight down on the floor sideways. This causes the object to leave a shadow and you’ll find it right away.

Place a large coffee mug that is 1/2 full of water in your dirty microwave oven. Bring to a rolling boil, then let it sit in the closed microwave for 10-15 minutes. Wipe clean with a paper towel.

UPDATE: Some readers have warned of the possibility that microwaves can overheat water which can explode and cause burns. Here’s what Snopes.com has to say on the matter:

Yes, water can “explode” in the fashion described above. However, it takes near perfect conditions to bring this about, thus “exploding water” is not something the average hot beverage drinker who would otherwise now be eyeing his microwave with trepidation need fear. Odds are, you’ll go through life without ever viewing this phenomenon first-hand, and if you’re one of the rare few who does get to see it, you will likely not be harmed by the experience (that would take your standing right over the cup at the instant it happened, and the liquid’s bolting up and hitting your skin).

Nuff said.