Thursday, May 24, 2012

hunh? sentence fragments?

 a strange blurry pic found on my camera:  my sister and julia

Pam came on Tuesday and spent the day helping me babysit

God Bless Her.  That's lucky old me with the sister who is helpful.  And kind.

I haven't posted a thing about homeschool in a while.

Just because we're in some transitional state doesn't mean we've turned in our homeschool cards.

Now and then when I'm bored, at loose ends, I tune in to a homeschool list I used to enjoy.

They're non-religious  homeschoolers.


That's us too. We're Garrison Keillor old liberal Lutherans.  There are no homeschool groups for us. Other conservative homeschoolers told us Lutherans aren't real Christians because they don't have any rules.

I'm still so stumped by that--by the rejection and the assumption.

Love your neighbor as yourself sounds so direct and simple, and yet it's sooo hard to do.  I don't love all my neighbors. Some just straight up irritate me. Some are so baffling and mysterious I don't know what to think.

I sort of wish Jesus hadn't said that.

Why do I have to aspire to that?

Can't I just love people who make sense to me?  

We're liberals who also believe Jesus was a fairly big rule breaker.


Yeah, yeah, I know.


So this is my response to a person who was worried about her child's reading curriculum: "Regardless of the target age group, [sentence] fragments are unacceptable.  Anything that is introduced serves as a model..."

Okay, I get really frustrated by moms who try to stuff their kids and themselves into curriculum that doesn't work for them.   Curriculum is a tool in your hand like a screwdriver, or a remote, or a pen.   It's not the boss of anything, especially not your family or your home, your poor kid, nothing.


My response:

"Believe me, it DOESN'T MATTER.

Dyslexic people probably rule the world.

LOL. My opinion is that NOTHING matters as long as they get launched into reading.

The whole world opens before readers.

I care nothing about rules, only results.

Dyslexics think differently, discern in their own ways. As a mother of five
dyslexic children and one husband, dyslexic people have too much to offer the
world to waste time on tasks that can be easily assigned to an editor or a
proofreader, which none of them aspire to be.

kisses

In the future--after they can read--we fill in the blanks, talk about quotation
marks and apostrophes, but there is a time and place for everything.

Do not put the cart before the horse.

Commas mean NOTHING to a person who is struggling to read.

Let go of rules if they create barriers of any kind. I talk in fragments all
the time. Write in them. Fear not. Life is good. The kids are fine.

It should be fun. Comfortable. Suit your rhythms. (fragments, I realize.)

If it doesn't, keep looking until you find your spot.

It's your homeschool, and it should be easy and happy. We started in 1989 and it
took us years to figure this out: We had the right to be us. And we're a very
good us.

You are too.

love, Val"

p.s. Pam thank your lending your baby wrangling skills to the loving of my rowdy grandchildren. I love you so, v.

3 comments:

  1. Standing. Clapping.
    Love you! K

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a great blog! why is it so hard to be ourselves and when we finally get there not apologize for it? Look at all those sweeties, hanging out together!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Look at you and Heidi, running those marathons. I'm so impressed. love, Val

    ReplyDelete