The Western Skink

We saw one.



Hiking the New Almaden trail at Quicksilver Park, on a sunny afternoon after extensive rain, we came across this reptile sunning himself in the path. Although we tried not to scare it, this is a pretty skittish reptile. After extensive arguing, we believe that this is the animal we saw -- it's so great that we could look it up on the internet while our memory of it was still fresh. Maybe now we can go to the library for some follow-up research.

Science Camp: The Good

A few weeks ago, we were lucky enough to get a week at Science Camp. This is essentially the same Science Camp that public school children get, but the program was slightly modified to accomodate homeschoolers and their propensity for participating as families. So the children got to go off with their naturalist during the day and do various cool project, while the mom and siblings still to young to hit the trail chilled back at camp. It was a good setup.

There were cabins for the families to sleep in (bring your own sleeping bags, natch) and a dining lodge where meals were held. The lodge had a big fireplace, with a fire going all day, and the meals were surprisingly non-horrible. A few of them even attained goodness. In any event, we all ate a ton in an attempt to ward off the cold. Calories! Give me calories!

The meals also featured a surprisingly popular appearance by a recurring character, the Waste Wizard. Who was played by the naturalists, dressed up in ridiculous costumes. The kids went nuts! They loved it. Although the Waste Wizard had various things to say about reducing all kinds of waste, they would also carry around a bucket for the table scraps, which was used to measure how much food people had left on their plates. If, like me, you think the sight of children filling up their plates and then eating two bites is an abomination, then this is the place for you. After the first meal, there was much less of this behavior -- in fact, there was never a meal after that with more than half as much leftover food. Go, Waste Wizard!

We really enjoyed our time in the redwoods, even though it was colder and darker (those trees just don't let much light in, not even at high noon) than we had expected. A couple of mornings we were the first up, so we got to light the fire in the dining hall. There was actually an early-morning patrol, in the words of one regular attendee. She was the mom of a young child who didn't really let her sleep in in the morning, and it was great fun to hear her reading board books to her little boy. There was a guitar-strumming dad and his son, and various other drop-ins. Then breakfast, then off to the woods!

Ziad and Maya were in the same group, at my request. Not having been to this place before, our personal family protocol dictates that I keep them both in my visual sphere as much as possible, which means they HAD to be in the same group, and I had to accompany them. The very cool thing was that, despite the prevailing ethos of "Butt out parent! Your child cannot possibly achieve their full potential with you breathing down their neck!" we managed to land a naturalist who completely understood that I was NOT their to police him, my children, or their interaction, but merely to keep an eye on things and back him up if he needed it. Also to take note of any interactions during the day that might merit some discussion amongst ourselves in the evening. Because, really, no one needs to be in a group where Ziad has decided he is justified in carrying out some vendetta against a perceived slight. I actually think I may have averted that scenario, although, of course it's possible I'm exaggerating my own importance.

The days were very cool. There was a stream day, where they studied the invertebrate population of a stretch of water, and learned that the presence of the caddis-fly larvae, which cannot survive in pollution, indicated clean water. They also learned about a bunch of interesting insects and got to observe the fern-like gill structure of a salamander under a microscope. Then lunch on a huge fallen redwood, featuring runny grape jelly that was the most delicious I have ever tasted.

Next was a forst day, where they hiked up a hill to Big Tree, a large sequoia that we could not encircle with our arms, even though out of the eleven of us there, three were adults. That was also the Professor Trail, or each-one-teach-one day, where every student got to be an expert of one member of the forest biosphere and impart their wisdome, one-by-one, to the other members of their group.

The last full day was the ocean day, where everybody trucked down to the coast to look at the nature center, take a hike on the bluffs, then head to the beach for some habitat restoration. Then they got stainless steel water bottles with an insulating cover and carabiners attached to the tops! Way cool.

The last day ended at noon, and consisted largely of cleaning the cabins, cleaning around the camp, and saying good-bye. It's a very good program, and I would recommend it highly.

How awesome am I?

You know how some days everything just clicks? You're efficient, you're energetic, you're getting stuff done, and then you write a blog post about how much you've accomplished and it looks really impressive and all your friends say how awesome you are?

Well my whole week has been the opposite of that.

Blogging the Aftermath: Day One

Here is a series I am beginning for my own enlightenment and edification. Having turned my house upside down and maybe even inside out, in order to accommodate a large group of children and their families, I am now faced with the prospect of returning things to normal. This is not a one-day process, and in fact some stuff that got thrown into distant corners of the house will probably remain there indefinitely (a good sign, I suppose, that I could even throw it away (gasp!)with few negative repercussions (not going to happen)) and actually, some of the furniture that got moved around actually works better for me in its new location.

Anyway.

On the food front, here is our menu for the day:

Breakfast:
Ziad and Maya had macaroni and cheese. I had chicken and potatoes. When Maya asked if that was all the macaroni and cheese that was left, I had to tell her, "No, that was all the macaroni and cheese I couldn't fit in the refrigerator." They will probably be eating it for breakfast all week.

Lunch:
Ziad and Maya had leftover rice and meatballs. I had chicken and potatoes. And leftover salad. I've been wondering whether there is someway to make broth out of leftover salad. Although I'm experimental by nature, for some reason I'm not willing to actually try this.

Dinner:
Well, we haven't had dinner yet, but I know what's on the menu. Leftover beans. Yumm. Really.

This morning I finished almost all of the dishes that I was in no condition to wash last night. We have cleaned all the stuff off the floor of the dining room and vacuumed it.

We have also decided that keeping the dining room table pushed up against the French windows is a good idea for now, since the dining room table is actually the school table. It turns out that three dining room chairs fit beautifully side by side along its length, and since the table is now up against a window we can look out over the valley when we need to pause and think.

Maya cleaned up all the costumes from her playhouse downstairs. We decided to put them into a suitcase, thereby emptying up the large drawer in her room where we had been keeping them up to now. So now she will move all her clothes out of Ziad's room, where they had been sharing a chest of drawers, which will make life much easier during Ziad's fits of temper when he decides that she is absolutely positively not allowed in his room ever. That floor, still festooned with the random pink feather, remains to be vacuumed.

We had to leave at 11 to get to guitar lessons in Santa Cruz. When we got home at 3:30 all of us were starving and exhausted. Piano practice and Latin are still on the agenda for today, so I don't know how much more energy we'll have for setting things to rights.

I am staring right now at a pile of periodicals and papers that was on the kitchen table that is going to have to at least be looked at, and some of them returned, no matter how much I like having the kitchen table empty. There are also several bags of school supplies in a corner in the dining room that need to be put out again, because we actually do use them. The garage has three tables with chess sets and assorted games that are going to need to be put away before we can park there again.

More tomorrow.

Newsflash

LETTER GRADES MOTIVATE CHILDREN!!!

Homeschooling Mom Flummoxed!

Ziad and Maya have a tendency to be sloppy with their schoolwork. I've tried talking to them about it. I reminded them about the solar-powered space probe that failed when its solar panels unfolded facing AWAY from the sun, all because of a small programming error. I've pointed out that if architects took this casual attitude towards arithmetic, their buildings would never be able to stand up. All to no avail.

So finally, I took Ziad's math homework and calculated the percentage he got correct.

"Oh, look!" I said, "That's a C. You're really not a C student, Ziad."

Then I explained how the grades work -- 100 to 90 percent is an A, 80 to 89 is a B, and so on. No grading on a curve here. (Although, of course, the problem of how you would generate a curve with a class of 1 is an interesting exercise. Kind of a koan.) To my surprise, he displayed an unexpected enthusiasm for this concept. And now, guess what? It's all As, all the time. Goodbye, silly copying errors. So long, writing 2 times 3 equals 5 when you know perfectly well it's 6. And now Maya wants letter grades, too.

What an eye-opener.

Renfaire

 

I know you're just dying to hear about our day at the Renaissance Faire -- er, Renaissance Institute. It was on Friday, when the Faire is not in session, but it was on the grounds of the Faire, so we had some time to stroll past all the booths and stages with no crowds at all.

 

Even though the Faire wasn't going on, we did get to meet some participants. Our first event was a stop at the jousting list. Two knights, one gold, one black, explained some of the history and culture of jousting, and handed around some equipment for people to handle and examine. Ziad even got to hold a lance! It was taller than he was, and extremely heavy, but he managed to keep it parallel to the ground. Doughty lad!

Next our group split up for activities more or less based on age. Ziad and Maya did some leatherworking -- mostly stamping out designs on to leather strips to make bookmarks. The leatherworker also gave out free wristbands -- very cool. Ziad chose a blue one stamped with the sun and moon, while Maya took a purple one with flowers and insects.

Next we were off to "climb the castle wall" -- that is, listen to a talk about siege offenses and defenses, have a chance to build little castles out of sugar-cube-sized blocks of cement, and climb up a rock climbing wall. This was a first for Ziad and Maya.

 

Maya spent a lot of time climbing, a little higher every time, and getting used to rapelling down.

 

Ziad spent most of the time building, but took a break to climb straight up to the top in at record speed, climb back down again, then return to his castle. He also fashioned a small catapult out of the clay provided to use as mortar in the castle construction.

Then lunch. Then a visit to the soldier's encampment, which is the part that I did not think I was going to be able to endure. It's not that it wasn't fantastic. It's just that it was the heat of a very hot day, we were in the sun, I was thirsty and tired and it was still Ramadan. Whining aside, the two soldiers gave a very good talk on the mercenary armies of the Renaissance period, their weaponry and the various class distinctions among the soldiers, and again, had lots of cool things to hand around for children. Including an extremely interesting handbook on military drills for the musketeer that appeared to be a reproduction of a period manual.

Next we did wheat weaving, making braids of wheat that we fashioned into a small heart. Although this was fun and relaxing, in the end there's not much more to tell than that.

 

Last we saw a performance by the actor portraying Sir Frances Drake. He was very good. He got lots of kids up on stage to try on various costumes, illustrating whatever social custom he was talking about at the time, all the while projecting an extremely swashbuckling attitude.

And, best of all, Ziad and Maya got passes to go back to the Faire. We're heading back tomorrow for an all-morning book-binding workshop, after which we intend to check out the jousting and then ramble around the Faire to our heart's content. Maya wants to see Queen Elizabeth. She also wants to go in costume, but given the iffy weather I am discouraging this.

Here is a link to some pictures taken by another parent. Ziad and Maya are in some of them, but bonus points to those of you who can identify the person's children.

Snapshot

Early morning conversation:

Me: Oh, by the way, we're leaving early on Friday. I'm taking the kids down to Casa de Fruta.

Husband: Why?

Me: They have some kind of history workshop. Something to do with the Renaissance Faire.

Husband: That's not very good.

Me: What?

Husband: Taking the kids around to all those places. That's not very green.

Me: That's true. (pause) What's your point?

Husband: You're not very green.

Me: Hell, honey, I know that.

Here's how not green I am lately:

Tuesday: guitar class, library, and mall in Santa Clara; Whole Foods and park in Campbell

Wednesday: piano lessons in Almaden, chorus and errands in Willow Glen

Thursday: guitar class in Santa Clara, electronics class in Palo Alto

Friday: history workshop at Renaissance Faire in Gilroy

Saturday: guitar class in Santa Clara

Sunday: Scharffen Berger plant in Berkeley (to see my dad)

Monday: STAY HOME!!!! ALL DAY!!!! To hell with grocery shopping, even.

P.S. Thank you guys. It turns out that one phone call and one e-mail are all I need to get my energy back. It's amazing.

Are homeschoolers disadvantaged?

Interesting debate over at www.opposingviews.com/.

First day of school!

You know how sometimes when you have a bad Monday, your whole week is just shot to hell? Why is that, anyway? Fortunately for us, today was great. We're trying to get on a schedule that includes some outdoor time in the morning -- that's supposed to motivate the kids to get moving and not dawdle over their morning chores or their breakfast. We're still not making the morning park time, but at least music practice/school work began on time.

So now we are formally alternating lessons with practice, which means one will study while the other practices, and I'll kind of keep an eye on both while also doing various and sundry chores. It seems like this might actually be workable, and if we can get this to be a routine, that's-just-what-you-do kind of thing, then we will be getting schoolwork done AND making it to morning music lessons (right now we have them three mornings out of our week) all without breaking a sweat. Knock on wood.

We celebrated by going out and buying school supplies. Highlighters! Ball point pens with lots of different colors! Post-its! And when we got home a friend had called wanting to come over and swim, so that's how we spent the afternoon.

It's been a lovely day.

Good news for my homeschoolers

I got the STAR test results for my children today. Interestingly, they are both advanced in verbal skills, and proficient in math. Both read three levels beyond their grade.

It's not as if their numbers are off the charts or anything. Probably lots of kids we know scored higher. And I know that the main skill these tests measure is the skill of test-taking itself. I'm under no illusions that I'm nurturing a pair of geniuses-to-be. I'm happy all the same, though, because we accomplished these scores with a lot of good intentions, but maybe not all that much actual effort.

It's probably not true that if we tried harder they would score better. As I said, we certainly intended to do more than we did, and I think the law of diminishing returns would start to kick in sooner rather than later.

Ziad's writing test is probably a good example. The test was administered in a community room at the Santa Clara City library, and proctored by a teacher who he has known for a few years now. Despite the fact that he was sitting next to a boy who is practically his best friend, he was out of there in about fifteen minutes, a period during which many kids (including his friend) were still reading the instructions. The fact that he scored a 50% on that test is actually kind of impressive, under the circumstances. And the fact that he stilled scored in the advanced level for verbal skills, with that 50% pulling his average down is even more impressive. I don't think he would have scored over 75% under any circumstances, though, no matter how long he sat at that desk. He just isn't motivated to write well unless he really cares about what he has to say.

Some people homeschool with the idea that their children will be stretching themselves intellectually and working beyond the level they would in school. I certainly like this idea, but am also OK with its converse. My children stay at their grade level with an amount of work perhaps comparable to what a typical schoolchild brings home as homework, and have lots of freedom to follow their interests. Or just hang around.

I've seen a wide variety of feelings about standardized testing among homeschoolers. Some people hate it vehemently, and even there I see a variety of reasons. Some reject the entire concept of testing. Some feel their children won't do well and their self-esteem will suffer as a result. (I have to admit, this last seems silly to me -- isn't that giving the whole concept of testing way too much weight? Especially since there's no rule that you have to show your kid the results.) Some people just feel it's a waste of time. "Why should I lose two perfectly good days when I could actually be teaching them something?" is the question these parents raise.

Myself, I feel that standardized testing is one of the hoops society expects people to jump through, so you might as well get used to it. It may be that things are changing in this regard. I know that many colleges no longer require the SAT, but I think most grad schools still want to see GRE scores. Law schools have the LSAT. So it will probably be a while before test-taking of this sort is a thing of the past.

I'm glad that these test results reinforce my kids' impression that the testing is fun. The test days are happy times for them, when they get to see a lot of kids they don't see all that often. A reunion of sorts. The actual test, for them, is more of a formality that intervenes between playing during breaks and lunch.

In the end, I'm happy because our results tell us we can beat the State of California at its own game. We can measure ourselves with its yardstick and hold our heads up high.

Take that, NEA.

Good news for California Homeschoolers

On Friday, August 8, the California courts affirmed the right of parents to homeschool their children.

Jack Connell, State Superintendant of Public Educuation, released this statement.

The ruling itself is here. It's actually more interesting to read than you might expect, especially the part that relates the history of the particular case that started all this uproar.

As usual, Debbie Schwarzer has valuable commentary:

The attorneys working on this and the leaders of all the state groups were so pessimistic after the June hearing. It seemed clear that the judges just really didn't like homeschooling, and that they might ignore all the compelling arguments we had in our briefs and stretch somehow to knock us down.

But they did the right thing. They did their job. They carefully read everything (they don't cite the HSC/CHN/CHEA brief, but believe me, much of what they write is based on our arguments), and reached the legally correct conclusions.

In addition to putting to rest the question of whether private home-based schools are legal, the court also made clear what the boundaries of state authority over homeschools are (i.e., the state can do very little). They don't hide the fact that they think that, if the state thinks that education of children is such a compelling interest, they do a bad job of making sure it happens in the case of homeschooled kids. But they didn't try to create powers that don't exist. They didn't try to interpret "capable of teaching". They didn't try to make some argument that the state could pull a family into juvenile court because the quality of the homeschooling isn't good -- to the contrary, they made it clear that only those families that are already in the juvenile court system on other factors could have the adequacy of their homeschooling put on trial.

I was asked by a reporter this afternoon whether I thought the court had bowed to pressure, and I replied, "Absolutely not. They did exactly what they were supposed to do, which is analyze the arguments and try to reach the legally correct decision."

The various group leaders and attorneys today had a conference call, and we all wondered whether the children's attorneys would appeal the ruling. I have since seen a quote from someone in LA County saying they welcomed the ruling. Of course the family won't like the conclusion that the trial court could still determine whether these kids needed to be sent to school for their safety, but we don't think the parents will appeal the part of the ruling relating to homeschooling (and I don't know where they'd find a lawyer to support them if they did).

This decision will be binding on all courts in the state. I assume the Student Attendance Review Board will also be reading it and counseling attendance officers accordingly (the decision makes it really, really clear that no one has the power to go beyond confirming whether the affidavit has been filed), and that we shouldn't see too many instances of local people demanding to see anything other than affidavits.

But this underlines something. DO NOT try to homeschool without either being in a public school program or a legal private school, whether your own or by enrolling in one. If you use curriculum from a private school but they don't file an affidavit, you must do so. DO NOT go "naked". This opinion makes it clearer than ever that it would be very, very difficult to make a winning constitutional argument that you can avoid compulsory education requirements entirely (and I don't think any of the lawyers who worked on this case would support you on that claim).

This really is good news for California homeschoolers.

Letter from Debbie Schwarzer

I have been talking to the other statewide groups about the upcoming election. Those who have been around the electoral and legislative block a bunch of times tell me that now is the time to reach out to the people who are running for statewide office and tell them how important it is to you and your family that you be able to continue to teach your children at home without government interference.

It is pretty easy to find out who the candidates for Assembly and Senate seats in your district are. Go to http://votesmart.org/ and enter your zip code. You'll be able to see who currently holds those seats and who the candidates in the upcoming election are. Your Senate and Assembly district numbers are probably different, so keep track of which is which.

It is usually a fairly safe bet that Republicans will support homeschooling given the importance of the religious vote to that party. Democrats, however, may not understand that they have current or potential constituents who expect their right to homeschool to be protected. We would suggest that you contact any Democratic candidates (you'll usually see a link on the right of the page you go to if you click on them to their home page, and there will be contact information for their election office). If you happen to be a Democrat yourself, it is doubly important that you tell your candidate that you need homeschooling to be supported.

When you call, ask to speak to the candidate yourself. If he or she isn't available, and you can't schedule a short meeting, ask to talk to the staff member who handles K-12 education. If you are free to visit the office, that's always best, and ask for a meeting slot, but a call is still good. Tell them briefly why you homeschool and why you need it protected. If you happen to be a Democrat who would probably vote for this candidate, make sure you mention that. If they start asking questions about the current legal case in Southern California, you can tell them that it is still in the appellate process and that homeschooling in California is still legal. And tell me if they seem to want to know more than you're comfortable telling them so that I can get in touch with them.

I would be interested in hearing what you hear when you call. If you write to me, please tell me the number of the Assembly or Senate district you're writing about, the name of the candidate and his/her party affiliation, and what you learned.

If you do get a meeting scheduled and want some materials to take with you, I have some in pdf format that you can print out and take. Just ask.

Thanks.

Debbie Schwarzer
HSC Legislative chair

Legalities

During the ongoing flap over the California Court ruling concerning homeschooling, Debbie Schwartzer has been a consistent voice of reason.

Here is a link to an interview with her. This half-hour program is well worth listening to, especially if you homeschool, even more so if you are homeschooling under an R-4. I think the homeschool is very fortunate to count such a bright and articulate attorney among our numbers.

Amici Curiae

This is an interesting document. It is a amici curiae (friends of the court) brief, filed by the Attorney General in conjunction with attorneys representing Governor Schwarzeneggor, addressing the recent homeschool ruling that has had so many people up in arms. This case is still generating heated discussion among homeschoolers. Even though the original decision was vacated, the court is now accepting amici curiae briefs from EDUCATORS, but not from homeschoolers. Understandably, homeschoolers are not happy about this. I'm glad that government officials are giving this support to homeschoolers.

93 (I'm counting down)

I have a document somewhere with lots of reasons on it, and I'm definitely going to look it up and start working on it again, but in the meantime, I've been thinking a lot about how homeschooling affects children's perception of themselves.

This is my thinking on the matter: it is vastly more healthy for a child to develop their own identity without having to constantly deal with other children's preconceptions.

Clearly, I am thinking of Ziad's nature studies experience here. There was a group of kids, he somehow got on the outs with a few of them, and the next thing you know, everyone thinks they know who he is. That he's just a pest, not someone to deal with face-to-face. Not important.

That's their opinion (and their loss, when it comes to that). The thing is, when a kid runs afoul of that kind of thing in a school setting, those perceptions start to get hammered in, until the kid is also buying into and even perpetuating the situation. The scars from those experiences can take decades to heal.

I remember when my older daughter was in high school I came across a note one of her friends had written. "I'm a loser, nobody likes me, I'll never have any friends," was more or less the theme of the note. This from a smart, cute, funny kid who in grade school had had ambitions to be President. I wished then that I could tell him how soon his life would change, how he could leave behind the people who couldn't appreciate him and go find ones that did. And in fact my daughter herself, when we were talking things over one time, said, "Yeah, well, I always had a few cool friends, even when most of the people around me were kind of mean. Then after high school I made lots of cool friends and now that's who I spend my time with." The point being that the enforced proximity to jerks that most schools provide with such unfailing regularity is a) artificial and b) damaging and c) unnecessary.

I'm not really advocating a situation where children are constantly shielded from conflict, or even from people who don't like them. I'm just saying that it doesn't have to be their daily lot in life. Unless, of course, they're enrolled in school.

Dusting off my hundred reasons

A long, long time ago (or so it seems), I started a list of a hundred reasons why I personally prefer to homeschool my children. I should say right now that I never pretended I was going to come up with one hundred completely unique, totally freestanding, and non interrelated reasons. Many of my reasons, in fact, are things like anecdotes or pieces of art or writing that my children have made on their own, without help or prompting, that illustrate to me the joy they find in learning and creation. Or, in other words, "here is more evidence that they have not had all creativity stomped out of them by the public school system."

Then I began to realize how popular homeschool blogging is, and I was all, "Oh, well, if everybody's doing it ....." What homeschooler wants to be part of a crowd? I also felt frustrated that something I wanted to post was a picture, and I didn't have that whole posting pictures thing figured out. But now I can post pictures! And I still have a lot of thoughts about homeschooling in my head (and feelings in my heart). So I am going to dust off my list and try to post at least one reason a week for a while (barring further computer difficulties that make it just too much trouble). Stay tuned ...

Homeschool ruling followup

This was circulated in an e-mail to a homeschooling list I subscribe to:

In February 2008, an appellate court in Los Angeles issued a decision that interpreted California's education laws in a way that was very unfavorable to homeschoolers.

Unlike many states, California does not have any laws specifically authorizing or regulating homeschooling. Like several other states whose laws do not mention homeschooling, California does have laws that say that children can meet the state's compulsory attendance laws by going to private schools. Homeschoolers in California, like homeschoolers in those other states, complied with the compulsory attendance laws by enrolling their children in private schools that permitted teaching at home, and these schools could be ones operated by third parties or ones established by the parents themselves for their own children.

This manner of homeschooling was not, as many in the press have portrayed it, a "loophole". California law does not have many regulations pertaining to private schools, and the ones that it does have can be met by parents forming their own schools and by schools that support homeschooling. The state's Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jack O'Connell, was aware of this interpretation of law, and agreed that it was permissible.

The appellate court, however, stated in its February opinion that it did not believe that private schools could permit homeschooling. The judges seemed to think that the state legislature had clearly thought about homeschooling when it passed the private school laws and had decided that the only way to teach children at home was under a
separate statute about tutoring, which requires a state teaching credential. The court, of course, could not change a law or pass a new law; only the legislature could do that. But it was interpreting the law in an unfavorable way.

The Governor, the Superintendent of Public Instruction and all of the statewide homeschool support groups have gone on record as stating that the court's interpretation was incorrect. The statewide groups were preparing to appeal to the state Supreme Court for help in rectifying the situation, but in late March, the appellate court decided to rehear the case itself.

By court rules, whenever a court agrees to rehear a case, the opinion that it wrote the first time around is vacated, and of no further force or effect. What that means is that the original decision with its unfavorable interpretation of law has gone away, and no judge or government official will be able to take action using that opinion as authority. State law about homeschooling is now exactly the same as
it was prior to the issuance of the February opinion. The Governor, the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the various statewide homeschool groups believe that the interpretation prior to that decision was legally correct, and homeschoolers can continue to teach their children at home in reliance on the law as previously understood.

The appellate court will hold a new hearing on the matter this summer. All of the statewide groups are, with the assistance of pro bono counsel, filing amicus briefs in support of the prior interpretation of law. A new decision is expected this fall.

We believe that the legislature is waiting to see what happens in the court system before taking any action. It is quite probable that if the court's new decision does not change the interpretation of law that was in place prior to its original decision, the legislature will not take any action, as the Governor and the Superintendent of Public Instruction are both accepting and even supportive of that interpretation.

Debbie Schwarzer
Co-chair Legal Team
Legislative Chair
HomeSchool Association of California

Continuing News

From my e-mail:

This just in...

A state appeals court has agreed to reconsider its decision last month that barred homeschooling by parents who lack teaching credentials, raising the possibility that the judges will change a decision that has infuriated homeschool advocates nationwide.


[Here's a link]

Diane Flynn Keith
Editor, Homefires
Author, Carschooling
Founder, Universal Preschool

Tiger by the tail

I've been trying not to spend too much time on the computer lately, and e-mail has been consuming most of my extra time. Why e-mail? Because every homeschooling list I subscribe to has been sending out voluminous correspondence about the recent court decision that can be construed as declaring many popular forms of homeschooling illegal.

Of course, there really is no legal homeschooling in California. Children are enrolled in school independent study programs, state charter schools, private charter schools, or extremely small private schools. This ruling, however, would seem to limit the first three options to a set of very narrowly defined circumstances, and call into question the small private school option. People are still debating what it all means.

If anyone asked me how they could help, I would refer them to HSC -- The Homeschool Association of California. They have a Yahoo group here, and their website is here. They are based in California, unlike the Homeschool Legal Defense Association (Virginia), and are nondenominational and inclusive. Donations to their legal fund will help them defray the court costs associated with their attempts to get this ruling depublished, which is probably the simplest and best way to get this all to go away. Depublishing means that the findings in this ruling will be limited to the particular case that was ruled on, and will not set precedent for rulings in the future.

As all this plays out, there has been an onslaught of media coverage that took me by surprise (who knew so many people cared?) and of course, a slew of e-mail and blogging. I've read pages and pages of point and counterpoint, so this post, by Alice Bradley on Alpha Mom brought a welcome moment of comic relief. An excerpt:

Most of all, I feel pity for Judge Croskey. You poor man. Of all the people to take on, you had to choose homeschoolers. Around 200,000 children are currently homeschooled in California. That means there are many many homeschooling parents angry with you right now, Judge Closkey, and you are making the wrong people mad. These parents have powers you couldn't even fathom. Most average humans can't teach their kids to operate a zipper, and these people are preparing their kids for college. The average parent falls to pieces at the end of a long weekend with the kids, yet these homeschooling super-beings have the intestinal fortitude to spend all day, every day with their (often numerous) children. And they're organized. They have, like, associations, and leagues, and whatnot. Think they won't start a letter-writing campaign? That's their idea of recreation. You messed with the wrong people.

And don't get me started on those homeschooled kids. You think the parents are trouble? The kids, they're self-motivated. And they will get you. They will make the biggest marshmallow catapult you could imagine, and launch it right at your office. They will construct a Rube Goldberg device that can boil noodles, overturn your court decision, and give you an unflattering haircut before you even know what hit you. They will compose devastating Spenserian sonnets about your nonsensical ruling. Then they will construct a new court made entirely of popsicle sticks! And, hmm, insert another thing here that I imagine homeschoolers do!

We are homeschoolers, hear us roar!

The Hawks

Yesterday, we had gorgeous weather. The sky was blue, the temperature was cool and comfortable, the sun was shining. And we had magic -- the hawks who live in the woods nearby must have been feeling the spring, too, because four or five of them were flying and calling together in the sky over our house. As high as they were, I think my husband and son scared them off with their noisy electronics as they tried to take pictures, because they left soon after we started watching them, but then came back, and stayed flying nearby as I watched them from the shade of our roof overhang. Later, one perched in a tall pine across the street, and sat there watching the neighborhood for a long time. She was still there when we left to do some errands, but gone when we got back.

So watching hawks took up some of my time yesterday. I also spent a long time in the evening looking at the town report of the town next to the one I grew up in. It made me so homesick for the East Coast, where they still have Town Meetings where everybody who wants to can have their voice heard. Maybe it's only workable where the communities are relatively small, I don't know, but it still seems like such a good system.

So, apart from those two worthwhile activities, what did I do yesterday? Why did I go to bed feeling that I had accomplished little of any value? When I woke up this morning, I thought it over. I baked bread, I made yogurt, I baked a turkey breast for dinner and bread pudding for desert, I made lunch for my husband; breakfast, lunch, and dinner for my children; cooked special food for my husband to eat after work since he doesn't like turkey; went to the library and the hardware store; reorganized some bookshelves -- how does all that translate into feeling so lazy? It's not in the high-energy league of Jennifer and Lesley, but it's hardly nothing. (Sharp-eyed observers will notice that there's no formal schooling in there, which may be part of the problem.)

I think that's one of the worst things about staying home with kids. Somehow, it's easy to devalue what gets done, and only see what doesn't. If my husband had come home and made some remark about lolling on the couch eating bon-bons (or whatever) (not that he would do that), I would have been indignant, but also speechless and secretly wondering to myself whether my day really had been worthwhile.

And it's odd how I can be home with my kids all day and still feel that I haven't really spent enough time with them. Today, when we'll be out and about pretty much from now on, I guess that won't be a problem. I'll be able to account for my schedule -- guitar class, lunch, writing test, grocery store, park day, dinner -- in a way I couldn't yesterday. We'll talk in the car. Maybe we really need our down time and personal space at home. I don't know.

I just know that I think it's odd how I can be busy enough to be tired at night, to have no time to exercise or read for pleasure, and yet still feel that I haven't done anything and that I'm really going to have to try harder.