Happy Friday! I hope you had a good week, whatever that might mean in your world. Mine was good and moderately productive.
The weather this week was weird. It got so chilly at one point we turned the heat back on. We’ve had the AC on, then off, and now it will be back on again today. Our temps have gone from 90ish to the low 40s. Crazy. Today it will be back in the 80s and then over the weekend back into the low 60s and even into the 50s next week as high temperatures. (Grand Solar Minimum anyone?)
Let’s start off with the full artwork. This is a piece by the German artist Johann Baptist Hofner (1832-1913). The Little Shepherdess (Die kleine Schäferin) is an oil on canvass and was painted in 1866.
Our Veggie Gardens
We are doing bucket gardening this year for the first time. Our russet potatoes finally took off once we had some warm weather.
They are doing great and should be ready to mound in the next week or so.
We also put in bush green beans and cucumbers. We’re trying to decide about tomatoes and some other things. There is still plenty of time in Michigan so we may do that (if the weather cooperates).
David started my morning glories in small pots and then will transplant them for me by the trellises. Hopefully we can do that next weekend, after the chilly weather passes.
Should My Child Go To College?
I spent a lot of time reading other bloggers this week regarding homeschooling high school. I think I was looking for that aha! moment when things became clear. I found these three posts by Annie at It’s Not That Hard To Homeschool (formerly Annie and Everything) quite helpful. They encapsulated what I had been mulling but hadn’t put into a final thought.
- Should Your Teen Go to College? (how to tell if it’s a good fit) – Part 1
- How to Tell if College is the Best Option for Your Teen – Part 2
- When you fear that your Homeschooled Teen is BEHIND
I think it’s one of those things where I could have easily written similar posts for someone else to read, but I needed to read someone else writing them for me. I don’t know if that makes sense to you, but it does to me. I could have told you the truth about everything in those posts simply based on objective truth in a conversation, but when it is your own child sometimes it’s harder to step back and apply it.
So we’ve officially moved college off the radar. I feel weird writing that even though I know it’s the right choice for our family. I’ve shared many articles over the years about making the choice to not go to college and have reviewed alternatives to college like Praxis. I think colleges and universities are cesspools of destruction right now (even “Christian” colleges) so I don’t know why I feel that way, but I do.
In any case, all three of us are on the same page with the idea that preparing for college admissions is not going to be a goal. Receiving a great homeschool high school education and preparing for real life is the goal. If Caroline decides at some point she wants to do community college or online college, then we will do what we need to in order to make that happen. But the entire prepare for the four year college admissions gauntlet is no longer a part of our life or thinking.
So someday when the history of this time is written, we’ll be part of the movement that helped bring about the collapse of the college and university financing and credentialing scam. LOL!
My Work
I need to update the Editable Homeschool Planners for this year. I really want to change out some of the designs, but I’m not sure David has the time to do it. Next week we’ll have to either change them or simply update them. I have some lovely ideas, but I’m not sure it is worth the time investment. It takes us many hours to do those. So I need to decide about that.
I’m continuing to add all of the individual products from the themed activity packs to my shop in order to make it easier to see everything that is available by various needs (math worksheets, reading activities, word searches, etc.).
I can’t remember if I mentioned this, but I republished my post I Removed My Products From Teachers Pay Teachers Due To Their Anti-Racist Agenda and the guest post about Teachers Pay Teachers and Equity Funding. I published those just over a year ago and then unpublished them a week or two later. I put them back up for reasons I explain over there. It’s interesting to observe that I said in my post that BLM was already falling out of favor as was the anti-racism push. This week I added an article to the comments regarding the fact that BLM (the corporation) is in big trouble.
I know that these issues still exist within TPT. I get updates regarding what is going on. Some of the very things I warned about are now coming to pass.
I don’t get everything right. But I’m often right and just way too early for people to see what I see.
(Speaking of which, did you listen to the podcast from Wednesday when I told you to be ready to discuss the Great Replacement Theory and 24 hours later it’s all over the news?)
On that note, it’s time for me to publish this and jump into the rest of my day. I hope you’ll leave a comment and let me know what you’ve been doing this week!
Artist: Johann Baptist Hofner
Our Cozy Home No. 81
Sallie,
None of my children have chosen traditional college. Three of them have chosen Bible schools where the emphasis was on growing in Christ. They had papers to write and tests but all have thrived in their studies.
Our youngest will be doing some sleep testing this coming year to gain general education credits, in the event he decides he wants to do college in the future.
All my kids are hardworking productive people, and most are married now, some with children. We encouraged entrepreneurial thinking when they were growing up and 6 years ago my husband left his factory work to own his own business of doing septic inspections.
I’m with you on breaking the college paradigm.
That was really encouraging! Thank you for writing that. My oldest of 5 will be a senior next year, and we are in the ‘what are we going to do in the next phase of life’ stage with him.
We are in a geographical area with a very heavy college-focus, and it’s helpful to read other experiences that don’t involve college and university.
Thank you!
Lauren
Hi Deanna,
Having parents who are self-employed has had a significant impact on Caroline. She also wants to be a wife and mom with zero interest in a job in a cubicle (as she describes it). I’m curious to see how things develop in the coming years!
The college paradigm was well on its way to breaking even before the plandemic. That just moved things along at an even more rapid pace.
Sallie
Yes, I agree that things are changing and I’m glad of it!
Oh Sallie, The Little Shepherdess is one of my favorite paintings! I actually have a large framed print of it. There is so much ugliness and depravity in the world that our homes truly need to be sanctuaries of all that is beautiful and holy and good, and that includes hanging examples of exquisite artwork that make our hearts sing when we look at them.
Your plants look so healthy! We are blessed to have a large fenced-in garden area filled with tall raised beds that my husband built for me to save my poor back. We have done potatoes in the past, but we are foregoing them this year. I usually put in a large variety of greens plus staples that I can freeze such as green beans, carrots, and squashes. Our enemies are the humidity and insect predators, but we are experimenting with row covers with some success. Last year the cabbage loopers destroyed all the broccoli plants. I just couldn’t keep up with them. So they will be covered this year until the danger is past.
My daughter, now 22, decided to skip college as well. She is trying to establish herself as a freelance artist, specializing in concept art. Her major problem is self-confidence even though she is very gifted, and promoting herself is close to agonizing for her. She is an introvert (like me) with some degree of social anxiety. I’m very proud of the progress she has made on her own, however, and I do my best to encourage her to use her talents as the Lord directs.