Seattle

We had been driving through the cold rain for hours when the sun finally broke through. It was nearly dark, but we were still glad to see clear sky, and to turn off the windshield wipers at last. The Pacific Northwest isn't known for warm weather, but this was farther from springlike than I had hoped for. We'd been in the car for too long, but decided to keep going- to make it to our friends home before bed.

It was late by the time we arrived, but all 5 of her children came out to greet us. Inside we met the dogs, pet rats, and even a hedge hog. We hadn't seen these friends in years, and the family had grown by a few, but my friend still had that rare patience and grace in the midst of whatever crazy chaos life (and children) throws at her.

They had generously offered to share their home as a base to spend a few days and explore the city. She also shared the advice she was given upon moving to Seattle. Don't let the rain stop you from going out. If you wait for it to stop, by the time you get your car keys, it will start back up again. I'm glad we listened because the weather changed from sun to wind to sprinkles to hail within the course of an hour, and continued that way for our entire stay. You just have to wear layers and deal with it.

Day 1 was mammoth. We started off by finding a giant troll under the Freemont Bridge. (Yes, we scout out odd tourist attractions like this ahead of time.)

Then, it was to the famous Space Needle and surrounding park. We spent a few hours exploring sculptures, shops and the Pacific Science Center.

We took the monorail (on which we almost lost one small child- but we found him quickly) to Pikes Place and where we were entertained by street musicians galore. One in particular sang songs of his painful childhood memories of broccoli for dinner, while hula hooping.

The shops were full of inspiring and creative things made by local artists that gave me countless crafty ideas of my own.

A trip to Seattle wouldn't be complete without seeing the Gum Wall. It's an entire wall on the side of this building has been covered in used chewing gum. It's definitely one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen, but strangely artistic when the light hit all the colors. The kids talked me into buying some gum so we could add to the wall, and I almost heaved, but I did it. (I then promptly doused all of our hands in sanitizer.)

I liked many things about Seattle- but especially was how clean it is. (well, not the troll or the gum wall) For a major city, it just doesn't have the level of filth that LA does though. The public transportation was great too but the parking was painfully pricey, which encouraged me to plan well and just skip driving if possible.

We could easily have spent a week in the city and not run out of things to see and do, but alas- we only had a few days. Naturally, we made the best of it and just crammed in as much as we could. The kids had natural youthful energy, and I was in the land of Starbucks.

Something About the Ocean

My Girl Child has been fascinated with Marine Biology for a while - reading books, watching movies, learning about the creatures. But a book can't compare to the real thing, nor can a movie- not even in IMAX. Being a homeschooling madre extraordinaire, I feel it's my parenting responsibility to provide educational field trips to facilitate learning about our interests and passions. (Which makes a handy and valid reason to take lots of field trips.) So, off to the ocean I take my family, as often as possible. Tide pooling, beach combing and occasionally, in warmer months, immersion. The variety of living creatures and all of their colors and patterns is like an art show. There's so much to be explored, my kids never tire of it.

But for me, the lessons in the ocean go far beyond science.

No matter what's going on in life, good things or awful, it doesn't matter, there's just something about the ocean that lets you know that life is much bigger than any of us and our personal dramas.

No matter what I do, the tides keep coming in and going out. The constancy and massiveness put things in perspective and make me realize that my little problems aren't really that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. Even when it creates massive destruction, if you watch it long enough, you see that in the end, it all works out.

I miss living near the ocean terribly. Not to complain, because I live in the wonderful state of California, where you can visit the ocean, mountains and desert all within a few hours. I get to visit her quite a few times a year, and I just got back from a visit last week. Still, I miss living closer because a few hours isn't the same as a few minutes.

I've only been to the Pacific Ocean, but I've explored her shores as far north as Alaska, and as far south as Costa Rica. In some ways she's the same- big, beautiful and powerful. In others, she's completely different. Costa Rican waters for example, beckon you to hop in with their bath like temperatures and colorful fish. Alaskan waters are best appreciated from shore or a boat.

I met a few young kids recently who had NEVER BEEN TO THE OCEAN!!!! I just simply can't imagine, because they lived in California. I mean, if you live in Kansas....OK, I get it....the ocean is far, but in California....really?

I would implore every adult who is responsible for children to take them to the ocean if at all possible. Find a way- skip lunch out for a couple weeks, take a day off, play hooky- whatever you have to do, just do it. Take yourselves for that matter, whether you have kids or not. It's worth the money and the time. (Since someone is bound to point out that the ocean is also dangerous and sometimes smelly, I'll go ahead and add that disclaimer. You're also likely to leave with sand in your ears, but it's worth it.)

Too many people skip on the amazing things the world has to offer because it takes a little effort, and to me the ocean is amazing. Too many others live right next to wonderful things, and just pass them by in the busyness of life. You don't want to be one of those people.

Hopefully, sometime soon, we'll find a way to dip our toes in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, and eventually the Mediterranean. In the mean time, I'm making summer plans for oceans closer by, and I'll have to be happy with memories.

Super Mama Sacagewea

Every kid in America learns about the great explorations of Lewis and Clark, and most will learn at least the name Sacagawea while they're at it, but knowing that a native American woman helped as a guide just really doesn't do this woman or her story justice.

We love exploration, and stories of adventure always resonate with me. Yes, the men were brave and adventurous, but without  Sacagawea's assistance, I doubt they would have made it. As a mother, I am especially in awe that during the entire adventure she was either pregnant or carrying a baby on her back. That is one super mama. Her husband seems like a creeper old man, but that is another story.

As part of our own recent Great Pacific North West Adventure, we did a little Lewis and Clark exploration along the Columbia River in Oregon. Our route started near the ocean at Fort Clatsop, a replica of the fort that the party spent a winter in before returning home. Apparently, it rained all but 12 days out of the three months they spent there, making it a less than pleasant experience.

The weather was very cold and wet for our visit, giving it an authentic feel, except when we got tired of hiking in the rain, we got in a car with heated seats and ate chips. Gotta love modern conveniences.

We also saw replicas of the dug out canoes they used, and could not imagine heading down that massive river on one of them. When one flipped over, Sacagawea was the one to save all their scientific journals and samples, with the baby on her back on her back of course. Did I mention no life vests? In our safety immersed culture, it's hard to even picture a baby in a tiny boat at all, let alone with no flotation device.

We've enjoyed looking at the Lewis and Clark story from different points of view through historical fiction, my personal favorites being that of Sacagawea of course, but also that of Seaman, the big dog that accompanied the group.

His life size statue looks so much like our big dog, it made us all miss him. It also made me think about how smelly that wet dog would have been in those cold and rainy months. And, how much poison oak he would have spread.

Another interesting note....we read that the Lewis and Clark pieces were recently opened again at the Smithsonian Institute, and all of the museum staff who handled them got poison oak. So, the oil of that evil plant can still do it's itchy mayhem after over 100 years. Crazy.

After our fill of Fort Clatsop, we headed up the river that the Lewis and Clark party had came down, talking about the bravery of people who attempt such feats. I've had people tell me that I'm brave for traveling solo with my kids these days. HA- I'm pretty sure I'm completely incompetent compared to Sacagewea. I have maps, a laptop, convenience stores, snacks and towing service. I can't even fathom doing half of what she did, especially with a baby on my back.

Bigfoot

OK, I tend to count all kinds of things as educational, but even people who accept that about me might raise eyebrows at our current studies of Bigfoot. He (or she) is also known as Sasquatch, or depending on the region, Yeti.

A couple of weeks ago, my kids and I found a documentary on Netflix called "Ancient Mysteries: Bigfoot." I figured if it was narrated by Leonard Nemoy, how could it not be cool?

After seeing snippets of the Bigfoot chasers on Animal Planet, I expected a good deal of rural ridiculousness. My kids have been filming their own mockumentaries about Searching for Sasquatch, which have certainly added to my joking about the whole phenomenon.

This documentary though, was in fact quite interesting. I'll admit, I was able to laugh off a lot of the "evidence." Just because someone has a doctorate degree doesn't mean they can't be just as kooky as a hillbilly in camo with night vision goggles, but still, there were a few things that made me stop and think, hmmmmmm....well, maybe?

Apparently, the legends of the creature go way back, and I found it interesting that the local Indian tribes have all sorts of cultural stories that include Bigfoot and are hundreds of years old. Some modern "scholars" have figured out a whole social structure for the creatures, but I didn't quite get how they came to their conclusions.

It just so happens that we live within a few hours of major Bigfoot territory, where not only are there gas stations and burger joints named after the mysterious species, but also a "Bigfoot Museum." Naturally, we had to go.

There were more footprint casts than I could count, some looking fairly realistic, and others looking someone made a large and perfectly shaped foot model. The most authentic looking had toe prints (the little lines in the skin, like fingerprints, but obviously on toes.) The mysterious "fur" samples looked like something I cleaned out my dog brush, but apparently when it was sent to a lab for analysis, it came back as an unknown or unidentified species. Hmmmmmmm......

We scoured the woods a bit on foot, but mostly by car on paved roads. The off road terrain is made up of steep and dense hillsides which someone or something could quite easily hide in for a long time if they had some survival skills, because no one else is really going to try to climb around in those places. While we did see plenty of shadows, our only confirmed sighting of Sasquatch was in murals and statues.

So, I'm not convinced he (or she) is out there, but I'm not convinced they aren't either. If they are, I hope we don't find them, and they get to live out happy and long lives free from hillbilly hunters and mad scientists. For now, I'm considering this mystery unsolved.

What do you think? Does Bigfoot exist?

Tea Time

A young homeschooling friend recently had an assignment for his online Literature class that wasn't the easiest thing for an 11 year old boy. He had to throw a tea party. Not the political kind, but after reading and discussing "Little Women" he had to host an authentic Victorian tea party.

That's not exactly every boy's dream assignment, but fortunately for the young fellow, he knew some willing kids who would participate, which meant arriving in costume and character, and trying their best to use suitable manners. Girl Child had been studying the Civil war, so this all went along with things in our little homeschool quite splendidly.

I had not read the book "Little Women" in years, and my kids hadn't read it at all. We didn't have time to reread it before the party, so we resorted to borrowing the movie from the library. Unfortunately, it was the 1994 version, which was I'm sorry to say, just painful, and didn't make the best impression of it for my Boy Child.

Nevertheless, my kids are good sports and we attempted to rummage up costumes. My Boy Child was the hardest as he doesn't really do "dress clothes" but we at least found an old button up shirt from some past performance and paired it with black jeans and a vest. The skater shoes weren't exactly authentic Victorian vintage, but were the best we could do.

The day of the party came and the guests all looked lovely. The food was elegant, and their manners were impressive. They even showed some restraint with the sugar cubes in their tea without being asked (or at least they seemed to.)

Tea was followed by croquet. At this point I wondered when the manners would slack to modern times, but they maintained fairly well for the most part (although one mallet handle get broken, no people or animals were injured in the making of the tea party.)

I was quite proud of the young fellow who put it all together, and even made figgy pudding to serve.

Most of all, I'm proud to know such an assorted group of kids who haven't been crammed into a one size fits all mold and are still open to having fun while learning and trying new things.

Spring Extravaganza

What could be more fun than a rain soaked and activity filled weekend with an eclectic batch of homeschoolers from all over the state of California? Well...less rain would've helped, but despite the weather, my family had a great time in the Bay Area at the Homeschool Association of California Spring Extravaganza last weekend.

We've been to campouts and conferences with folks from this group in the past, and always had a great time. This event was not too far from home, at a Boy scout Campground in some really steep hills in Berkeley, and super affordable, so we jumped on the chance to go.  When we signed up for a camp spot in February, we were having fabulous near 70 degree sunny days. By the time the actual event arrived in late March, it was 40 degrees and pouring rain.

Luckily, we weren't the only crazy campers. A few other families, who are much hardier at camping life than me were there when we arrived. I'm fine with a tent, as long as it's dry, Oh- and I hate being cold too but thankfully, we had tarps, a surdy tent and really warm bags.

Even better, there was a lodge building, and although it had signs everywhere telling us we couldn't sleep in it, there was nothing saying we couldn't hang out a goof off until 2 AM. We arrived on Friday late afternoon, and were able to get our tent set up under the redwoods before it started raining. Our fellow campers attempted building a fire, but it was still just too cold, which prompted us to escape into the warmth of the lodge. It was great that the group of about 8 kids got to connect on a smaller scale before everyone else arrived.

The next day, the actual extravaganza took place. It was an all day event with a little something for everyone. Boy Child enjoyed the foam weapon battle while Girl Child and her BFF enjoyed making custom flip flops and the clothing swap-o-rama (participants bring clothes they no longer want and pick out others, which can be altered and turned into new things with the sewing machines, trims, paints and other things on sight.)

We all made Franstuffies (no longer loved stuffed animals are separated into parts and reassembled into new mix and match creations.) I'm glad that the dismantling was done ahead of time, or I may have found it disturbing, but instead, we all found it fun.

The evening was a dance and although the kids hadn't wanted to go ahead of time, they changed their minds and wanted to spend more time with their new friends. The event ended and was cleaned up by 11pm, and most of the people left for home or hotels. The campers stayed (and hung out in the lodge until the wee hours again) while the kids taught each other dance moves and played hysterical and entertaining games including ultimate ninja, a strange version of duck, duck, goose, wheelbarrow races. I bummed free wifi.

Even though it rained solid for over 36 hours, our tent didn't leak. Thankfully, it let up again in the morning while we packed up. We were exhausted and muddy and the drive home took longer than usual since I drank the worlds largest Dr Pepper to stay awake and kept having to hit rest stops.

The kids slept till almost 11 yesterday, and are already asking when we can do it again.

Kicking Up Something New (which sort of looked like a seizure)

Somewhere in my random blog browsing yesterday, I read something suggesting purposely trying to do some sort of new and different thing every single day- preferably something you're nervous about. I can't remember all the reasons behind the idea, or where I found it, but I do recall something about stretching, learning, keeping out of a rut, finding bravery and strength...stuff like that.

I realized that I'm always trying to get my kids to do new things, but rarely do it myself. "Go on kids...try it... you never know if you'll like it.." But since I'm not just a homeschooling mom, but a part of a Life Learning family, I should be growing too, right? (in ways other than actual waist circumference.)

I do love a challenge (although only if it's self imposed- outside challenges frustrate and annoy me) and this one even goes with my word of the year-  "Explore." I may not be in for every day, but I'd be on the look out for new things to try.

So, when I saw that the gym where my Boy Child wanted to play basketball that afternoon was offering a new class that's kind of dancing meets kickboxing (only no one actually hits you) I thought, "This sounds fun, right?"

Well, like so much in life, the ideal and the reality are far, far apart. I'm many things, but an athlete....well.....that's not so much one of them. Still, I realize that exercise helps my mood as well as my backside, plus, I figured since I'm also attempting this "No Bitterness for Lent" thing, I really could stand to blow off some energy with this Turbo Kicking.

The trouble was that it was hard to blow off steam when the punches and kicks are choreographed to really fast music, and left me flailing to keep up. No matter what the song said, I did not have the moves like Jagger. I imagined I'd be sort of Billy Banks-ish (not as in a muscley African American man, but as in all fancy with the boxing moves "double time."

Since for some reason, perhaps to torture the customers, they line the walls of places like this with mirrors, I could see just how bad things actually looked. It was a bit like someone having a seizure. I was sweaty and breathing hard and flapping my arms and legs around in all directions. I wondered if anyone would offer medical treatment, and the the teacher would have to whisper,"No, she's not epileptic, I think that's just how she dances."

Fortunately, I was not the only one having trouble keeping up. Much of the class seemed to be struggling, and I took comfort in that. The teacher would shout off rapid fire directions "Right punch, left hook, kick right front, kick left back, knee, squat....." By the time my brain registered what she said, she was on to something else. I may have actually been slack jawed with confusion.

I'm not a big fan of perspiring and I was sweating like the lady on Flash Dance, but naturally, I looked nothing like her either. I decided to quit looking in the mirror and just focus. That was almost a tragic mistake as my mad kickboxing skills nearly whacked a classmate in the face. I'm fairly sure she felt the wind off my flying foot, but luckily, no contact was made and she seemed so preoccupied with her own struggle to keep up, she didn't really even notice how close she had been to a broken nose.

I'm proud to say that I did the whole class except the cool down at the end. I only had to skip out a few minutes early, not because I was exhausted and quitting, but  because I had to get my Girl Child to her dance class...honestly.

This morning, I can definitely feel that I used my body in ways that I normally don't, but it's a good feeling. Despite my lack of natural finesse, I had a good time and will certainly try it again. Not today though...next on my list of things to try is Pilates.

Trashy Art- Washed Ashore

I'm the first to admit that plastic is an incredibly useful material. I'm extremely glad that we have it to wrap products in so they aren't all exposed and covered in filth, and really can't imagine life without it- but the saturation of plastic everywhere I turn is also a major pet peeve of mine. I mean why does the cashier at the grocery store try to put my bag of potatoes into another bag? They're already in a bag for goodness sakes!

It really drives me nuts to see plastic bags that fly out of the can on trash day, because I know that unfortunately, a lot of them wind up in the ocean.

I've found all sorts of interesting plastic trash, much of it from far away places while beach combing with my kids.  We try to pick up what we can and make sure it makes it to a garbage can, but an artist is Oregon is doing much cooler things with the trash on the shores of her native beaches. She's using it to create some pretty spectacular art.

A few months back, my kids and I went to the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California where we got to learn about all sorts of things, including ocean garbage. As you can imagine, the plastic that ends up in the ocean is often a bummer for the critters that make their homes there. Sometimes they swallow it, and sometimes they get entangled in it, and it rarely works out well for the animal. 

These folks do some wonderful rescue and rehabilitation work with marine birds and animals. Over the years, this group has treated over 17,000 animals including seals, sea lions, whales, dolphins and other species- many of which are threatened or endangered, and many of which are sick or dying from something having to do with plastic. My Girl Child is very interested in Marine Biology and it was very inspirational as well as educational for her to learn about the work being done. 

While there we got to see the very cool art work of Angela Pozzi. The huge sculptures of ocean creatures in her Washed Ashore exhibit were made exclusively from plastics picked up on the beaches of Oregon, and they are amazing. Her team of volunteers picked up 3.5 tons of plastic garbage from a 20 mile stretch of beach and churned out 18 gigantic sculptures from it. The woman certainly has vision and her giant fish, seal, jellyfish, and starfish all make quite a visual statement. It's now on a global tour, and is quite worth checking out if it comes anywhere near you. If not, the website is also interesting.

If you happen to be on the Oregon Coast, Pozzi's group even does trash art workshops. How fun would that be? It all makes me want to go home and make some trash art myself, but I haven't quite got the vision (although I do have all kinds of junk around here that could probably qualify as trash.)

 A few years ago, we had a "Mad Toy Laboratory" party which was kind of along those lines, but on a smaller scale. We took old and unloved plastic kid toys, dismantled them, and with hot glue guns created new artwork. We had sculptures with Barbie heads and muscle man arms sticking out of the side of race cars among other things. We also learned that hot glue really is hot, and several children went home with burns.

Does anyone have any fun ideas for trashy art type projects for Earth Day this year? I'd love to hear about them. 

Ready To Fly

I was thankful for the break in the rain as I loaded my old Volvo station wagon and headed south towards the desert. My mind was heavy with questions about relationships, my job, my future. The car was packed to the roof with enough food for a small nation, and barely enough room for my two kids and a tent. 

I drove without a real agenda, with only a general idea of places we wanted to see. I had no idea where we would stay, only that we would travel along a very vague circular route through the southwest, and that we would not be coming back for more than a month. The trip was a lot like my life- without any clear plan as to where I was going. I just needed to journey in a different direction to see what was out there. So, I drove.

I drove, and drove. I drove for weeks. I can't say how many miles because the odometer in my old car had stopped working long ago. But this trip wasn't about the car, even though we lived out of it and slept in it more than once. It wasn't about counting miles either, even though we covered many thousands. This trip was about exploring and being free. Enjoying the journey was as important to the experience as any destination. We stopped for everything from Wild West theme shows to giant statues of road runners made out of garbage. I rarely drove more than a few hours in a day, and spent a few days discovering each place before moving on. As I drove, we talked. We talked about everything from the splendid sights all around to our dreams and goals for the future. No one asked "Are we there yet?" because we rarely knew where there was.

We watched the landscape constantly change, and oohed and aahed over the scenery. There was a daily chorus of "wow" from every seat as we became enamored with all that is out there. But, it wasn't all about beauty and wonder either. Navigating strange cities and countrysides, and setting up camp in a new place every few days was a lot of work. We were like pioneers, growing more competent in our skills all the time.

At night, we were at home and cozy in our tent, playing cards and reading stories aloud by lamp light and talking even more in the dark. As we laughed at silly jokes and bickered over who ate the last cookie, I was so glad to be able to spend this time with these kids.

I was asked more than once what possesses a 39 year old woman with a college education and a seemingly stable life to head into the the unknown for 5 weeks of sleeping on an air mattress. Sometimes the questioners were people who admired the spirit of adventure, and just as often, it was by someone who questioned both the sanity and the safety of a woman alone on the road with children. I never really had a clear answer for any of them. I could only say that I wanted to see the world with my kids, and hotels every night were not in the budget.

Before I set off, there was a big part of me that thought this trip would give me time to contemplate all the things in my life that were slowly sucking away at my soul. I imagined staring out at the desert, pondering life and finding direction. It turned out that it wasn't that kind of trip. 

Traveling without an itinerary does have the advantage of allowing spontaneity, but when children are involved, it requires a lot more thinking. If you are the only adult in charge, you not only have to find the way from point A to point B, but you also kind of have to make sure that they have a safe place to sleep each night and food to eat each day. It helps if that food is more than cookies and chips too, hence the overloaded Volvo. 

When you are busy packing up your nylon fabric home into your car and making choices about where to move next several times each week, the journey becomes one that is more about external exploration than internal. Children also tend to make noise, which in turn makes quiet contemplation rather difficult. But, somehow, without any conscious effort or realization, the internal work happened too. 

As I marveled at the giant 200 year old Saguaros and miles of sparkling White Sands, the seeds were being planted in my subconscious. Sitting in a 700 year old sacred Kiva at Bandelier and gazing over the marvelous Arches of rock, something sprouted in my heart. As I stared up in awe at the imposing cliffs of Zion and down in amazement at the pointed spires of Bryce Canyon, the seeds grew. By the time I watched the sun set over Death Valley, I somehow knew deep in my soul that I would be alright. We all would.

There was no logical plan or magical clear answers to any of the things I was supposed to be pondering, only a calm confidence that the same wonderful world that featured this incredible variety of magnificence, had fabulous things in store for me as well... if I would just give them the time and space to be. The rivers, the mountains, and the deserts- they all took time. No one forced the Grand Canyon or rushed the redwoods. Every place we went was different and marvelous in it's own way. They had grown, changed and evolved over time. To be honest, some of that process looked rather painful, but the results were just as they should be. The things didn't belong were eliminated, and they became their own unique wonders.

I came home not knowing exactly what my future would bring, but convinced that I needed to eliminate the things that didn't belong in my life. Change might be scary, but unlike the mountains, I don't have millions of years to grow into what I want to be. I have one short lifetime to find my unique beauty in. 

We came back feeling in love with the world. I was inspired to keep going and seeing more, traveling more with my children. We are planning to hit the road again in a few months, this time heading north. The trip that started it all also ended up inspiring me to do more things the naysayers would fret over. I cut my hours at my job and eliminated the most draining components. Of course that also eliminated a huge portion of my income, but it opened up a well of time and energy for other creative endeavors. I feel as free and endangered as the Condors nesting over the Colorado River- hatched in captivity and released into the wilds. I am spreading my wings and ready to fly. 


****This essay appeared on the Dave's Travel Corner website.

What Ever Happened to Childhood?

I spent a lovely day yesterday chatting with friends and drinking tea while kids of all ages ran amok, played games, ate scones and made crafts. Throughout the afternoon big kids picked up books and read them to little kids or themselves, several board games were figured out and a rather elaborate game that involved characters and plot was created.

Days like this make me so thankful for the freedom and flexibility of our homeschooling lifestyle.

Driving to take my son to play basketball that afternoon, I noticed a number of tiny kids struggling backpacks that looked like they weighed more than the kids themselves. Later, while writing a letter in a cafe, I could overhear a number of conversations related to homework and school struggles. None of them sounded as though there was any love of learning taking place. Most of them seemed to be rather down on themselves and education, both of which made me sad.


It reminded me of a rant I wrote a few years ago for a newspaper about schools pushing kids too hard, too early. I know that not all schools push kids, but it does seem to be a trend. The baffling thing to me is that as a society we are going along with it.

What ever happened to childhood?!? 


Here's that piece- I'd love to hear what you all think about the subject:


"People who care about young children should be outraged by how much more academic work kindergarteners are supposed to be doing now than was expected of them in the past, including reading and homework. We should be questioning why or if and how this benefits our children.

Some kids have always been ready to read early, but are all children somehow now developmentally ready a year or two earlier than they were 20 years ago? The intervention programs label many children as slow, but they would have been right on schedule a few years ago. These labels will follow them through school and most kids will learn to live up to their label of being slow and inadequate. I would think that many of the kids aren't even slow, but just stuck in a system that is moving way too fast. It's the system of too high expectations too early that needs intervention, not the children.

What ever happened to childhood and time to play? Of course reading and literacy are important, but why at 5 years old? What's the rush? Do we need or even want our youngest children to be able to read all the newspaper and magazine headlines, many of which are about terrible violence in the world, or all of the advertising that you cannot avoid if you leave your home? Who is speaking up for the rights of the children to just be children? Five-year-olds need to be listening to and enjoying stories from books, not being forced to do worksheets that only frustrate them.

Many school children I talk to will read only for schoolwork or prizes, certainly not to gain information for themselves or because they enjoy it. Many end up hating it. Perhaps no child will be left behind, but many of them will grow up thinking they are stupid or slow and never learn to read for pleasure, find enjoyment in education or truly think for themselves. It doesn't seem like this is a system that is about the children anymore, but one that is about making money with textbooks, tests and intervention programs.

Next, will we move the ages of crawling and walking up a few months, and develop some programs to assist all these children who may have been fine on the old time line, but are just too slow these days?

I know there are plenty of parents and teachers who agree that this is ridiculous. I think we all need to stand up and speak out loudly for these kids. We shouldn't just accept this loss of childhood and force our kids to grow up sooner than they need to."

*****This article was originally published in the Record Searchlight's "Speak Your Piece" column and also is featured on the Homeschool Resource Center website.