Sharon @ home

Finally a book report!

I just finished reading Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata. It will be released this coming week but I got a chance to read it early. What a wonderful book! It is a story about Sumiko, a young Japanese girl of 12 who is growing up on a flower farm in
California when Pearl Harbor is attacked. Within days, her family and all the Japanese people in her area have to leave everything they have worked to build. Sumiko and many others have been born in the US so they are citizens but they are relocated to horse stables on the Washington State Fairgrounds. After a while they are moved again to a permanent camp in the Mojave area of Arizona. When they arrive they learn that the land is also an Indian Reservation. Conflicts arise between the Indians and the Japanese. This is the story of how they continue to make a life amidst unrelenting hardships. It is also a story of true friendship and family love. 

Cynthia Kadohata has family members who were relocated in this dark period of American history. She is the author or Kira Kira which won the Newbery Medal for Children's Literature in 2005. I will be very surprised if Weedflower isn't chosen for many awards as well. 

Sharon

how did you come up with the name Belle?

I have had several people; including my dear friend Colleen in
Guam ask me about the name of my blog. It is true that Sharon is my real name and I don’t conceal it from my net friends.  But then I use Belle as the name on my blog. There are perfectly good, though silly, reasons for this.  One is; I live in a town in Washington State called Bellevue.  The other is from the story, Beauty and the Beast. Belle is the brown haired princess who loves books and loves the beast. I’m not saying my husband is a beast, but he’s a big guy and they share some characteristics.  So, for several reasons I feel a certain kinship to her. 

Does that work? 

Sharon

The Dress

Yesterday my youngest and I went to Goodwill. We found a prom style dress that fit her perfectly. It had been there for a few weeks so it was 50% off the original Goodwill price of $14.99! It has a little area where the fabric is damaged but we decided to get it anyway. Last night we spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out how to fix or cover up the bad spot. We really hadn’t come up with any great ideas but today we showed it to her math tutor and she had a fabulous idea. By the way, the math tutor is a very good friend of our family and the mother of my middle girl’s best friend. She also likes to sew and is very good at it. 

I should say that the dress has a fitted bodice with stiff stays from the waist to the top every few inches. The flawed area is next to one of the stays about half way up. The skirt part of the dress is very full and long enough for my girl, who is nearly 6 feet tall. The brilliant idea is to get some beautiful ribbon that compliments the fabric of the dress and appliqué it to the dress along the stay with the flaw and along the one on the opposite side of the bodice. We will also make her a choker with the same ribbon and a cameo. In the next few days I’ll try to get some before and after pictures of the dress. 

Maybe tomorrow I’ll explain why a 14 year old homeschool girl would even need a prom dress! 

Sharon

A few things about me…

My name is
Sharon. I’m in my mid 40’s and I’ve been married 25 years. We go to a Presbyterian church, which we just love. I work part-time at a bookstore. It’s hard to work and homeschool but I have been doing it for a while and we are working through it. It’s fun to see the new books as they come out and the discount is very nice to have.  My husband is a computer programmer he also sings and writes songs. He loves to sing at various coffee shops in our area. God has blessed him with an amazing musical talent. 

Our family includes two cats who are 12 years old. They live both inside and out sometimes I’m surprised they are still alive. They are in reasonably good health, but it’s been a tough life what with weather and dogs and all. We also have two retired racing greyhounds. You could never meet two lazier dogs! They like to be walked but not for more than about a half mile and they don’t really like to run very much. 

We have been homeschooling since our oldest was kindergarten age. The youngest went to grade school for a few years but she has been homeschooling since 2001. For us, homeschooling is an extension of parenting. I don’t know if we are true unschoolers, we might be eclectic. We do what seems right for each child at the time. I pray a lot and God has been faithful to guide. 
Sharon

rigor

Something that I have noticed lately is the word rigor as it relates to education. There seems to be a lot of concern among school people that children be prepared for the rigor of college.  Obviously, to them anyway, children need to have very hard work throughout their public schooling years in order to be prepared for even harder work in college. 

As a mother of two girls who have homeschooled until college and unschooled most of that time let me assure you, this is not good thinking. Giving children very hard work in school teaches them one thing above all others; Learning is Hard. 

Learning doesn’t have to be hard. We are born ready to learn and if we are allowed to learn as we are ready and with our interests as the guide, it happens naturally and often effortlessly. 

Sharon

first blog entry

This is my first blog entry.  I hope to use this to make a record that I can share.  I will be writing about homeschooling in this family of ours.  We have three daughters, two of whom are "graduated."  There is still one daughter at home and living the learning life of an unschooler. At this point the youngest is 14 and we are thinking about how we will homeschool next year.  A few weeks ago she announced that she wanted to go to public high school next year.  I like homeschooling and I would prefer she not go to school, but she is in charge of her education so we will see.