"School Days"

When my wife and I were married, we were always very flexible in deciding what constituted a "school day." It was generally built around our work schedules, but even that was followed only occasionally. Now that we are divorced I find it easier on everyone to keep things more stable. We still have the opportunity to move things around at will - if we didn't, we would be passing on one of the great benefits of homeschooling. But in general, everyone knows what everyone is going to be doing on a given day. I have found that questions lead to unnecessary tension in our new situation.

My oldest lives with me full time, so she is basically on my schedule. She does her school work Monday through Friday and goofs off over the weekend. My younger daughter's schedule is somewhat more complex. Monday through Friday while I'm at school, Katie and my 4 year old son are at their mother's home. They spend Wednesday and Thursday nights there, and I pick them up Monday, Tuesday, and Friday afternoons. They are with me over the weekend (Confused yet? No worries, me too). I have arranged things so Katie has one day off from school during each parent's two full-time days. In other words, Katie has Wednesdays off from school with her mom, and Saturdays off with me. While this breaks up her weekend, it seems to work for everyone, most importantly, her.

The only real problem we are having with our current schedule is that Katie doesn't know how much homework to do at each parent's home on her split days. As a result of this confusion, when I pick her up at 5:00 on Monday for example, she may have all her homework done or she may have only just begun. The issue is that she spends more time at my home even on those days, but much of it is eaten up by sleeping, eating, and getting ready for either her day or bed.

Anyway, that's how we do it (or at least try to do it...) Any comments? What have you found helpful?

Post-Thanksgiving Post

Thanksgiving went well. We all got along and ate too much. For some reason I don't feel like it's a holiday without making far too much food. Plenty of leftovers.

I miss living near more extended family. Holidays make me want to surround myself and my children with as many relatives as possible. I think that has something to do with my subconscious drive to make too much food... In any case, I'm considering some ways to make this happen on future holidays. Last week my aunt invited the kids and I to spend Thanksgiving with her and her kids (my cousins). She is our closest extended fam, about three hours away. That would have been fun, but we had already arranged to have dinner with Stacy and the kids at my place. When I told my aunt this, she invited Stacy along as well. Obviously this didn't happen this time, but it got me thinking. What are relationships with ex-in-laws like? It would be really nice if we could all still spend holidays with extended family, but it's a little hard to imagine that being a comfortable situation. When I brought up the idea to Stacy, she seemed pretty uninterested.

What do you all think? Any experience with ex-in-laws? I supposed it could get easier as time goes by. We shall see.

Kevan

Thanksgiving

Well tomorrow's the big day. Stacy, my ex, is coming over for Thanksgiving dinner. This will be our first set of holidays since the divorce. Katie, my ten year old, is pretty stressed about it all. I was worried we weren't going to be able to do any of the holidays all together, but in the end, we were able to work things out in a way Stacy was comfortable with. I really think it's best this way, especially for this first set. There are so many first times involved with divorce. At least this way, some of the trauma is minimized I think.

Hanging out with Stacy is an interesting experience. When the kids are with us, it's almost like we are friends. Other times we can't seem to fathom how we ever got along well enough to get married.

Well happy Thanksgiving to all. I hope everyone reading this has someone they love they are spending the day with. 

Kevan

I'm hoping to see Ron Paul at UNR tomorrow!

Ron Paul's Views On Home Schooling

Washington D.C. 9/18/2007 07:13 AM GMT (FINDITT)

Many parents of home schooled children are likely wondering how the 2008 Presidential Candidates are feeling about the issue of home schooling. Many of the candidates have not made a formal statement regarding home schooling, perhaps because many of them think the issue is not as pertinent as other issues.

However, Ron Paul has voiced his opinion on home schooling. He calls it a “practical alternative” for families. He strongly supports the issue and option of home schooling in America and puts such a strong emphasis on it, one wonders why the other candidates haven’t mentioned their takes on this interesting educational issue. According to USAElectionPolls.com and their reports of the ARG polls, Ron Paul is still only coming in with 1% of supporters at this point. One could guess that 1% are home school supporters, no doubt.

The reason Ron Paul agrees home schooling is an important part of American education is because he believes parents should have more control over the education of their children. He wants to take home schooling incentives even further by advancing tax credits via the Family Education Freedom Act. This would allow parents to use more of their own income for their home schooling efforts. He vows to protect home schooling parents by promising “federal monies must never be used to undermine the rights of homeschooling parents”.

http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?storyid=23092&ret=Default.aspx