Public School Dropouts...Again....

     Part of my parenting philosophy is that my kids should be able to make their own choices about some things. They are, after all, 8 and 12, and bright enough to realize that there are consequences to choices. So right before Labor Day, they decided they wanted to go back to public school. They had been homeschooled (mostly unschooled) the last 2 years. I think I was as shocked as they were when I agreed to let them go back. 
     That Tuesday, Mr Farmer loaded them up in the van and registered them for public school. The first 4 days were great, the farmer kids were happy and seemed to be doing well. Monday came and Mr Farmer went to school to help the little girl farmer work on her locker, since she was having problems with it. Tuesday came and little girl farmer wasn't feeling well, and didn't want to go, but she went anyway. She came home and told us the teacher wouldn't let her call home to get allergy meds brought to her. Wednesday night her teacher called, and said that she was behind in math and they were working on getting her caught up, and she needed to be better organized at writing down homework and bringing her assignments home and back to school. I mentioned that her attention span still isn't really great, but we would work with her here at home. After I hung up the phone, I said to Mr. Farmer, "You did mention to this teacher that little girl farmer has ADHD right?" He assured me he had.  By Thursday, little boy farmer wasn't feeling well either, but off to school he went anyway. Thursday he comes home and said the teacher wouldn't let him call home for Tylenol, but sent him to the nurse for a cough drop. He brought home an assignment that had a note on it saying he had to stay in from recess to finish it. Then, I checked my email. Apparently little girl farmer had forgotten to bring home a science assignment, and got a ZAP (Zeroes aren't permitted) and was assigned to lunch detention the next day. The teacher had not mentioned this to little girl farmer. 
     So now our kids are public school dropouts, once again. On Monday, Mr Farmer will deliver a letter to both principals stating they will be homeschooled, again. It's not all bad, we have learned a few things from all this. I am fairly certain they will never mention public school again, at least not in the "we might like to try to go back" kind of way. 
     My kids are gonna grow up and do amazing things, and it's all gonna happen in the blink of an eye. I don't want to miss out on one second of it.

Foooood!!

We have canned 17 quarts of pickles, 21 quarts of green beans, and 14 quarts of dried beans, and froze 5 or so quart bags of squash in the last few days. Today I went to the garden and picked 3 more yellow squash, and some zinnias for a pretty bouquet. I am still working up tomatoes and making sauce, and hoping to get some blackberries to freeze this week. Mr. Farmer just walked in the door with 10 eggs. I have used both grandma's old canner, and my new to me canner, along with the new water bath canner. It's been busy and kind of hectic, but it will be sooo worth it when we can pop open a jar this winter and have fresh food. Next on the agenda is tilling up the middle of the garden and planting cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage and fall peas. Most of that will go in the freezer at harvest time though.

We started back to homeschool today which went well. Need to get back on a schedule though, because the little farmers were exhausted at wake up time this morning. Tomorrow will be easier...it always is. :)