The Littlewell Family is Online
Written by Charles
Saturday, 07 July 2007 04:54
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The Littlewell Family is now online, coming to you from the pastoral background of rural Virginia. It's been quite an adjustment from Georgia- you don't know what rural is until you're looking through the local newspaper and see an article about the "Chicken of the Week". It's so strange, we couldn't have made it up!
These pages will serve as a place to keep in contact with not only those in Georgia, but all over, and keep you up with the day-to-day antics we experience. Visit often, and comment of course- we made this place as a two-way source of communications!
Love from Virginia!
-Charles, Chrissi, Butch, Nathan, Hannah, and Charlotte |
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Last Updated on Monday, 01 February 2010 17:19 |
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Homeschooling Our Children
Written by Chrissi
Saturday, 07 July 2007 04:54
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Whenever adults ask my children where they go to school and they answer “We’re homeschooled”, their second reaction (shortly after “That’s great!”) too often is to say “I couldn’t do that, be with my kids all the time!”. I never can understand that. Silently, I always wonder “Then why did you bother having kids in the first place, if you can’t stand their presence?” Not that mine are always a bundle of joy, of course; they are people, as am I, and in either case we all sometimes need alone time, get annoyed with each other, etc. But the idea that my own children bother me so much that I couldn’t actually imagine spending more than an hour in the morning and maybe 3 or 4 in the evening with them is unfathomable to me.
Many people express concern that homeschoolers may not be providing proper education for their children and therefore must be monitored. If their children aren't achieving a certain level proficiency on some measure (such as standardized tests), then the children should be forced to attend public or private schools. The argument is that we must hold homeschoolers to "reasonable standards. That is all well and good, but "in theory" if you apply a law in one way to one group you should be consistent across groups. If you are going to hold the parents accountable for failure to educate their children, you MUST also hold the traditional school system accountable when they fail. But this does not happen! That's why so many "graduates" can't even count back change at the register!
In essence, my major goal on the "academic" side of homeschooling is to prepare my kids for college, because that is the path that has the highest chances of future success. Towards this goal, I continue to believe that the best way to provide my children with the maximum ability to receive greater adult success is to homeschool with particular emphasis on the following:
- Developing the skills needed to get a good college education,
- Developing the proper work ethic,
- Encouraging a love for learning, and
- Developing social skills.
We combine this with an emphasis on the spiritual values we believe are essential to living a joyful and fulfilled life and the close family ties that I long to maintain. These are the things that provide the clear direction for our homeschool experience. |
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 02 February 2010 14:18 |
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Written by Charles
Saturday, 07 July 2007 04:54
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Moving to Virginia has been an adjustment in many ways, but one area that we were looking forward to was the weather. The summers should be milder, and less humid. The fall and spring are beautiful in this area with the rolling hills and the trees overshadowing the roads and the mountainous switchbacks. And we will actually get four seasons- including snow in winter!
Before we moved, we asked quite a few people about how the snowy season was. We were a bit disappointed- they said that they didn't get that much snow. Maybe one big snowfall a year, and other than that, just cold. "Well," we reasoned, "at least it's one good snowfall a year." Either they underestimated, or this is a really unusual year...
We had a huge snowfall in December- so much so, that I was unable to get home. Best Western was out of rooms by the time I arrived, but thankfully, they allowed me to sleep on the floor of one of their ballrooms (along with a lot of other stranded people). It was still pretty bad out the next day, but I was able to get home. We saw the effects of that snowfall for a week- our first white Christmas! Even with the events getting home (and my first time shovelling snow), it was nice. The tally so far- 18-20 inches of snow.
It snowed a bit more a couple of weeks down the line- again, enjoyable. It was here one day, and gone the next- only 2-3 inches, bringing the total up to a little less than 2 feet. Then we had another pretty bad one, though nothing on the scale of December- only 8-12 inches. I never imagined saying that. Then we had last weekend- complete with power outage. 12-15 inches, then more on Tuesday and Wednesday... we're all getting pretty tired of it by now. I've at least been able to go to work, but cabin fever is setting in with the rest of the family...
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Last Updated on Thursday, 11 February 2010 17:33 |
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