***Darla’s Guest Post***

Welcome to Save-the-Earth Saturday! I hope you’ll join me with a story or a tip.

Last week I introduced you to Gaylord A Nelson, father of Earth Day. As many people know, recycling is buying plastic and glass items, using them, and dropping them off at the recycling center. I will show you some other ways to recycle in these next few paragraphs.

Try to buy cloth shopping bags, and use them again and again. A fifteen to twenty-year-old tree is only big enough for 700 grocery bags!

To help the earth in another way, when you’re shopping with your cloth bags, look for Recycled Toilet paper and paper towels. Some brands that we’ve used are Atlantic® 100% recycled paper, whitened without chlorine. Another is Green Forest® which is also 100% recycled paper, whitened with out chlorine. We found Green Forest at The grocery store and Atlantic at Menards. They were cheap, like 99 cents, or three rolls for $1.

I got a lot of information from the book, 50 Simple Things Kids Can do to Save the Earth. (Thanks for the tip, Jamie.)

When you’re going to get eggs, get the kind with the cardboard case, instead of foam. Foam takes over 1,000,000 years to decompose.

Try to live in a pre-owned home. If your hopes are really set on a new one, by a tear down, TEAR it down and build another in its place. Animals would not notice the difference that way.

Did You Know? 90% of America’s trash is dumped into landfills because it is the cheapest way!! A way to fix some of that garbage is to stop your junk mail! Whoever gets the mail in the family will be delighted and planet Earth won’t stink!

Did You Know? A Mother sperm whale died because of a single balloon swallowed. Don’t let go of your balloons!

Did You Know? If Earth keeps going this, way, we will be losing up to three spices a day!

And Pamela mentioned a great way to recycle last week in comments:

We’ve been composting for several years. I’ve been shocked at how quickly my kitchen scraps (not cooked) and certain yard debris have filled the huge containers. Last year, using the rich compost from the bottom, my squash plant grew out of the garden and climbed a tree in the flower bed. It was so funny to see the flower blossoming from the top, and then later a butternut squash hanging in the viburnum bush.

Continue Reading »

When we started this experiment five months ago, we did so out of a need to leave our current educational situation — without serious thought or discussion about my needs as a home educator.

Now I know I underestimated the impact of many important points.

The pressure for a public school educator to enroll his kids in public school. Real or perceived, my husband feels significant pressure for our kids to attend school. As a principal, he has a difficult time working to build excellent educators, while at the same time implying, “You’re good, but not good enough for my kids.”

The need for unwavering spousal support of the home educator. While my husband is an outstanding father (see exhibits A and B) and very supportive in general, the input I receive from him about our children’s education is more about how they do it in his school, rather than interest in, or recognition about, what we do in home school.

The importance of homeschool being the full-time job. While I started this endeavor with only a part-time business to run, I’ve turned to full-time recently. This responsiblity will end when my book is finished, but the stress of managing it all, is not something I would continue to do longterm.

The value of nearby, real-life allies, who provide a logistically easy, good-fit socialization. It doesn’t matter whether these families homeschool, or support your homeschool, but there’s a critical need for a natural connection to other kids that relate well to yours. Homeschoolers I have met that do this very well, tend to have family close, or best friends with kids the same age as their’s.

We have a lot to think about. What did you underestimate?

HOMESCHOOL EXPERIMENT RESULTS SERIES:
WHY WE STARTED
the JOYS
the STRUGGLES
the FUTURE for us
UPDATE after we Quit Homeschooling
Family out of Sync

Other Homeschooling Experiment milestones:
The Beginning
Week One - Starting with a Frazzle
Five Steps to Drive Yourself off a Cliff
Week Two - Just when I thought I knew what I was doing
Week Three — Let there be CRAFTS!
One-month Review
D’s Review at One Month
Week Five - Stress and frustration
Week Seven - Flip-flopping curriculum
Note to self - Consider having low expectations some weeks
Two-Month Review — Some aha moments
Three-Month Review — Not all peaches and cream
Four-Month Review — Loving ancient history
Five-Month Review — What I underestimated
Six-Month Review - Let’s Just Skip this Month
Seven-Month Review — Curriculum Review
D’s research paper — Save the Earth Saturday series
Tales of a Fourth-Grade Guinea Pig
All posts about the experiment — including WAY-COOL FIELD TRIPS!

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Thank you all for your oh-so-funny captions for my blast from the past this week. You were very kind in your comments, but I posted this pic less for vanity and more for the “ridiculous/sublime” effect you’ll understand next week.

Without further ado, I name Scribbit the winner of this week’s contest. Her caption, “These shoes are killing me, why didn’t I bring the flip flops?” spoke to the “sole” of this photo;) Congratulations, Michelle! Send me your snail address and I’ll ship out your prize — Chicken Soup for the Soul: Celebrating Mothers and Daughters. If you didn’t have a chance to read everyone’s captions, I encourage you to do so.

Some of my favorites:
My cheeks are killing me - thank heaven’s I put some vaseline on my teeth!” — Holly (who knows all about this!)
“That pin better hold up.” — Celeste
“All I needed was the reign” — Pamela (Ms Elvis referring to last week’s contest.)
“If that slit goes any higher I’ll not be wearing a dress, I’ll be wearing a superhero cape.” — Freelance Cynic

Remember to check in next week for the final caption contest in this series.

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The new site is up and accepting nominations for the 2006 Homeschool Blog Awards. Go and nominate your favorite homeschooling blogs. They’re accepting nominations until April 7, and voting will happen after that. I hear there may be prizes for the winners.

On a similar note, the Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Alasandra. What a wonderful selection of posts! I submitted D’s series leading up to Earth Day — Save-the-Earth Saturday.

As promised in last week’s caption contest, here’s the second in a series of three photos, leading up to my birthday.

The photo above is also pre-motherhood (duh) in my pageant days. I was first runner-up in the Miss Wisconsin USA pageant. I have only fond memories left, since the bod is totally gone. You’ll know what I mean in the final photo I post next week.

A current one.

Again, I think I’ve held true to my claim that I’m posting photos that look nothing like my profile pic. Again, I’m showing a photo I swore to myself I’d never show you.

And again, I’m offering a signed copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Celebrating Mothers and Daughters, to the winner of this week’s caption contest.

So keeping in mind last week’s flattering photo, how would you caption this one?

I’ll accept captions until Wednesday 8 PM Central Time, and post the winning caption on Thursday.

And if you’d like to see the final photo, I encourage you to subscribe to a feed below to get a reminder. I WON’T BE POSTING THE LINK ANYWHERE!

Just sayin’.

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