Nature, wild and tame, homeschooling

 The honesty never came back this year after several years of faithfully reappearing each year , and almost all the neighboring honesty was destroyed by the fence project, so I was glad to find at least a few seedpods lying about as I was out walking 

and back home just dropped them into the honesty pot in hopes.

Since my accidental gardening was so much more successful than my on purpose gardening this year, I'm starting a new policy of non-involvement. Things seem to go better when I leave them alone.

And here's a little insect I last saw ages ago on this very clump of grass

Perpetual motion, not very good picture. His colors are startling, so vivid. I believe they're a warning to birds not to eat, a defense mechanism of some sort.

Here's a better picture

No milkweed for miles around, so I'm not sure why he keeps showing up.

And some people like them enough to get their tiny red eggs and create a habitat for them

Homeschooling according to the dialog. The youngster explains it's a class pet!

Not that the homeschoolers I'm familiar with around here actually sit at a table at home with a parent teaching as if in a classroom. Usually the idea is not to translate the classroom idea to home, but to unschool, hiring teaching talent, and taking trips and expeditions to learn subject matter and develop thinking skills.

The reason I've come into contact is that around here homeschoolers usually form alliances and hire teachers for subjects the parents aren't up for. 

I used to teach the occasional young student art at the studio, with parents staying out of the way. I'd explain what we were doing and why, in case they had to report to the regular school authorities on progress. 

I had one student I really loved, great little kid, wonderful sense of humor. His mother was a physicist, and taught various sciences to their group at a rented location in a church basement. 

I used to avoid the parents wanting to hire me to do exactly what, and only what,  they dictated, on the grounds that if you can't teach a subject, no background in it, it's better, when you hire, to let the teacher do the teaching.  

One of my friends got caught up, briefly,  in a group that wanted her to teach art to their rules -- one week shading, another week perspective, another week color theory. To kids aged six to eight. No logical sequence, no art integrity, no age appropriateness, just stuff they'd probably seen in bullet points. She was an experienced class art teacher, and I think they lost a good chance there. But this can happen.

I never taught perspective as such, it being an architectural rendering concept not a fine art one. I used to teach seeing, and perspective would follow naturally.  No need to beat it into shape.

And the groups who said I had to sign on to their religious beliefs in order to teach their kids an hour a week didn't get far with me!

There are different reasons for homeschooling, some religious, some where kids are outside of the usual range of abilities or temperaments.  

A kid operating several grade levels above her age can't very well be accommodated in even the most flexible public school program. Age seems to be a big factor in class placement.

Likewise some kids on the autism spectrum just can't fit in, even in special needs groups, and are bullied. Anyway parents make different decisions. They don't all subscribe to the industrial education complex which works for a lot of students. 

It must be Labor day coming up, turning my thoughts to schooling, long after it no longer affects me. No more August shopping for school shoes!

I'm looking for a parcel of yarn from Joanne about now, my fall knitting program about to start. That's the good news.

This is the year of bodily breakdowns around here. This week sees the final  post-surgical eye checkup , then the first of the twice a year  osteoporosis shots, which I'm doing with trepidation, but some hope it will be effective. Then last evening a chunk of molar fell off.  It doesn't hurt, but it's added an expensive dentist visit probably next week, sigh. Always something.

I really have to get a social life that doesn't mean a round of doctors! And I'm a relatively fit person, amazing how they take over.

Anyway happy day everyone! May all your health issues be the result of falling off your skateboard at age 90!