Educating Risa

I was honoured to receive the Beautiful Blogger Award from Alicia of Magic and Mayhem, one of my favourite homeschool blogs. She also does the amazing feel-good parenting blog, A Magical Childhood. I am supposed to list three blogs I have found (fairly) recently that I enjoy. As most of the blogs I read are for the purposes of trolling for homeschooling ideas, the blogs I’ve picked involve homeschooling:

Farm School is a wonderful secular, science-rich blog by a fellow homeschooler in Alberta. Her children are slightly older than mine, so her blog has given me great resources to grow into.

Home Spun Juggling is a blog that regularly makes me laugh, with comic strips about homeschooling by a homeschooler.

Mind Games is a blog about two children with such an zest and energy for life—you’ll find yourself smiling along with them and their learning adventures, even though you’ve never met.

I’m also supposed to list 7 facts about me. Here goes, in no particular order:

1. I am a soccer fanatic, and have watched every World Cup since 1982, when I was but a ‘tween.

2. I have moved more than 20 times in my life, but have now been in this house more than 6 years—by far the longest I have lived anywhere. I’ve even planted bulbs and perennials.

3. Because of moving around, I was in high school for 6 (SIX!) years despite never failing so much as a course. High school started in grade 8 in BC, and went to grade 13 in Ontario.

4. Also because of moving around before the advent of standardized curriculum, I completely missed certain subjects in school (Greek mythology, sex ed., WWII) and had others multiple times (Japan four years in a row!) This experience means I don’t worry at all about not following the Alberta curriculum for my boys or having ‘gaps’. You can have a perfectly fulfilling life without ever ‘officially’ studying certain things.

5. I love comedy, especially British, dry, absurdist, or satirical forms.

6. I was once a combined drama / philosophy major. Oh, the job prospects! I now have both a BA and MA in philosophy, as well as a B.Ed. And perhaps unlike many, I feel I use much of what I learned in university on an almost daily basis: The HOW of thinking, not the WHAT.

7. I met my hubby online before such a thing was common. We belonged to the same email list about vegetarianism, and when I was sent to Boston on business (I was working in publishing at the time; he was a student there) we arranged to meet for dinner at one of the veggie restaurants in the city. The rest, as they say, is history.