Editor's comment

Grassroots homeschooling.And, the fires are building. In order to teach we may need to go back to school and get those teacher certifications reissued. In defense of homeschooling, we choose to educate at home and keep courage. Mine is failing. We started school in the summer and have been pounding on math with videos and worksheets, multiplication tests and prizes for learning the times tables. The Teaching Company tapes can be checked out from the Library and they are excellent. Welcome back to unschooling where we put the books out and let the kids trip over them and barricade their rooms with stacks of goodies.

California is putting a dent in homeschooling by declaring it illegal.

Free, and nothing is free. Freedom is hard fought. As parents, we need to check in with resources in our community and join together to ensure that homeschooling is kept free from the intrusion of state or education associations or national mandate. We need to express discontent when we are challenged.Stand firm friends.

October 1, 2002 Rocket Day for 4-H

David N. will demonstrate the rockets and allow one person at a time to set one off.

The movie "October Sky" will be shown. Or, you can rent it and show it at home later.

Bring drinks and snacks. This may take a while.

See you all at Lisa's house.

Thanks to the Mount Vernon Estate

We ate lunch at the Mount Vernon inn and had peanut soup. Colonial plantation and a colonial lunch.

During the lunch, we were visited by three presidential reenacters, representing President Washington, President Madison and President Jefferson. They had appeared with Mrs. Cheney in the program. This was the highlight of the visit.President Jefferson and President Madison chatted for a long time with our homeschoolers who had suffered through the heat and the feelings that they weren't treated as well as schooled children. It happens. We are different children. When the school children go to an event, they don't have both parents attend with them. We were twenty-seven strong. The school children were not allowed to complain about the heat. And, I heard voices of dissension from mine.

We still feel that we are Mount Vernon's own homeschoolers. We live at the gate that looks at the mansion across the park land. We are living on property once owned by George Washington. We are special homeschoolers, because we celebrate freedom.

President Washington questioned Oleg about knowing his name before he would let Oleg take his picture. Oleg told President Washington that he was first President and this was his home we had visited that morning. Finally, when pressed for his name, Oleg responded with "Washington". This is Oleg's fourth year in America. He must be paying some attention.

President Madison talked about his education. Although, President Madison had the advantage of a home education with a tutor, he had to confess to some anxiety about home schooling. He displayed some open mindedness after talking with the children at length, and was going to think about homeschooling. He described his further higher education and we may have influenced him to change his opinion to a "maybe".

We were especially pleased with President Jefferson who spoke with us about homeschooling his two daughters as long as he could before the business of being President took too much time to continue. He told the children of his home, Monticello and his extensive travels.He was proud of his library and encourage the children to read and have books to further their education. Mr. Jefferson was called to his table by President Madison so the orders could be placed for lunch.

All of us were fascinated at this glimpse of the men who had become our early Presidents. We had an excellent beginning to our study of Colonial History. After lunch, we continued to explore the Mount Vernon Estate, the sixteen sided barn, the tomb that may have confused some of the younger children since we ate lunch in the room with President Washington and nobody can be in two places at once.

Thank you Mount Vernon.

We homeschoolers were happy to be invited to this special event.

Since we do live in the neighborhood next to Mount Vernon, we did take our name from this special place.

We all jumped off the ha ha wall.

We saw the guinea fowl and Kathy wants to hatch some. Moan and groan.At least she plans to send them to her Nanny in Oklahoma.

Duck raising News

We have sighted a falcon grabbing a wren out of our hedge. The fox is getting ideas and today we heard a great barred owl hanging around.

We ordered the ducks from Metzer Farms. We ordered the eggs from Eggbay.com. We have had some real education in embryo development and entomology. We are socializing the ducks in different ways as a study in sociology. Alex has raised his "Lucky" to watch television and kiss him on the lips and hug.

• Alden raised Duck
• Kathy Little Foot, Freya, Wednesday and
• Anna saved Summer Angel in the egg, River
• Oleg raised Sunshine and What
• Suzanne is raising Peeper and Pepper
• Alex is raising Lilo and Stitch, as well as Lucky Duck.
• The V's haven't told me the names of their three ducks yet.

Unfortunately, Kathy lost beautiful Freya to birth defects, and four of our ducks left home scared off by a family of crows. We learned a lot about loss and a lot about caring for life. We turned the eggs, candled and raised our ducks. We wonder what life offers for them since some of them don't actually know they are ducks. The fence has made our ducks very happy. They grew some more.

Thanks, Alden for some excellent handy work.

Writing Journals of Learning Journals

Vienna Parade October 23

Homeschoolers are marching in this parade. Wish we had hundreds of homeschoolers. Lisa N has arranged for the homeschoolers to be in the Vienna Parade. We did this before. It was so much fun. We nearly got run over by the marching band, we ate a picnic lunch on the side of the street, we went a long way in the street and walked a longer way back. We are entered to dress as historical characters, to name a few, Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, Susan B. Anthony, Abe Lincoln, Blackbeard, the Virginia Pirate, You decide what the costume will be and we will meet in Vienna and be in a parade.

4-H Activities

• 4-H October 1 Rocket Day
• October 15 Movie Day 11-3
• October 29 Pumpkin Carving

Reading Challenge

45 Pounds of food collected for UCM

They delivered notices asking for donations to their neighbors and collected a giant amount which they delivered to United Christian Ministries.

Thank you for this community service project. You did a lot of good. It makes Mount Vernon Homeschoolers look good when we help others.

Let's go Apple Picking!

This year, I'm wearing socks, jeans and long sleeve shirts and I'm staying out of funny orange spotted three fingered leaves. Just in case poison sumac and nasty poison ivy gets me.

Grist Mill Park Play Dates first and third Wednesdays

This play group is for all ages. The editor has allergies. The playground is large, some tables are shaded. The not so grand canyon falls away into a pond. We see frogs and snakes and explore the environment. Mothers attend the children who dangle with no fear from the equipment on the playground. Homeschooled children help one another, they invite others into the play, and we have a few sibling rivalries once in a while. We have ages to fourteen or so. Bring water, change of clothes if a mud bath is in the offering. Come as you are and there may be others there. We are a fair weather group, if it gets too hot, we melt and come and go when we want. If its during the school year, we generally have the place to ourselves and act accordingly. This is child directed play, we let them play.

Click here for a map to the park.