The “Joys” of School

It’s fall, and the kids are back in school, where they can learn math, reading and what gunfire sounds like:

The high school principal sent emails out to parents saying in part that the drill will include an alleged shooter in the building.

The police will be firing blanks to expose everyone to the sound of gunfire in the building.

If this doesn’t make people choose homeschooling, or at least a public school virtual academy like we have here in Wisconsin, I don’t know what will. Our society has deteriorated to the point that keeping your kids home is simply being rational.

Ariel Top

My eldest granddaughter has entered the Disney Princess phase, with her current favorites being Belle from “Beauty and the Beast” and Ariel from “The Little Mermaid.”

Since she already has a “Belle gown,” I made this Ariel top for her birthday using McCall’s pattern #6022. (I also used that pattern for the top I made for my younger granddaughter.)

It’s so much fun to sew for little girls again 🙂

How Schools Help Turn Children into Coddled Young Adults

People are complaining that the milennials won’t grow up, and in many cases they’re right. But who’s at fault? Their parents for coddling them, and the schools for treating teens like children.

This article points out what limited freedom today’s teens have. Even working is seen as inferior to going to school. Back in the 1970s, teens who didn’t want to go to college could go to school until noon and then leave for work. Now, if they work, they’re dragged back to the waste of time that is modern high school. Never mind that those first few jobs get young people on the road to eventually supporting themselves by giving them a taste of earning their own money.

While you’re there, scroll down and check out the chart in that same article, the chart showing the growth in students, teacher and administrators since 1950. There hasn’t even been 100% growth in the number of students, but we’ve gained 252% in the number of teachers, and a whopping 702% in the number of administrators.

Clearly public education has become a cash cow for many people, while preparing teens for adulthood takes a back seat. Savvy parents will put their teens’ needs first and help them get ready for adulthood without waiting for permission from the school, while homeschooling parents have the freedom to make the teen years a launching pad into adulthood, which is as it should be.

(Prepare your teen for adulthood with my book, Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers, now available in an expanded third edition, and also newly released as an eBook.)

Fabric Basket

I needed a birthday gift for a friend and found a tutorial for fabric baskets. To make one basket, I used two of my favorite fabrics from my stash, and broke open a new package of Hobbs Thermore polyester batting. (I keep a LOT of batting on hand!)

This project was fun to make. It used 2 16″ squares of fabric and one 16″ square of batting, plus four buttons. I free-motion-quilted the joined squares and batting before turning them into a basket. Polyester batting makes for a lightweight basket. If you prefer something sturdier, to put heavy things in, you might want to use thicker batting. But the polyester batting worked fine for this project. (I put a couple of bars of gift-shop soap and a bottle of hand lotion nestled in tissue paper in it for my friend.)

Baby Quilt for My New Grandson

Last fall I saw a cute children’s fabric panel at a quilt show and bought it, figuring I was likely to have at least one more grandchild at some point, and I could use the panel for the basis of a baby quilt. Little did I know that a new grandchild was already on the way!

I finished the quilt before he was born this summer, but I didn’t learn until the day he was born that his middle name would be Fox. So I’m delighted to give him a quilt with a cute little fox on it:

The fabrics that surround the panel were all part of a fat quarter set I bought years ago from Hancock’s of Paducah. The panel itself was fun to quilt; I stitched along most of the lines, then put in some swirls for clouds and echoed a few motifs. I meander-quilted the blocks on the sides, but one block has a special message of love for our new little guy.