Just when I thought summer was HERE for good, we're hit with rain and hail and wind - even tornados! In usually sunny So. California. So I'm back in yoga PANTS and a long sleeved base layer - a favorite running top, actually - and headed to the rock gym because it's way too cold and wet to go running. While I'd likely be fine, two of my children are home today and would have to go with me, and I'm not up to the whining or the mess that I'm sure would be involved. I'm guessing that if it's COLD here, it likely is elsewhere as well and pulled some cold-weather inventory out to list in our store: 3sisters7days...Check it out!

Or what experts now refer to as "information and communications technologies" (ICTs). Many, if not most, of today's ICT users operate as if computers have ALWAYS been affordable and accessible, EVERYONE has a cell phone, the Internet is THE source of information and relationship, and email, instant messaging (IM), text messaging have always been viable ALTERNATIVES to the telephone or - gasp - face to face communication, no one every gets LOST. To those of us who learned to type on a TYPEWRITER, learned to program in BASIC and use a KEYPUNCH machine, routinely pulled the telephone right out of the wall, and regularly pulled over to look at THOMAS BROTHERS guide, the Internet, cell phone, and GPS are practically miraculous. At the very least, they are monumental time-savers. I run two businesses almost entirely online (and help my children operate a third online enterprise), depend on my computer and ICT- mediated conversations to complete the majority of my research, writing, and preparation (for classes, conferences, meetings), rely on mapquest and my cell phone to get nearly everywhere, and don't leave home without my iPod. If my own attachment to ICTs is any indication, there may be something to the argument that humanity is dangerously close to a society of cyborgs. While I may not be as ready as Bill McKibben to scream, "ENOUGH!" I can't help wondering if we shouldn't be "concerned." 

107 degrees here in sunny So. California today. HOT and DRY. I am SO glad I took my 3-year-old's advice to "wear a dress like me, Mommy." She picked a pink and white checked sundress. I chose a black and white Tahari tank dress (yes, like the ones in our store), slipped on a pair of upscale flip flops, and tossed a short black sweater into my bag to wear in class (it's much colder INSIDE than out!!), and I was ready to go. So easy and comfortable, yet still so polished, professional. Perfect dress. Perfect day. 

In my efforts to enumerate the key elements of my life that make IT all possible, I must include my mostly loving, and monumentally supportive spouse - the RIGHT spouse, in Sharon Dale's words. This guy MOVED away from a town and job he loved TWICE for me - once so that I could attend graduate school, and again when I got my first "real" job. Later, he agreed to take a JOB so that I could succeed in my CAREER. Granted this arrangement makes sense in terms of our education and experience AND benefits the entire family; however, taking the proverbial "back seat" economically is still much easier, socially, for women than for men. On a daily basis, his role in the family encompasses, literally, everything dirty, smelly, heavy, and time-consuming and much of what is simply tedious: sitting up at night with sick kids (I'm a very heavy sleeper, so end up "on" only when they get sick BEFORE we go to bed); cleaning out the drains; scooping (dog) poop; moving furniture to paint; making lunches...and so on. We share responsibility for cooking, cleaning, laundry, dog walks, and other activities I can more or less easily accommodate into my day to day life with the kids. So...he went in early today - meaning he was up by 4 AM to be on the road in time to be at work by 7 AM -  so that I could teach tonight, made sandwiches for the kids' lunches before leaving, and ran one of our children to and from Scouts tonight before handling baths, books, and bed for three children (the "baby" showered with me before I left for campus). He was waiting up for me and probably deserved something more than the back rub I gave him before he fell into bed. Though, the night is still young...

Yes, the secret's out. Homeschooling is much EASIER than public school. While this is true largely because of the flexibility it affords the family, it's also more manageable than public, as well as many private, schools because my spouse and I KNOW what our children are learning, exactly what they are responsible for on a given day, and NEVER have to argue with either our children or their "teachers" about it. In our case, homeschooling has also increased our children's INDEPENDENCE and PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY, which makes not only household management, in general, but also their educations, more efficient and successful. A typical day? Ours fall into two categories - days I teach and have to be on campus, and days I work at home. I taught today from 10-12:30; meanwhile, my spouse transported our older children to the local Learning Center, where they have classes, and my little one to pre-school. In short, we "outsource" some of their curriculum depending on their interests and academic progress and my teaching schedule. And we let the Montessori handle reading and basic math instruction before we take over when the kids are old enough - usually around 6 years old - to work independently for a meaningful length of time. Today, I'll work here - in my campus office - until I pick them up between 3:00 and 3:30 PM. Yesterday, I stayed home. We were all up by around 8:00 AM. After breakfast and morning chores - dishes and cleaning up the kitchen, making beds and straightening rooms, feeding the pets, taking out the trash - I reviewed everyone's assignments and sent the "big kids" upstairs to work while I got my 7-year-old started. Spelling, math, reading (literature of their own choosing plus history), and  journaling for everyone. Aside from periodically checking in to see that they were "working," I was busy with my own work until 11:30/11:45 AM, maybe, then I checked the 7-year-old's journal and gave him a "break" while my older son and I went for a run (he actually worked through breakfast so that he'd be far enough along to join me). Afterward, lunch, piano practice, video games (for the boys, who were finished with their school work for the day), and more work (database construction for me, math for my daughter). We left to pick up my pre-schooler around 3:00 PM. (My spouse took her to school on his way to work.)  After we picked her up, we stopped at the post office to drop off packages, and then at Borders for coffee/hot chocolate, reading, and to take advantage of our coupon for 40% off CDs. I dropped my daughter at Girl Scouts on the way home; my son helped make a quick dinner for the other three, I checked my mail and organized my desk for last night's work, and we left to walk the dog and pick my daughter back up from Scouts. Then baths, books, bed, and back to the computer (for me). Although it may not sound much different than some work-at-home mom's days, the big difference is that we were able to get up when we wanted and work in our pajamas for much of the day on assignments and projects we set for ourselves. For the kids, that meant that they both participated in the selection of their assignments, and decided the order in which they'd accomplish them - a far cry from a school day comprised of 30 minutes for math, 45 minutes to complete an essay, etc. The boys often don't care what they do - any two pages of spelling and math so long as they can read what they want, for instance - and usually get right to it, sometimes even rush through their school work so they can play; my daughter tends to dawdle, by all outward standards, stopping to do a bit of drawing or paint her finger nails between assignments and often having to complete her assignments - especially math - in the evening or the next day. This is what we sought most to accomplish by home schooling: providing our children with the time freedom I am fortunate to have and what I, along with a great many scholars who study education and learning as well as a number of prominent public intellectuals, believe children need to LEARN HOW to manage a very complex contemporary society and unpredictable economy.