Independence Day, Books, Homeschool, Weekend Links and more

Happy 4th of July!

Thanks to all of the veterans and those currently serving in the military!

When we were in Disney World a few weeks ago, my dad was chosen as Veteran of the Day at Magic Kingdom. We had gotten to the park very early. While we waited at the rope for the park to open, one of the cast members struck up a conversation with Dad. In the course of their talk, he asked if dad was a veteran and invited him to be part of the Flag Retreat that afternoon.

I’d heard of the Flag Retreat ceremony before, but I didn’t realize what a special event it is. A brass band played. The Dapper Dans sang the National Anthem and God Bless America. The flag was lowered, folded and handed to my dad to carry up main street.

The rest of the family was also invited to follow the band up Main Street. We were part of a small parade. People were watching from the side walks and waving. My sister and I said if we’d known that would happen we would have cleaned up a little more! We were looking pretty “theme park awesome” by that time of day in sunny, humid Florida.

Dad was given a certificate and a special pin that is only given to those who participate as Veteran of the Day. There was also a photographer there to capture the whole thing. She took quite a few photos for us.

This was the highlight of the trip for all of us. It was such a surprise and an honor for my dad.

Crashed site, books, homeschool and weekend links

Last weekend, I moved my site to new hosting. The process didn’t go as smoothly as hoped. The site completely crashed twice. And even my emails started bouncing back to the sender. If you sent me an email last weekend through Monday morning and ended up with the email bouncing back, please resend.

As for books, I’ve been on a non-fiction kick lately.

I’m most of the way through The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education. I don’t agree with everything in this book, and that’s part of the fun. But it’s chock full of ideas for non-traditional education. I’m declaring next year a jubilee year in our homeschool. I want to focus on reading good books and traveling. Of course, we’ll throw in some math too. (Anyone here used Life of Fred? I’d love to hear what you think of it.)

This is my 18th year to homeschool. We’ve had good years, hard years and everything in between. Last year was hard. One of the hardest so far. We considered other school choices for this next year, but once again decided that homeschooling is in the best interest of our two school-aged kids.

But we all need a breath of fresh air. We need to relax. The kids need a chance to go deeply into the areas of their interests. And they need to be encouraged to broaden their interests too. I’m hoping that getting back to my unschooling roots will help. When my oldest kids were very young, we took a much more unschooling approach to things. Over the years, we got away from that, adding in more text books and classes, and such. There’s a time and place for all of that, and this year is our time to relax a bit.

Now for a few weekend links:

I follow Tsh Oxenreider on Instagram and she has been killing all of of with photos of Tuscany. What a trip! I loved reading her first post about her experiences. I’ve got a travel goal of going to Scotland in the next few years. After that, I think we may need to add Italy!

Seaking of Tsh, her latest Art of Simple podcast is an interview with Anne Bogel on all things books. Anne blogs at Modern Mrs. Darcy. I love her blog. And I can blame her for filling up my Kindle with lots of good reads. I haven’t listened to this podcast yet, but it’s on my list for this weekend.

I want to do this for a Sunday afternoon lunch: Bruschetta Bar from What’s Gabby Cooking.