teen boys at home

How does a mother homeschool two teenage BOYS??

Surely this is the domain of men?

This last 6 months I have been reflecting upon just how much my boys have grown and how much their interests have changed. They definately need me a lot less, but that doesnt mean that I feel they need adults any less.

My boys are at an impass. They want to climb and explore and build and invent. They want to learn new things ....Me? I dont want to climb. My exploring skills certainly dont match theirs, so I am quickly out of my comfort zone. Building??

My boys also need more freedom. In bygone eras boys of 14 were out in the community contributing something valuable. My boys arent even old enough to volunteer at the zoo. (Minimum age 18!) So they are stuck at home doing pretend stuff. Natural learning is supposed to be made up of the stuff of real life. There are only so many things that "have to" be done in our house, and it certainly doesnt take all day, nor is it terribly stimulating. So my boys look after the animals and do their chores, but that doesnt fill the day.

Our society no longer allows the type of freedoms that young boys need in order to learn and grow well. In order to have a safe and litigation free environment we have sterilized our society.
Boys are only allowed to explore within the carefully defined guides of structured (and often expensive) activities.

So as a homeschool mother I have a few choices. Move the country and buy a large piece of land in a small town so the freedoms they need can happen on our own land. Ask my hubby to give up work for the next few years in order to take they boys through this next phase of homeschooling (by the way I couldnt earn even half of what my dh does), or accept that i can only do my best in this difficult situation and even though i know my boys are not getting the best life education, continue this suburban life and hope that more options become available as they grow.

At the moment I think the last option is the only sensible one.

Food Sovereignty

Last week I went to a "Food Sovereignty" meeting at our Adelaide Friends of the Earth Association. It was absolutely inspiring and I have come away with much on my mind.

What is Food Sovereignty? I hear you ask. It is just one of THE most important global and local issue in our world at present. Interconnected with Global Warming and the Peak Oil crisis. Just click on the FS Title at the top of this blurb and follow the link - it explain it far better than I can - I have included a little extract below:

What is Food Sovereignty ?
Food Sovereignty is the RIGHT of peoples, communities, and countries to define their own agricultural, labour, fishing, food and land policies which are ecologically, socially, economically and culturally appropriate to their unique circumstances. It includes the true right to food and to produce food, which means that all people have the right to safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food and to food-producing resources and the ability to sustain themselves and their societies.

Why is food Sovereignty important? This link has a small explanation of why -
http://www.nffc.net/issues/fair/fair_1.html

My friend Joel who attended a FS meeting in Mali, Africa last month has a terrific explanation - I will download it once I can find it online.

For now the question is what will you do locally about food sovereignty. More on that latter.

Love Stephanie

Eight Random Things About Me.

My sister sent me a tag - to encourage/force me to update my blog, and I figured if she could do it with a 22 day old baby then I should be able to find 10 mins to update mine.

Now... 8 random things about me??

1. When I go to sleep I place my hand on my husbands chest - he's alway so warm and soft.

2. Today was winter solstice in Australia and we had a little ceremony and each made a wish - and I wished for worms!! (Well actually I wished that my new worms in my new worm farm would go forth and multiply so I have lots of worm poop for my garden)

3. I am hopeless at math - while I am still counting in my head and carrying the one and so on, my 12 year old already has the answer.

4. I dont understand Aboriginal people, but I would like to.

5. I am part of one of the most amazing groups of women on the face of the earth, (of corse I am completely unbiased) that are doing some ground breaking work in the field of community change and societal peace building - they are my local natural parenting/homeschooling group.

6. I do the book keeping in our family

7. I am missing my favourite tv program to write this

8. I wish i had chosen different names for my children

cooking up a storm

My life has been lived in the kitchen these last few weeks.

We have all embarked upon an immune boosting diet to help make us healthier.

It is a love hate deal. I love the inches coming off my waist but so far I dont feel any better and the food preparation involved means that the children are rather neglected.

This morning I cooked up a large vege omelette for breakfast and then made up a salad and some home made mayo with tuna, as we were going out for lunch.

We arrived home at 5 pm and it was straight back into the kitchen for me! Soup for dinner and then a double batch of vege samosas for packed lunches tomorrow... with more salad.

More veges for breakfast tomorrow and then we are treating ourselves to a modified nacho's for dinner, with blue corn chips and refried beans with the usual sour cream, guacamole and salad.

When I am not cooking I seem to be heading out to the shops for that one or two ingredients that I dont have, mustard seeds, ural dhal, pistachios.... things that, when you are a food fanatic like I am and your cooking and culinary privelidges are restricted you just have to have in order to keep the palate happy.

Of course I could just live on Omelettes and tuna salad... but Im already going mad with the repetition... so it is off to the kitchen I go again to find some new way of working with lentils and veges!!

Cheers