Welcome!

Thank you for dropping by the School’s Out Logue. If you’re arriving from elsewhere, School’s Out is part of a group of blogs called Blogalogues. All of my fellow editors and I are hard at work preparing to launch our site, and we hope you will keep coming back often. There will be lots to do!

So what is the purpose of School’s Out? Quite simply, this is an education site that will deal primarily with learning that takes place outside of the classroom. For some of you that means homeschooling, where school’s out forever (or school is always in session, if you prefer to think of it that way!) For others, this is a place to look for help and information aimed at helping your child with learning before and after school hours – homework, tutoring and other forms of remediation, and of course enriching your child’s life so he can learn things that are not being taught at school but probably should. Afterschooling, in all its myriad forms, is a key to the academic success of your child. You may be surprised at how little time it takes to provide this kind of help to your child – and how easy it can be to fit these activities into your daily routine!

About Ruby

I’m your homeschooling and afterschooling editor, here at Blogalogues.  School’s Out will generally be written by me, but there will be occasional contributions from other parents and educators too. As well you can look forward to our Blog of the Month, where we’ll ask you to send in your ideas and tips so we can share the help around.

You’ll probably want to know a little about who I am, and why I think I have anything to say about how you should be educating your kids. Well, first of all, there are no “should’s” here at School’s Out! Let me be very clear about that. I am the mother of four children, two of whom have been diagnosed with disabilities. My experiences with these two children, above all, have taught me that parents know their kids best. Even when everyone around you is trying their hardest to be helpful, it is always a parent who needs to make the decisions about how her children should be raised, cared for and educated.

“Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.”
~ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 26(3)

I find that lately I’ve developed a strong distaste for the didactic attitude of some of my peers. Is it something about being a parent or reaching the three to four decade mark, that turns us all into judgemental dispensers of often irrelevant advice? “We should all read this book!” “Everybody should be eating this way!” “This is the one must-have item for your wardrobe this season!”

Good golly, I couldn’t care less what the latest fashions are! I’d rather spend my money on a good book, a nice meal (that I guarantee you would not meet the guidelines of the latest fad diet!) or on something to do with my kids. And with what some of these “must-haves” cost, I could probably upgrade several components in my computer!

As you can tell, I’m a bit of a rebel. Yes, that’s probably part of the reason I chose to homeschool my kids. It’s probably also a side effect of having grown up for the most part in the Canadian province of Quebec, a place that has a long history of independent thinking and people who “don’t keep their tongue in their pocket,” to translate a popular Québecois expression.

I am a bilingual (English-French) daughter of an Albertan and a Québecois, married to a man born in America and raised in Canada. As a youth I spent a good deal of time volunteering in special recreation and adapted physical education settings, and my first serious job was working in Canada’s last standing federal hospital for war veterans. That led me to study Gerontology and I earned an AEC in the field about twenty years ago now, graduating valedictorian of my class.

I spent several years after that in a sort of academic limbo, studying education and classics, but getting a whole lot more from certain individual courses than I did from either program as a whole. I wrote for small, local newsletters and taught small group lectures, both at the universities and outside of academia. I did a lot of community service, including volunteering as a Girl Guide leader, as an adult literacy tutor, and in my kids’ school library.

I’d always wanted to homeschool my kids, but was convinced to send them to public school when they were younger. My only son was born with autism and ADHD, you see, and having the kids out of the house for a few house a day was a bit of a rest for me. It was the only time I could let my guard down, and not worry if he was getting into something he shouldn’t be. When he wasn’t constantly crying or throwing a tantrum, or busy trying to escape the house wearing nothing but his underwear.

After four years of public school we decided to bring our girls home and teach them ourselves. We’d gone through two years of daycare for our then youngest, and two years at school. We’d also had another daughter, the baby of our family, and she was off to daycare for a few hours a day to socialize and learn some French. So my “big girls” had time to be the center of Mama’s attention again.

Since then we’ve had two years of homeschooling, and are finally beginning to settle into a method that works for us all. This last year was a tough one for us, as we realized that our oldest was still not catching up in certain areas of her education despite having Mama’s undivided attention and all the time she needed to complete her work. We took her for testing in the spring and discovered that she has ADHD. She sure fooled a lot of folks, including including the remedial education specialists that knew her when she was in school! Knowing is half the battle, though, and we begin our third year of homeschooling armed with a better understanding of how to help our daughter in her learning.

So here I am, just a Mom like those of you who are reading this. I’m also a Mom who wasn’t afraid to bring her kids home when that time came, and I’m a woman who knows how to dig for infor,ation when it’s needed – and sometimes, for the truth that people don’t want others to see. I’m a Mom with a mere two years of homeschooling under her belt, and I know there are so many who have schooled for decades. Some I know have homeschooled their kids right from day one, and have seen several graduate already. We’re still a year away from dealing with high school. But you know, I’ve had a lot of experiences I’ll bet most of you haven’t. And I intend to call up both my skills and my experiences to offer you up the best of information about homeschooling – and about afterschooling. Because I know there are a lot of folks whose kids are in school, but want to do more for them when they come home each night.

Am I an expert? No. Will I try to sell you on the best way to educate your kids, tell you what to teach or how? No. All I want to do is share what I’ve learned. Some of it will speak to you, and maybe you’ll find it works for you too. I hope you’ll share with me too.

Cheers!