Saturday morning joural

Mornings have been a mess around here.  I've been sleeping too late and feeling rushed every day, even if we didn't have any place to go.  (Though stay-home days are pretty rare right now.)  I'd let the kids sleep until the moment I felt like they should be up and ready to be productive, and expect them to jump when I called them.  It wasn't working,  They wanted a little time in the morning to ease into the day.  Why shouldn't they?  I always do.

So we made a deal:  on "school" days their time is mine at 8 am.  (Yeah, I know, pretty late by some folks' standards.)  If they want free time at the beginning of the day, they need to be up earlier.  They asked me to call them at 7:30.  I did, and it worked.  We actually ended up having a nice breakfast together with a lot of discussion.  It turned out to be a pretty productive day.

That shouldn't have been so hard to figure out!

They asked me to do it again this morning even though it's Saturday and we have no agenda other than chores and watching Shane.  So I have about three minutes to finish this up.

This morning I've been reading about a golfer who was born male, went through the gender-reassignment process, and now is suing to compete as a female.   Wow.

From that I skipped over to an article about the new "Democratic Free School" that is hoping to open in Philadelphia soon.  I was talking about that with a friend over coffee last night (actually I had hot cider with way too much whipped cream); she is a fellow homeschooler and has more positive feelings about the concept than I do.  I feel even less enthusiastic about it after reading this:

Loucas said the Free School would begin its pilot program in January. He said all students enrolled in the program would receive additional schooling each weekday from a separate certified education program. The students will be homeschooled, take online courses, or be enrolled part-time at a public school so they meet their legal requirements.

So, the parents will spend $9 - $10,000 a year but still have to homeschool or otherwise acquire classes for their kids to meet state requirements.  Doesn't sound like this program is going to be very helpful for the typical Philadelphia public school student.  

Oh, my three minutes are up!  What are you reading about and pondering today?