Now Available to Play Pity Parties...

I bought a set of tiny musical instruments - for the little ones to play with, of course. And they were just irresistible.  I had no idea it would include a tiny violin.  No, I will never have to pantomime the tiny violin routine again.  (Now off to the craft supplies to create a tiny bow!) 

I still have all the fabulous things we acquired in our homeschooling (call me if you need a life size kidney, I think we have an extra), and there is now no reason to get rid of a lot of it.  If my children decide not to homeschool, Gangy will always have a very 'educational' house to visit.

I recently read a homeschooling blogger who encouraged those going into homeschooling to buy nothing.  (I must try to backtrack so I can pass it along  UPDATE: eureka  here it is!)  We started homeschooling with nothing - there is sooo much one does not need.  But it is nice to fill in as needs arise.*  (gotta find a way to get some use out of the life-size inflatable mummy I bought.  Not a Halloween prop - though it could work - but a reproduction of real sarcophagus using the same technology that brought us the Bozo the Clown bop-it.  Fabulous for setting the mood for our Egypt study, though my husband was not impressed.)

If I am out shopping and see applicable items I am still drawn to them.   What impressed me recently was a visit to the craft store and finding several aisles dedicated to home education supplies.  Maybe they weren't all necessary.  But I was happy to see that home-education has become so mainstream and "unweird" that popular, chain stores cater to it.   Obviously homeschoolers are no longer looked at like they have "lobsters crawling out of the ears".  It's nice to see it go from people asking if it is legal and if it is doable to people asking if they can sell us something.   Not that we have to buy anything.  But to know that there are enough of us to be a legit sales demographic is...well, it is encouraging.

*and those plastic bones and body parts, found mostly on eBay, are a gift that keeps on giving.  As Franny is going into her last year of nursing school, we're still hauling out the body parts!  My husband was a little dubious about this collection, but after so many years he has come around.  I thought it was cool to buy one of those Safari Toobs of mammal skulls.  But the big man called me one day to offer me a horse skull - real! -that he had the opportunity to bring home.  What a deal! A school was giving away a lot of stuff that he was able to find new homes for, but the skull wasn't moving. He didn't have to get if for me; heaven knows he's out of patience with the objets d'art  that he dimisses as "Ellyn's tchotchkes".  But now I have a horse skull - some more bones and I'll finally have my own horse!  There is a unanimous plea for it to be removed from the dining room for Thanksgiving.  I'll concede to that.