I don't believe in dreams. Dreams have a tendency to stay just a dream. I believe in goals; with hard work, goals become reality.

“I don't believe in dreams. Dreams have a tendency to stay just a dream. I believe in goals; with hard work, goals become reality.”

~ Kayla Brown~

Homeschooling is what you make of it.  Homeschooling shouldn't just be an alternate education it should be a way of life. I want people to see us, homeschoolers, and be inspired to test the limits of their knowledge.  I want people to be proud of homeschooling. It has become more to me than just simply learning. I crave knowledge. I like to listen to college lectures online for hours a day just for fun. I test my IQ score for fun. I need to learn. In public school I believe they teach you how to take a test and get the right answers. I want to know how to actually solve the problems. Not make a calculator do all the work. Homeschooling allows me to learn what I want and it lets me test the limits of the world. So I can go into the world and test those same text books.  I can go to little shops and interview the owner to learn how to start my own business. I can go to a museum and learn their take on dinosaurs. I am not stuck in a room with thirty-five other students reading a book about how Columbus discovered America. I can go look at the old artifacts telling the history outside a classroom.  When we are learning hands on we are enhancing our education.

I make friends fairly easy. After moving every few years and going from public school to homeschool twice now. I have gotten very good at getting along with most people. I used to tell myself that it's because I am normal; when most who know me know I am not.  Some kids strive to be “normal,” when they are around others at school.

      Normal is what holds us back.

Be different.

Difference is the mother of creativity.

I live on a farm where we have six chickens, eight goats of which three are kids, two horses, and one colt. When you live 20 minutes out of town, you learn to get creative with your social life. Blogging me experience on Blogger has become a means of socialization. When I can’t go into town I train my goats. My favorite is Blossom (in the picture, the one on the right about to jump off), but you get the point. My blog started out as my sanity. That is why it is called “Homeschooled and Sane”.  I had questions and needed answers. My mom put together some websites she asked me to use based on suggestions from other homeschooling parents. Her friend offered to give us some of her old curriculum.  I ended up using the grammar book and a Geometry CD. I didn't like a lot of the websites that my mother had provided so I started looking up other websites I could use. Then I started reading blog after blog after blog on homeschooling until it hurt my head. I gathered all that information and put it in one place.  My Blog so I could refer back to it. It was helpful having all the information in one place. After a few months, my blog started getting a few followers, which struck me as weird. People started to contact me with questions of what they wanted to know. Recently I even got invited to go to Peru for a homeschooling retreat. I've only been back homeschooling for about Tobias months! (Sorry that was a book reference, I mean four months.)  My blog is helping people.

If you can't tell, public school isn't for me. It all started in first grade. I remember at lunch time I was sitting down eating when a boy sat so close to me he was practically on my lap. We were not allowed to move without being dismissed. I had asked him to move over many times, but he didn't listen. I raised my hand and told a staff member.  This is what my parents told me to do when I needed help. I could not believe the words that came out of her mouth. She said, “Its fine. Deal with it.”  At an early age, kids need to learn who they can trust and who they can't.  Staff members at school are supposed to be trusted adults, or so I was taught... School is supposed to be a place where you can learn and feel safe. Not be told to deal with someone invading your personal space.

Matt Walsh once said "Maybe we should stop turning our kids into charts and bar graphs, and instead work on connecting with them as human beings." In public school you are a number, or maybe a few numbers. I was 3.94. Most of all I was 601667. In the high school I went to, I was the bar code ID I was FORCED to wear around my neck. I felt like a dog on a leash. "Please identify yourself.”  The hall monitor would ask. "Kayla Brown", I would state back. "What is your ID number", he would ask in a monotone voice. "601667" I stated, as he pulled out a notebook to write it down. This number is how I bought lunch, joined clubs, played sports, was allowed in the doors, walk the halls, go to the nurse and go to any classroom. I am sure they have a good reason but I bet there is a better way of accomplishing it.

I don't believe in dreams. Dreams have a tendency to stay just a dream. Once you turn a dream into a goal that is when you achieve great things. I want to be the first woman president. When I told teachers at school, they chuckled. They thought it was just a dream. It isn't, it is a goal. That reminds me in 2036, vote Kayla Brown for President!! I will strive and try my hardest until I reach my goal. I believe homeschooling allows us to find goals and gives us the time and resources to achieve them. That is why I think homeschooling is the best form of education.