The school year has begun. In our home it's an odd mixture of the inflexible public school routine - my husband drives a school bus and teaches high school math full time - and the rather flexible homeschool routine- I stay home and homeschool our 7 children ages 3 - 17. I like to get everyone up early to get the day started - we're much more productive that way - but some evenings we might be up late watching an educational movie "for school" and we'll decide to sleep in the next morning. Poor hubby still has to get up at the crack of dawn to drive that school bus.
I love my homeschool. I was homeschooled 3rd grade through senior year before I went on to earn a degree in Elementary and Special Education, where I learned that home was the very best place for a child to be educated. It solidified my desire to homeschool. The freedom I have to schedule and teach whatever I feel meets my family's needs the best, just can't be met anywhere else. Now, there are days I just about lose my mind. Between planning, teaching, farm animals, grumpy teenagers, feeding people, keeping up with the house, laundry, feeding people again, there are days when I wonder if haven't chosen the more difficult path. I am tempted to put them in school. I wonder if life would be better with two incomes. I hope on those gloomy days that I am wrong and I press ahead, hoping for a brighter tomorrow. They usually come.
Once school begins on Brambly Mountain, all non-priorities come to a halt. I only put out fires. It is SO HARD for me to maintain other things outside of the school day and basic household maintenance. If it can wait for Tim to get home, it waits. It doesn't seem fair that school begins just as the garden dumps it's final and prolific load on me. Whoever planned that one was no farmer. The pressure to preserve what we have worked so hard for all summer pushes me to the brink of sanity. I can't let our hard work and precious food rot on the vine, but sometimes it would be so much easier. So, the only reason I'm here right now is because we are currently on the road to Colonial Williamsburg. Uninterrupted time in the car comes in handy :).
I wanted to share the sources from which I formed our breeding program. Learning, learning, always learning. If my kids learn anything from me, I hope it's that - learning is lifelong. And the longer I teach, the more I learn! Anyway, here they are:
The breeder we purchased Lucy from used Puppy Culture for her breeding program and highly recommended it. I wanted so badly to be successful with this next dog that I splurged and bought it. It's not cheap. But the videos are well done and the workbook very step by step. I even had my kids watch them so we were all on the same page with things. So that was a nice way to get everyone on board. I do believe that it was a great way to have a clear and consistent beginning to training Lucy.
"From early neurological stimulation, to aggression prevention, to potty training and leash walking, it's all here! Learn from top veterinary behaviorists, breeders, and dog trainers - scientifically proven to greatly improve outcomes for puppies! With step-by-step instructions on what to do at each critical juncture in the first 12 weeks of life, Puppy Culture if your guide to raising your puppies to be calm enrichment seekers, ready to take on life's challenges with love and joy to spare."
I'm not a fan of the name, but I purchased this book because I was looking for a guide for the actual breeding process and caring for the dam during pregnancy and after the birth. This book has been excellent with its week by week chapters for each step of the process. It also has detailed information for stimulating and training during the puppies first 8 weeks of life. It's very similar to Puppy Culture in its approach and also has a lot of charts and checklists to make sure you catch everything. It's the details like pre-puppies (as I mentioned) and more of the business side of things like communicating and dealing with clients and handling the practical day-to-day processes (feeding, cleaning, etc). It's been my go-to over the last few months.
"This guide will give you the expert advice to help you evaluate and choose the right breeding stock and prevent you from making the fatal and costly error of breeding the wrong dogs. Give you the skills to raise pups on an advanced curriculum, ensuring successful placement in therapy, facility and service dog training. Provide information on how to raise puppies that are empowered and not enabled, who believe in their own abilities. Save you days of heartache by teaching you how to evaluate and place puppies in the right homes with the right owners"
"A subtly subversive book about dealing responsibly with those less powerful than ourselves, Teaching The Dog To Think speaks not only to dog lovers, but also to anyone who has ever felt helpless, angry, or frustrated as a parent, teacher or pet owner."
I have to admit, I haven't finished this book yet. It's been a good read and good food for thought. It's actually a memoir so it's been a nice change of pace for information gathering and learning.
This one was recommended by our breeder because she knew we had a small farm and I
had expressed an interested in working Lucy with our goats. Sadly, life derailed that plan. I haven't ever gotten more than a quarter of the way through this book and our fencing situation has changed so much that there really has been very little need to have Lucy help move animals. However, I'm adding it in case anyone else may have interest in the subject for their own dogs.
Books I'd like to read when I have time:
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