Burns Family Homeschool

This blog will be different from my "starter-blog" in that it will be strictly about our family's unique journey along the homeschooling path.  We are a new kind of homeschool family, a secular family homeschooling with a scientific method that is as unusual as we are.  And in the Foothills region of Maine homeschooling is uncommon enough, but to add our secular views to the mix really makes us stand apart from mainstream homeschoolers.


Let me introduce my family.  There are four of us, plus pets ;o)

"Winter" is my first-born son, 7 years old this February, and diagnosed with PDD-NOs, which, for those who don't know, is on the high-functioning end of the Autism Spectrum.  He struggles with sensory processing, a sort of--hyperaucusis, social interactions, and anxiety.  At the same time, he is incredibly bright and beautiful, enjoys reading Garfield comic books, TinTin, Captain Underpants, and is reading at a strong third-grade level.  He enjoys nature documentaries like Planet Earth, Walking With Prehistoric Beasts, and LIFE, and also "action-packed" cartoons like X-Men, Danny Phantom, and Spiderman.  He excels in science, remembers terminology and loves science experiments.  Our curriculum is heavy on the sciences and light on the arts & crafts as per his preferences.

"Summer" is my second-born son, who turned 3 in February.  He has been a very energetic and curious child, more needy than his older brother, clingy and cuddly, but all boy--if you know what I mean.  There have been less struggles with Summer, no evaluations or therapists, but just having him with us had added a new dimension to the family interactions.  Summer and Winter are two very different individuals to suffice it for now.

My Dear Husband is my life partner; we've been married 10 years just this January.  We started dating our senior year of high school, and as young people our beginning was rough.  Now I feel like we've worked out most of the kinks and are cooperating well with each other to accomplish the goals we set as youngsters.  DH is a citizen scientist, trapped in The Man's world, working by day to support our family, to allow me to stay home to raise the boys and also to pursue my writing and creative endeavours.  By night DH is a scientist and intellectual seeking to improve life and society with his ideas and inventions.  He has challenged me from the start to be a better person, a smarter person, a stronger and more capable individual, and he has always supported me in my sometimes (okay--oft-times) unusual undertakings.

My name is Samantha Burns.  I will be 30 this year, but I'm not offended or disappointed by the prospect.  I'm excited, and I feel like I'm moving into a new phase of my life (but that's another blog-entry ;p).  I love living in Maine; I love the mountains, the wilderness, the access to nature.  I'm an eco-activist, a tree-hugger (literally), and a naturalist.  I'm an artist, a writer, a creative free-spirit.  I garden enthusiastically--companion planting, square-foot gardening, and bio-intensive practices are part of my methods (soon I'll be bee-keeping, too!).  I love moose.  I'm passionate about amphibians and my heart aches to think that we're facing extinction of these pivotal indicator species.  I enjoy hiking, camping, fishing, photography, painting, writing, reading, teaching--just to name a few of my many interests.  I like all-natural living.  I bake my own bread a lot of the time, shop at the local health-food store, and buy local meats at my favorite local butcher-shop: Kniffins'.  I've been called "granola", "hippy", and "odd", but mostly I'm just a big dork.

We are the Burns Family Homeschool and this is our journey as secular homeschoolers in northern Maine.