Book Recommendation

Eons ago when I was in third grade, I stumbled across a book in the school library called D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths. I think I was the only child who checked the book out for the next two years - mainly because no one else had the opportunity to. From September to June, it was mine. If I could've checked it out over the summer, I would have - trust me.

Years passed and I had nearly forgotten about the book until I was shopping for homeschool materials for my own child. When I saw this book, I knew I had to buy a copy so my daughter could share in all the wonders I experienced at her age. I wasn't wrong. She was as hooked as I was.

In it's pages are the most well known of the greek myths, told in language easy enough for a child to understand, and yet not dumbed down to a typical storybook format. Obviously some of the names if the gods will be difficult for most 8 year olds to pronounce on their own, but that is part of the fun. Hephaestus {huh-fes'-tuhs}* and Aphrodite {af-roh-dy'-tee}* wouldn't be half as mysterious if their names were Bob and Jane.

One wonderful thing about learning the greek myths, though, is the heroic aspect of the ancient Greek religions. Perseus slays the Gorgon; Theseus defeats the minotaur. Good guys win, and bad guys find justice.

Of course, not every bit of the greek mythos is wonderful, but studying the myths provides an excellent opportunity for discussion - no matter what the moral of the story may be.

And if nothing else, the book will provide a wonderful window into a classic part of literature.

Enjoy!

(*http://www.pantheon.org/miscellaneous/pronunciations.html)

Letting it Go

My daughter has been out of public school for almost 2 years now. While at public school, she endured abuse - mental, physical and emotional - from her classmates, and she endured ignorance and blatant stupidity from those who were supposed to be teaching her. Of the two, the latter has been easier for her to let go of.

Sure at first, it was a daily battle to correct misinformation, but that aspect of school soon faded to memory.

The other... We're still working on it. I can understand it. She smothered under that crap for years, and it's hard to shake off the worst of it. (Heck, I can still remember the face of the girl who tried to push me off the stage during the 5th grade play.) I get it.

But while sitting in the stands at the local bee a couple weeks ago, I was stunned to find her tormentors couldn't seem to let it go either. Snide whispers drifted to my ears, and afterwards when I asked my child who was sitting behing me, and she named the three girls who had been the worst of the pack. My daughter and I discussed it, and I find out the same girls were pushing her around during last year's state testing. (I wish she'd have told me. I would have made the whole thing stop. :growl: )

I don't get it. Really I don't. Let it go. In a few years nothing any of these children say or do will matter one whit in the scheme of the universe. Heck, it doesn't matter now.

So, to underscore my point here, let me point you to a particularly poignant article: Socializing Students for Anarchy. It's one I used to print out and give to her public school teachers, until I got sick of banging my head on the wall of their stubborn ignorance.

Heh. I guess I've got some things I should be letting go of myself. ;o)

Spelling Bee Update

Out of 117 kids who took the written portion of the regional spelling bee, my daughter was in a three-way tie for first. Out of the 30 kids who competed in the oral portion, she tied for 6th.

Onwards to the state spelling bee! Look out Nationals!

Sometimes It's The Little Things

As any homeschooling parent knows, this can be a thankless job. We aren't really doing it for the appreciation, though. We're doing this because we want our children to become successful adults. And we're doing it so someday, hopefully, our children won't need us any more. (At least not to survive.) So, sometimes it's the little things that make this whole business worthwhile, especially when you can't seem to see the future CEO inside your little wonder.

It's little things like watching them master a concept - even after they've told you they'll never get it, and you're beginning to feel like they're right. Last night, we were studying words for next week's regional bee and she was sure she'd never get any of them right. (We're on the Advanced List now.) But after I calmed her down, she began remembering all the phonics rules we've learned and she began spelling like a champion. Now all I have to do is tell her the language of origin on certain words and she has no problem realizing that the CH sound in an Italian word usually means CC. (Like Puccini.)

It's little things like seeing them do something on their own - even when you feel like it's your baby stepping out into the big world, and you cringe for fear they'll get hurt. Like the other day when I took my daughter to the bank, and I stayed in the car while she completed her transactions. I know it doesn't seem like much, but it had a profound effect on me at the time.

Sometimes it can be nothing more exciting than sitting on the couch and having an intelligent discussion with your child. Yesterday, after the rest of schoolwork was done, we were sitting on the couch crocheting together. While we were busily making our projects - for me a blanket, for her a scarf - we were just talking. During the course of a couple hours, we discussed literature and movies. She asked intelligent questions, and made astute observations. If I hadn't known she were thirteen, the conversation was no different than I could have had with any adult - except for the fact that most adults I see IRL wouldn't be able to discuss the plot line or theme or philosophy of a novel if their lives depended on it.

So, take heart. Even if you feel like you're running in circles or worse running in place. Hold onto those moments when you see the lightbulb over their heads and you see the progress they're making with your help. It won't always be fireworks and rockets, but sometimes all it takes is a spark.

Phys Ed

http://www.comicspage.com/shoe/shoe.html

With all the other educational pursuits we must attend to, physical education can sometimes fall by the wayside. And while it's true homeschooled children may never get the chance to play in a great big parachute or a wicked dodgeball game, as parents we should still tend to our children's phys ed needs.

Personally, I do sometimes use yard work as phys ed time. If she's out in the yard working up a sweat and exercising, it's fair game, IMO. I look at it this way: She's getting far more exercise than a typical gym class would give her, she's using various muscles groups in a productive way, and she's getting something a public phys ed class wouldn't provide - fresh air. It's all good, even though she detests it

Recently, though, I've stepped beyond yardwork. We've been spending some quality time down at our local community center. There they have exercise equipment anyone can use for free. So, she gets to use a treadmill - rather than walking around the lake with it's ill-tempered geese- and she gets to use weights, etc. It's a win/win for me, too. I get to get some much-needed exercise in the process

Additionally, our city has a public pool for relatively cheap fees. So once the summer rolls around we can use it for PE.

Now, I understand not every town has these things, but I would think many of them do, if you know where to look. So, I recommend you call your city hall and ask them what's available to residents. Then call your local school district - talk to the Superintendent, not the principals - and ask them about having your child use their gym, or even attend a gym class. (Here in CO, the local district has to let your kid take 'elective' classes at the school, if you want them to. Gym falls under the elective umbrella.)

So, whatever way you do it, remember in order to have a well-rounded human being at the end of this venture (instead of a kid who's rounded-well) you have to enrich their muscles while you're enriching their brain.

Tempered Encouragement

Yesterday morning, while we were prepping for the bee, my daughter asked me if I thought she was going to make it to regionals this year. I told her it depended on how good the competition was. I mean, it's not like I haven't told her time and again how well she's been doing, so I thought it was implied. She didn't think so. Her reaction was something along the lines of a sarcastic 'thanks for the vote of confidence, mom'.

Thinking about that conversation this morning, it doesn't seem all that important. After all, whether I was being an unconditional cheerleader or not, she succeeded and made the regionals. She did it based on her own hard work, not on any shallow praise I would have offered were I a different sort of person.

The importance of that conversation in the whole scheme of things, though, is this. I don't believe in handing out empty encouragement or false praise. My kid has come to know this over the years, so when I do encourage her, she knows I know she can do it, and when I do praise her, she knows I really mean it. I'm chalking yesterday's sarcasm up to nerves. She got over it and so did I.

My point here is that all kids need praise and encouragement, but I don't think it should ever come without a basis. And it should always be based on accomplishment. Even when sometimes it's hard to see accomplishment, find something--however small--to base your praise on. Kids are pretty smart. They know when you're full of it. Telling little Johnny how wonderful he is when he hasn't done anything but breath in-and-out successfully, only tells him he doesn't have to try to succeed because you're just going to praise him anyway. (And if he's really astute, he'll get the idea you'll praise him equally for good things and nothing, so what's the point.)

On the other hand, you shouldn't dole out criticism without a basis either. Being always critical can be just as bad as always uncritical. Either way, you're only teaching your child their accomplishments, or lack thereof, don't matter.

I know it's easier to tell them they're wonderful all the time, and they're successful at everything they do, but if we wanted the easy route, we wouldn't be homeschooling. And the easy route isn't always the one that leads to success. Suck it up. And you may be pleasantly surprised at how much they can accomplish.

Then you can really dole out the praise... and rightfully so.

Third and First

This afternoon, my daughter pitted herself against 35 other children (grades 6-8) from three public schools. She came in third overall, and first in this town. She's headed for regionals on the 21st.

She went out after a minor brain fart on the word 'cantata' when she spelled it contata. Even before the judge told her what she'd done wrong, she knew it should've been an A. But she's happy and quite proud of herself (rightfully so).

I got her a DQ Blizzard - Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry - to celebrate.

All in all, a positive day. Now she has some work to do to get ready for regionals, but for today, spelling is done. I haven't minded helping, but I dreamt about spelling words last night, so I'm happy to take a bit of a break.

Maybe now I can concentrate on some non-spelling related blog posts. ;o)

She Did It

Well, after dogging the dean of students at our local public school, I finally got the results of last week's written spelling bee. She did it! She made the local bee. Unfortunately, the oral bee is Wednesday, which only leaves us a couple days prep time. She'll be competing against kids from the three public middle schools in our area to see who gets to go to regionals on the 21st.

So far she's made it to regionals each year and has gone out there on the first word. Let's see if she can go for the hat trick and make it to regionals again, without going out so fast this year.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but even if she doesn't make it, I'm very proud of her. =oD

A Love of Reading (or Thank you, Phonics)

When my daughter was small, I used to read to her every night before she went to bed, and off-n-on throughout the day. She loved listening to me read from her set of Disney books - Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, etc. One day I passed her bedroom and heard her reading her books to herself. She must have been about four, and I thought to myself "chip off the old block" because from all reports, I was doing the same thing around the same age. I was dancing inside. My incredibly bright child was reading! Hurray and Huzzah!

That night I had her read to me before she went to bed. She picked out her favorite and settled in next to me on her bed, and began reading away. Well, it sounded like she was reading anyway. After a few pages, I noticed she was 'reading' the next page before she turned to it.

The little minx had memorized the book. She had memorized ALL her books. And just to prove it to myself, I grabbed a book we hadn't read together very often and I had her read it to me. She tried. She managed to get some of the words because she had seen them so often they were memorized, but she couldn't grasp most of the other words. So she guessed at them.

I tried my best to make her sound out words, but that was hard, and it left her thoroughly disgusted with the whole enterprise of reading. This was exascerbated when she went to kindergarten, where she was encouraged to guess at words and congratulated when she got close. I tried to make her sound things out at home, and they encouraged her to guess at school. Hmmm. It doesn't take a brain surgeon (or even an ed major), to figure out which method she preferred.

This was all well and good for the first year. But by the middle of first grade, when the books she wanted to read were getting more difficult to guess at, she turned into a total hater of reading. Loathed it. Despised it. It was like pulling teeth to get her to pick up a book. Even a textbook. (Which would have shot her grades all to hell if her teachers at the time weren't of the mind that every child should be rewarded regardless of their work... But that's a post for another time.)

What finally turned her around was receiving a book as a gift. It was a book she couldn't guess at because the words were varied enough to make guessing difficult. But it was a book she desperately wanted to read. So, at the age of seven, she finally made the mental shift to try out this whole 'sounding words out' thing her mother had been so pushy about. And damned if it didn't work. (By the way, the book was the first Harry Potter... Thank you, Mom for the gift and thank you, J.K. Rowling for writing it.)

Phonics really does open a world of reading up for your children. And although learning phonics can be difficult, in the end it makes reading SO much easier, it's cruel to teach reading any other way.

And now? Well, now she's reading so many books I can't keep up. She's through with the Disney books, and even the Young Adult books. She's reading romances and science fiction and fantasy and mysteries just like any of us. And she's excelling in school.

Kinda makes you wonder why people ever tried any other method when phonics works so well.