Home Ed Musings

English Discussion

2008-09-09T08:08:00.002-06:00

Yesterday my daughter and I were having a discussion about the English language. I don't remember how it started (Don't the best conversations happen that way?) but we talked about various dialects in American and around the world, then we talked about different words having different meanings in different places. Like how 'boot' means trunk in the UK, and cookies are biscuits.

During our little discussions, I like to use the internet to highlight my point or underscore the issue. As we talked, I went in search of things to illustrate how English differs. The first place I found had a quiz you can take to find out what kind of accent you have. (It says my accent is 'Inland North', and my daughter's accent is 'The Midland'. Go figger.) The next was a site that had sound files of people with different accents saying the same words, but I can't find the link this morning. :grumble: stupid internet :grumble: Then we found this Wikipedia article on different dialects of the English language. Interesting stuff.

After that, the conversation morphed to a discussion of the various words people use in different places, and how they use them. For instance in the Upper Peninsula, the people speak something called 'Yooper', which is more or less English (but different). For instance, they use 'da' for 'the' and 'ya' for 'yes'. An example would be a saying they had up there when I was living in the area: "Say ya to da U.P., eh?"

Or when I lived in the south (Tallahassee isn't really Florida, it's more like Georgie-lite). A frequently used term over there was 'all y'all'. Y'all can mean a single person or a a non-specific group, but 'all y'all' generally means 'all of you'.

"Y'all can stay, but all y'all have to get the heck out of here." Or something like that.

Anyway, we were still talking and we moved from the regional dialects to the actual use of slang in different parts of the world. An example of this would be the word 'fag' which means cigarette in the UK, but is a derogatory term for homosexuals in the US. Of course, this part of the discussion lead me to search for a way to illustrate what I was talking about and I found a dictionary of English slang and colloquialisms. (Be warned: Many of the words and phrases found there are for adult eyes only - and not very sensitive eyes at that.)

As a homeschooler, do you get into discussions like this? What do you think of the differences in the English language?

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Biology Resources

2008-08-28T07:48:00.002-06:00

I don't know about anyone else, but I had a devil of a time finding a good Biology text to use. Every time I thought I found something, it ended up being a 'short attention-span theatre' book (where all around the necessary information on Biology, you're inundated with pictures and puzzles and blurbs and colors - until your brain can't focus on what's important) or it was filled with environmentalist tracts on global warming and the evils of mankind.

You wouldn't think it would be that hard.

Anyway, with the dearth of good texts out there, and me on a shoe-string budget, I decided to utilize the free information available on the net. For one thing, it's easier to skip over the splotches of enviro propanganda when you're on a website, and for another it's free. (I'm big on free.) What I ended up with was mix-and-match coursework, but as long as the student is getting the necessary information without getting their brains scrambled in the process, it works.

To that end, these are some of the links we used (and will continue to use until they're no longer useful):

An On-Line Biology Book - this was our main resource for 9th grade biology

The National Biological Information Infrastructure - has some enviromentally stuff, but it's easily ignored

Biology 4 Kids

The USDA Plants Database

KidInfo - The Human Body

Exploratorium - All branches of science.

Nature's Best: The Human Body

And for a little higher education (that your kids may or may not be ready for - depending on their skill level):

Marietta University: Invertebrate Zoology

The Franklin Institute: Living Things

(Unfortunately, I lost a lot of my biology links when my computer crashed in 2006, and we were past those enough that I never went looking for them again. When in doubt, use Google to find the particular topic you're interested in, and find something that works for you and your children.)

In addition to information on the web, we also have a few books to back things up. Now most of the books we have are old college Biology texts. I recognize some of them are way over my daughter's head, but she reads them anyway, and I explain in layman's terms what she can't figure out on her own. We also use non-textbooks on certain subjects - like Anatomy - to give her a better idea of how things are put together.

One last thing. If you can afford it, I would highly recommend buying a microscope for home use. We got ours from Home Science Tools and it was less than $200. Not a cheap investment, but well worth the price. Plus that company also has kits for growing plants, hatching critters, dissecting things. You can set up your own Biology lab without breaking the bank. (We set up a Chemistry Lab last year.)

If you have any Biology resources you'd like to share, please leave them in the comments. (And as always, I reserve the right to post them or not.)

Scholarships, Contests, Etc.

2008-08-23T08:39:00.005-06:00

The other day, Janime asked about advice on how to find legitimate scholarships, and I said I'd do a post about it. Well, here it is. (And this is written for the laymen, so if some of the stuff I say seems a little obvious, ignore me.)

I tend to approach scholarship contests the same way I've learned to approach writing contests. There's a lot of possibility for scammers and other dishonest people to schist you out of your money, but there are actual legitimate places to enter. The quickest way to tell the schisters from the honest folks is whether they ask for money up front, or they try to sell you something in order for you to enter. Most (but not all) poetry contests are like that. Anyone can enter, and most everyone wins because the only way you can see your winning entry in a book is to buy the book. (I know. I still have the one I bought when I was 15, and looking at the 'winning' entries now is like a trip through the land of bad writing - even my own.)

Now, I can't say that I've run across any scholarship contests like that. I think for the most part, people running scholarship contests are actually trying to do something good. Even so, some of them can be little more than a pain in the behind. For instance, we investigated something called the Common Knowledge scholarship contests. I didn't get it. Neither did my daughter. So we went in search of something a little more rational.

Another way of telling if a contest is legit is whether it's backed by a name you know. The VFW is immediately recognizable as a real organization, as is Target - who backs a lot of scholarship contests, btw. Of course, the scholarship contest put on by the AFSA isn't any less legit because you've never heard of the American Fire Sprinkler Association, but it's always good to be careful until you've researched the organization. Another one is the American Backflow Prevention Association, but they seem like a real organization who just wants to promote safe drinking water by asking kids to write essays. Works for me.

Anyway, scholarship contests are easy enough to find - especially if you belong to a homeschooling organization. But even if you don't, they're usually posted online somewhere. The best place to start is: Contests and Scholarships. It's a list posted by a homeschool organization. In most cases, they give links to the scholarships themselves and I assume they've already vetted the organizations to make sure they aren't scammers.

Otherwise, here is a short list of the links we've saved in our Favorites (even though some of them are for students above my daughter's current age):

Academic Services - Signet Essay Contest - Penguin Publishers - this is only for high school seniors and juniors, but the essay topics are good practice (and good assignments for English class)

The VFW 'Voice of Democracy' Contest - grades 9-12

The VFW 'Patriot's Pen' Contest - grade 6-8

The Letters About Literature Contest - all grade levels - put on by the Library of Congress in conjunction with the State Centers for the Book. (She took third at the state level last year in this one.) The prizes aren't much, but the practice value is well worth the time. And if you place, it looks good on a college application.

Circle of Neihardt Juried Contest - I don't know much about this one, but it looked interesting and it's through Wayne State University in Detroit, MI.

NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund Youth Essay Contest - K through 12.

The Ayn Rand Institute: Anthem Essay Contest - for grade 8, 9 & 10. (She entered this last year but didn't place. She'll try again this year.) There were 13000 entries last year, so the competition is fierce, but it's definitely worth the effort. I just noticed they added 8th grade to their list! Wow. Wish they'd done that two years ago.

The Ayn Rand Institute: The Fountainhead Essay Contest

US Institute of Peace - grade 9-12

The JFK Profile in Courage Essay Contest - grade 9-12

The Holocaust Remembrance Project Essay Contest - this year's contest guidelines will be announced after October 1st

Voice of the Future Scholarship - EL Publishers - grades 11-12

Society for Professional Journalists High School Essay Contest - grades 9-12

Optimist International Scholarship Opportunities

'A Day in Black History' Scholarship Contest - any ethnicity and any grade level

ABPA Annual Scholarship - high school age (13-20 years old)

AFSA Scholarship Contest - high school seniors only. Entrants are required to read an essay and answer questions. Each correct answer equals one entry into the contest.

Create-A-Greeting-Card $10,000 Scholarship Contest - all high school, college and university students may enter (no younger than 14)

The DaVinci Scholarship - age 16-25

'Freedom in Academia' Scholarship Contest - high school seniors

Oxy 'Cash for College' Sweepstakes - child must be between 13 and 19

The Elie Wiesel Foundation Prize in Ethics Essay Contest - This year's contest opens on Sept. 1st.

The FFRF Student Essay Competitions - closed for 2008. Check back next year.

I'm sure there are more out there. I just haven't found them yet. If you know of any, please leave them in the comments, and I'll add them in here.

Remember folks, this is just my short list. Please research every contest thoroughly before entering (or allowing your child to enter).

Good luck. =o)

(Please understand that some of these contests may not adhere to your beliefs or even mine. When thinking about the expense of sending a child to college - especially when they're talking about MIT, Stanford, Princeton, etc. - remember, everyone's money spends the same.)

Sophomore Year - Day One

2008-08-18T18:44:00.003-06:00

Today began our sophomore year, and I must say it went very well. This year I decided to go with a more structured school day to help maintain focus (both on her part and on mine). She was raring to go, and while it took a bit for me to get back into the swing of things, by midday I was fine.

Now, we do things a little different than a traditional school - other than the usual homeschool experience. Even though her alarm is set for 7:30, we don't start classes until 10:00. This leaves us plenty of time for breakfast, exercise and errands. (You'd be surprised how much quicker we get through the library and store while no one else is there.) Then we have classes until noon, an hour for lunch, then classes until 5:00. Today the schedule went well, but that's one of the beauties of homeschool. If the schedule doesn't work, we can adapt. As long as we're getting in the required number of hours in the required classes, we can be flexible within our structure.

Since we just got back the results from last spring's standardized tests, I tailored this semester to addressing those issues she didn't do as well on. So, with that in mind, one of the things I'll be focusing on is what Colorado likes to call Extended Writing. To that end, today I took a prompt from last year's SAT test (which is available online if anyone is interested) and gave her an hour to write a short essay on her choice of the three prompts. Another thing that she got lower scores on was Algebra. I'm not too worried about this since last year we devoted our attention to Geometry, and didn't do much Algebra until the end of the year (after the tests were administered). This year, to avoid that problem, I'll probably do switch off from one discipline to the other each term. That will give her two terms of Algebra and one of Geometry before the tests in March. =o)

One slight change from the stated course list I gave in my last post. After some discussion we decided to double up on the Geology this term, and switch to double Physics next term. Two hours straight of one science, I think, will be easier to retain than switching from one to the other. As long as we get them both in during this semester, we'll be fine for the spring science tests. (And the SATs she'll be taking in a couple years.)

So far, so good. I'll try and update this more often as things arise. How is your school experience going this year? If you haven't started yet, what do you have planned for this year?

Gearing Up

2008-07-31T09:53:00.004-06:00

Seems like summer break started only last week, but a look at the calendar shows it's time to start gearing up for the coming school year. This year my own daughter will begin 10th grade, so in addition to gearing up for the subjects she'll be taking this year, we also need to gear up for the looming college years.

All the supplies have been purchased. All the textbooks are decided and ready to start filling her brain with knowledge. I know we should've started last year, but since we didn't, this year will begin the seriousness of high school life. We've got six subjects ready to go, as well as time for P.E. and the library (which, if your child is like mine, the latter is an absolute necessity).

This semester we* will be taking:

-Geology
-Physics
-English (with an emphasis on essay writing)
-Algebra
-Spanish
-Social Studies (I haven't determined which branch of this supposed discipline to hit this year, but I have a couple weeks to decide.)

Everything we're doing now is with college and the future in mind. We've already looked at dozens of schools (she's thinking about MIT, but time will tell on that one), and she's already decided what her major is going to be - Chemistry. Each course she'll take in high school will be taken with a thought to what skills she'll need for her college career, and also with a thought for the standardized tests she has to take each spring, as well as the SATs. (Which explains why we're doing Geology and Physics this fall instead of focusing on Chemistry again. She needs to have it all to score well on the Science CSAP test she'll be taking this coming Spring, and she'll also need to have a well-rounded education to score well on the SATs.)

One of the main things we've been doing to gear up for college (other than prepping her educationally) is looking for ways to pay for it all. Right now a year at MIT costs upwards of $50K, and that's a bit pricey. Hence, the search for college scholarships. Now we're already hunted down many of the scholarships available, and since she already entered two last year, this year's essays should go much smoother. Heck, she placed third in a minor contest already (and even though she didn't place in the bigger contest, I think her essay probably just missed the mark - they didn't say, but out of 13000 kids, she had to be in the top 500).

I guess what I'm trying to communicate is that it's never too early to start thinking about life after homeschooling. Some places even have scholarships contest starting in 1st grade. And since we homeschoolers don't have the same resources as the public schools, we need to do our homework early.

So, what are you gearing up for, and how are you accomplishing it this year? Anything exciting on the horizon?

* I say 'we' because I'm going to have to learn as much as she does, so I can teach it to her. Sometimes homeschooling is as much a learning experience for the parent as it is for the student. ;o)

Standardized Testing

2008-04-26T07:46:00.002-06:00

Standardized testing is one of those issues where the speaker either loves it or hates it, depending on their view of education and their child's abilities. Some say testing of this nature doesn't accurately portray a child's knowledge or potential. *shrug*

The reason I'm bringing this up now (I meant to post about it weeks ago, but got distracted) is that my daughter recently had to go through the yearly CSAP (Colorado Student Assessment Program) rigmarole to meet Colorado's homeschooling laws. She has to get tested every odd year so we can keep our homeschool status and keep her out of public school. No testy, no schooly. So, she did her tests and now we're done until next year. I know... I said every odd year, not every year. You see, we make her take them every year to chart her progress. We don't have to do it, but it gives us something to compare.

Which brings me to my point, and to the purpose of standardized tests. (Or rather the original purpose. I don't know what the education establishment thinks they're for any more.) Any standardized test is meant to chart student progress, as well as teacher and curriculum effectiveness. They were meant to give a heads-up if a child wasn't grasping the material, and if an entire group of kids wasn't hitting the mark, then the test showed the teacher/curriculum needed work.

When I was working for a private school corporation, they made the kids take the SATs. Every year. My job with regards to those tests was to take the data, boil it into something coherent, and present it to the president of the company. I worked with the data for entire classes and entire schools, and made some really great graphs that made the information clear. He would look it over and decide which of the teachers wasn't doing their jobs, and then the teacher would have to be accountable for fixing the problem. If the entire school showed a problem, he went to the principle. If the entire system showed a problem, he looked at the test. (Never happened, but that's the progression of responsibility.) If only individual children here and there were doing poorly on the tests, then the kids themselves were looked at.

That's the way standardized tests ought to be used. They're a gauge of more than just the kids, and believe it or not, they really do work when they're used properly.

I admit that if I didn't have to make her take the CSAPs, I wouldn't. If I had my druthers, I'd have her take the SAT (Stanford Achievement Test - not to be confused with Scholastic Aptitude Test, or the more PC version, the Scholastic Assessment Test) or the ITBS (Iowa Test of Basic Skills) both of which are nationally recognized tests that assess a wider range of skills and do it much better, IMO. Unfortunately, I can't give those tests myself, and no school around here offers them. So we're stuck with the CSAP.

And the CSAP has problems. For instance, one of the essays students were asked to write for the 'Writing' portion of the exam this year was something like: If your school required you to volunteer for school credit/graduation, where would you volunteer and why? (Forced volunteerism is a whole other topic for another day, but let's just say I don't like it, and leave it there for now.) Out of a million possible essay topics, many of which could have charted a student's writing progress much better, that they used this one speaks volumes about the test builders.

Another problem I encountered was when I was looking for pre-tests for my daughter to take. I found them, but after she took them and we looked at the answer key, two of the answers on the key were wrong. For example, one of the questions had the student put a bunch of numbers in order from least to greatest (and the numbers were things like ten to the power of negative three, and the like, so it wasn't as easy as it sounds). In the answer key, they had actually put the answer of negative eight after the answer of .25. Last I looked a negative number was always smaller than a positive number.

So needless to say, I'm a little skeptical of the results of this particular test. If their sample tests aren't right, how am I supposed to believe their actual test is right? (Thinking about it now, the idea that the adults creating tests for our children don't know math scare the crap out of me.)

Still, I think overall standardized tests are necessary. I just think the idea of them needs to be re-evaluated. They need to be checked, rechecked and double-checked for accuracy; they need to be scrutinized for possible agendas (which should never be part of education, unless you're planning on inculcating children rather than teaching them); they need to be used to evaluate both the students and the teacher/school.

And as parents, we need to use these tests to gauge our own progress in creating a successful adult.

If you're a homeschooling parent, do your children take any kind of standardized test? How satisfied are you with the one you're taking? If your children attend a public/private/parochial school, how are the standardized tests working out for you?

100 Books Kids Should Read?

2008-01-23T07:47:00.001-07:00

A blog I've begun visiting regularly posted about this list of the 100 Books Kids Should Read compiled by the London Telegraph. On it are many books I agree with, and many books I don't - including a few I won't let my daughter read (i.e. 'Holes' or 'Lord of the Flies').

Last Spring I did my Top Thirty Book Recommendations and while there are a few in common, my choices matching theirs are rare.

I guess the question this morning is: What books would you recommend? Are there any books on either list you wouldn't want your child to read?

Note: I've made an adjustment to the blog that should make it easier for me to post on it. (What can I say, when I started this blog I was an idiot, and now that I know better, it's too late to change.) With this change implemented, I hope to post more often. We'll see how time and gumption work out.

Suggestion for Lit Class

2007-08-09T21:24:00.000-06:00

I had a blinding flash of inspiration the other day. Long ago, I read a book called Silverlock by the unusual-named John Myers Myers (and no, the repetition is not a typo). In this book, Mr. Myers has taken great pains to weave characters from literature, fable and myth into the story.

I lost my copy several years ago, and recently I ordered myself a new one. (Because such is this book that one should never be without a copy lying around.) While I was waiting for this wonderful volume to arrive, the inspiration hit me. My daughter had never read Silverlock, and I could use this to add to this year's curriculum.

The inspiration was: Take Silverlock with its myriad of literary references, and while my daughter is reading the novel, she can take notes of the references as she reads them. Some of them are incredibly obscure and other are fairly obvious, but all in all, the lesson should be fun and educational. While she is enjoying the story of Silverlock, she can learn about bits of literature along the way.

I began re-reading it this evening, and this time I have a notebook handy, so I can catch the references as they filter past. I think she'll easily get the reference to Moby Dick in the first chapter, and definitely the scene with Circe in the second, but even I have to look up some of these things before she gets too far along. I mean, who would've thought about the name of Loki's boat in Norse Mythology? And the only thing I know about Taliesin is that Frank Lloyd Wright named his home after it. It's going to be a lot of work for me, and a lot of work for her, but I'm sure we'll both have fun doing it.

Thinking of Homeschooling?

2007-06-23T11:59:00.000-06:00

If you're thinking about homeschooling and you live in the United States, please check out this helpful doo-dad from the HomeSchool Legal Defense Association: Home School Laws. It has a map, and the states are clickable to take you to the specifics. PLEASE don't go by just the little color codey thing either. In my experience, Utah is not as homeschool friendly as the HSLDA would color them as. Check out the laws in your individual state to verify whether it's going to be a hassle and whether you'll need more information. And just reading the laws for Kansas, it looks less-friendly than Colorado, so go figure.

And I am in no way advocating membership in the HSLDA. I'm not a member, I don't plan on being a member, and you'll have to make that determination for yourself.

Please remember, the start of the new school year is only two months away. Now is the time to be considering whether you want your children to spend another year in the public-school system, or you want to teach them at home. As always, that determination is up to you and your situation.

Spelling Terrors

2007-06-19T07:45:00.000-06:00

I know I haven't posted in a while. Busy with life, I suppose. This morning, however, I stumbled across something that couldn't be ignored.

One of the writing sites (Romance Worth Killing For) I frequent was talking about spelling - Teaching Spelling Early - and how kids are encouraged to spell creatively (i.e. as long as they get the sounds right, they get points for spelling it right, like KAT instead of CAT). The author of the post was against it, so I'm not ranting about her. She pointed to another writing site's blog of the day: Red Ink (from the Avon Romance blog) where an editor talked about the use of red ink and some fool's idea that red ink damages the self-esteem of children. The author of this blog was also against the bad ideas, so I'm not ranting about her either. I think you can all see where I'm headed with my rant though.

Creative spelling? Red ink damages self esteem? What in the...?

Okay. Let's start with the first bad idea. As you may know, my daughter was subjected to public school for most of the first 6 grades. Her spelling truly sucked. She spent a lot of time word-guessing (because that's what she'd been taught) and she wasn't very good at it. Oh, sure, she'd get close, but as my father always said "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades." When you're reading a story and you see the word CONCEIVE and guess that it's the word CONCAVE, you're going to be really confused. Reading is going to suck for you, because no story ever makes sense. TALK becomes TAKE; JURY becomes JERRY... You get the picture. And heaven forbid you get to the age of 16 still guess-reading and take chemistry. Try to guess what those element names might be mistaken for, and you'll blow up the lab.

As to the second bad idea - the idea that pointing out a child's mistakes makes them feel bad about themselves. PLEASE please stop this thinking. Follow it's logical conclusion for just one second. If you never point out a child's mistakes because you don't want to hurt their feelings then they will never learn to do anything. (Or the best you can hope for is a little automaton who only knows what he's memorized.) Learning comes from making mistakes and trying to correct them. I was discussing this with my daughter this morning. Her beginning years of schooling were taught with this in mind. K-2nd, she was taught that no matter what she did, she was going to get an A. As long as she was quiet and breathing in-and-out, she was a success.

Ya right.

So, my daughter learned early she never needed to work for anything. NEVER. "The kat iz bloo." was a perfect sentence and deserving of an A. (After all she tried to spell the words right, didn't she? And we wouldn't want to crush her self-esteem, would we?) Unfortunately, the rest of the world doesn't work that way. Sometimes we make mistakes, we learn from them, we work to fix them, and we grow from the experience. That's the way the real world works.

I've spent YEARS undoing the damage those teachers, and their touchy-feely, everything-is-cotton-candy philosophy of teaching.

Pull out the red pens, folks! Turn them into a tool for learning! Teach your children to accept their mistakes and learn from them. Teach them to find the errors and fix them. Teach them ignorance is not something to be ashamed of, but something to overcome.

If you don't, they really will grow up stupid, and when you think about it, how damaging to their self-esteem will that be?

Top Thirty Book Recommendations

2007-03-14T14:13:00.000-06:00

Over at Musings about Life, I put up my list of 100 books I think every adult should read at least once. Here is my top thirty book recommendations for kids (in no particular order).

30 Books for children:

Any age-appropriate version of the Odyssey, the Iliad, or the Aeneid
Aesop’s Fables
Any books by Lloyd Alexander
Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
The Anne of Avonlea Books – LM Montgomery
Any stories by Hans Christian Anderson
Any Arthurian Legends
Big Red – Jim Kiejelgaard
Black Beauty – Anna Sewell
The Black Stallion
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths
At least a few of the Nancy Drew books – Carol Keene
Fairytales by the Brothers Grimm
The Great Brain books
At least a few of the Hardy Boys books – Frank Davis
The Harry Potter books – J.K. Rowling
The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling
The Little House books – Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
Matilda – Roald Dahl
The Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis
National Velvet – Enid Bagnold
Peter Pan – JM Barrie
The Phantom Tollbooth – Norton Juster
Robin Hood – Howard Pyle
The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
Stuart Little – E.B. White
Trumpet of the Swan – E.B. White
Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne

Please enjoy, and if you know of any I forgot, please feel free to add them into the comments.

Good News for Homeschoolers

2007-03-07T10:26:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine sent me a link to a wonderful article on homeschooling that I'd like to share:

College application policies easing for homeschoolers

Little by little we're winning the fight to teach our own children and be accepted by the general populous. Hurray!

Book Recommendation

2007-02-26T16:23:00.000-07:00

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

2007-02-23T10:41:00.000-07:00

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

2007-02-21T19:19:00.000-07:00

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

2007-02-17T09:18:00.000-07:00

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

2007-02-13T08:29:00.000-07:00

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

2007-02-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

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

2007-02-07T16:50:00.000-07:00

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

2007-02-05T14:41:00.000-07:00

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)

2007-02-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Textbook Recommendation

2007-01-31T18:11:00.000-07:00

I know I said something about creating a list of literature for the kids, and that will come, but tonight I want to give a brief recommendation for the textbook "Reading and Thinking: A Process Approach" by James Twining. It's an excellent resource for teaching late middle-school to high school students how to think about what they're reading.

Unfortunately, thinking critically is a lost skill in our society. It's extremely difficult to find quality employees who can think, and our culture is creating a whole new batch of workers with the inability to think. This book, while it isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, is very good for its intended purpose - to teach this lost skill.

My only problems with the text is that it seems to wander into some bad philosophy in the essays it presents as reading material. As long as you're monitoring what is being read so you can refute the less-than-objective essays, you should be fine.

And if you can't find a copy of this book, please find another way to teach your children how to think critically about what they are reading, as well as what they are hearing and seeing on TV. You'll be doing them a huge favor later in life.

Home Economics: Crochet

2007-01-30T20:08:00.000-07:00

I don't know what the laws are in other states, but here in CO, we have to average four hours a day and 174 days a year. As I've said before, the four hours is easily taken by the core subjects, and we could easily settle for those classes and do nothing else. However, I believe there's so much more to do outside of those subjects, you should find a way to make time for electives. One way I try to insert some other education into my daughter's schedule is to teach Home Economics. After all, once she grows up these are skills she's going to need as much as she needs Math or English or Science. (And it's not just because she's female either. Guys need to know these things as well.)

From time to time, we do cooking projects. I am a big time cook--creating my own recipes and baking my brains out--so this particular aspect of Home Ec is the easiest for me. But to leave it just at cooking would be doing my student a disservice, so I try to expand into some of the other areas that would fall under Home Ec. For instance, I've been playing with the idea of teaching my daughter how to knit or crochet. We went with crochet. So, yesterday I checked a book on crocheting out of the library, bought a few skeins of yarn and a couple crochet hooks, and we began.

Which meant, of course, I had to teach myself first. The first thing I did was grab an old skein of yarn I had lying around the house (which I purchased years ago to make cat toys) and we set to work learning the basics together. It took her a while to catch on, but after some time yesterday and today, she's got the hang of the very basic crochet chains, and she managed to crochet something about half the size of a standard hotpad. So far, so good.

And the best part is: that little piece gave her enough confidence that she has embarked on making herself a crocheted bracelet, and once that's finished, I'm going to start her on making her own scarf.

And me? I'm in the first stages of what will either end up as a blanket or a sweater (I hope). If nothing else, I'll have a nice scarf. In the end though, it doesn't matter. The important task has already been accomplised. My daughter has acquired a new skill. =oD

If you're interested in learning to crochet, or in teaching your student(s) how, the best place I found online was How to Crochet over at MarthaStewart.com. Enjoy.

Update

2007-01-30T16:59:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note on the Bee. She took the test and got 19 out of 24 correct. The school now has the test and we're waiting to hear whether her score was good enough to advance to the oral round.

With the kids around here, I'm pretty sure she's in, but they could surprise me. Stranger things have happened.

More Spelling Wonders

2007-01-28T17:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I took the initiative and got a copy of the spelling words from which we can study for tomorrow's written test. It's nine pages of words, and we're slogging through them as best we can. A few of the ones she misspelled (as she misspelled them): bureaucrasy, harpsicord, boisenberry, semmalina, metaphore. A few of the ones she spelled correctly: ostentatious, egalitarian, mercurial, beleaguer, alliteration. She's getting about 75% of them correct, which should be more than enough to make it to the oral bee. (Last year she only got 68% correct and was one of the top 7th graders in the school system here.)

Still, the first one you miss in the oral bee is the last one, so we've got some work to do before February 9th. Of course, last year's oral bee was a travesty. Some of the other kids went out on really easy words. It was sad. I'm afraid it was no great feat for my girl to finish in the top 10 kids last year, and there's not much hope of competition this year either. One thing that amazes me is, with all the homeschooled kids around here, she was the only homeschooler to even try out for the bee. What a missed opportunity for those other kids. Heck, we could send a whole team of homeschoolers if everyone else would try out.

Look for the opportunities available in your community. You never know what great things your kids could be missing out on.

I'll let y'all know how it goes tomorrow.

Monitoring What They Read

2007-01-27T08:21:00.000-07:00

I don't read everything my daughter reads. I can't keep up with her. Especially not when she's whipping through a book a day, and three on Saturdays. Heck, I don't even have the time to carefully read all of her textbooks and reading materials for school. I'd spend my whole life doing nothing but reading and not get anything else accomplished. However, this doesn't mean I don't monitor what she's putting into her brain.

How could I possibly monitor her when I'm not reading? Well, I do the best I can. I watch the authors she's checking out of the library, and I do a little research on them. I ask the librarians about the books. I ask my mother - because they seem to have the same taste in authors. And I hope I've given my girl the best tools I can so that she can monitor herself.

Another thing we do, is we keep the lines of communication open. She knows if she has any questions about the things she's reading, she can talk to me about it. Even if it's a book she knows I don't really appreciate. She knows I'll tell her my honest opinion, and she's self-assured enough not to take it personally. For instance, right now she's into books about vampires. (Not Anne Rice, which she's tried and doesn't like, but books along those lines.) I don't have an appreciation for that stuff anymore, and I tell her so, but when she runs across something she doesn't understand, she asks me.

You can't monitor everything your child is reading. (Unless you aren't doing anything else - like reading your own books, maintaining a household, keeping a job, writing, relaxing, etc.) Do the best you can, and keep the lines of communication open. You'd be surprised at how much you can keep an eye on.

(In the coming posts, I hope to create a list of suggested fiction works I think are important, good, or just fun - without presenting negative ideas/philosophies. If you have anything you'd like to suggest, please feel free to leave a comment or send me an e-mail.)

Don't Wait for Perfection

2007-01-24T18:34:00.000-07:00

I originally wrote on this subject earlier today in my sewing blog (janimessewingadventures.blogspot.com). I realized that I've been thinking on this topic with regards to homeschooling as well, so I present here in the homeschooling context.

Under the heading of lessons learned, add...

Don't wait for perfection

As a homeschooling parent, I want to present material to my children in a well thought out, rational, logical and integrated way. With some subjects, mathematics for instance, this is a relatively straightforward process and a parent has many, many resources to do this well.

With other subjects, such as science, it is very difficult. There are very few science texts that present science from "the ground up".

It has been mentioned on this blog previously that texts in general have become very busy, with sidebars and other "extras" all over the place. This seems to be particularly so with science texts. Mix that with the fact that the material is not generally presented in a logical order, but jumps from unconnected topic to unconnected topic, and you have yourself one heck of a mess to wade through.

What's a parent to do? Check the above lesson. Don't wait for your material to be "perfect" before wading into it with your children. Do your best to prepare, but don't wait until you have all the answers, or your kids will be in grad school before you figure it out.

My DH and I were very much in danger of doing just that with science. We were hoping to figure out the "perfect" plan for presenting certain kinds of material and in the meantime, we weren't getting much science done.

After we took a step back, we realized that hey, the material wasn't presented to us in the best fashion either and we not only both managed to figure science out, we both also enjoy it. So it is possible for children to learn, even when the material isn't "perfect". It might be a bit more of a challenge, but it is doable.

That's not to say that we don't hope to do a better job than our own teachers. We do hope we can make it better for our children. What we have realized though is that with homeschooling, as with so many other things, it's better to proceed with a basic plan, knowing that it will need tweaking and fixing along the way, than to never get moving at all.

Spelling Bee Update

2007-01-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

One thing about homeschooling that can be somewhat annoying...

Trying to coordinate anything with the local school district. They love it when it's something they'll get financial credit for, but if it's not, it can be like pulling teeth. Take the Spelling Bee, for instance. I took the initiative, and called them. I left a message and waited. And waited. And waited.

I received a callback today. The first round is Monday. They'll get me the list of words to study from on Thursday. Maybe. Last year, I didn't get a word list at all, so we winged it. She missed most of the words on the test and still made the 2nd round - the oral bee. (Kind of telling when you think about it.) This is her last eligible year, so she's really busting her butt to make it.

She made it to regionals in 6th grade. She made it to regionals in 7th grade. This year she wants to make it to state. She's not fooling herself enough to hope for nationals, but if she works at it, there's a chance. I'm not even going to hope for that myself.

I'll let you know how it goes next week. In the meantime, does anyone know how to pronounce "leggieramente"? ;o)

(Bonus if you know what it means.)

My Kid is Smarter Than Me.

2007-01-22T15:59:00.000-07:00

I admit it. My kid is smarter than me.

I know there are parents out there who would rather do anything than admit that. What grown adult likes to discover their just-barely teenager has exceeded anything they know? Actually, I've discovered I am that kind of adult.

We're doing chemistry right now. I haven't ever in my entire education done the chemistry that she's currently doing. I mean density equal mass divided by volume? I don't remember that from my 8th grade chemistry class, and I never took another chem class beyond that.

And she's grasping it. Of course, when she asks me questions I have to tell her I'm dumber than a stump, but she's okay with that. And we work through the problems together.

It's not a value judgement when your kid finds out you're not as smart. Unless you make it one. Or unless you decide it doesn't matter enough to try and get smarter yourself. If you let your knowledge stagnate, you're a goner.

Now, if she keeps learning and I stop... that could be a problem. ;o)

Age Appropriate or Brain Appropriate?

2007-01-20T10:49:00.000-07:00

Okay, I admit it. I have no background in education beyond working for a private school corporation (as a secretary, not a teacher). I'm feeling my way through this business of educating my child.

One of the main obstacles to homeschooling on your own is determining the appropriate course material for your child. I suppose if you're working from preschool onward, it would be easier. And if you're planning on buying a curriculum from one of the many places that offer those, it would help. But if you're like me, and trying to do this on your own after pulling your child out of public school, it can be a daunting task.

With my daughter, I try and find materials just beyond her current mastery. This sometimes means she struggles a bit, but it seems to be working for us. If I run her into too much trouble, we scrap the material and find something a bit easier. For instance, right now she's working with a high school chemistry textbook, and it's companion workbook. The text book seems to hit her right where I want it to--just above her current level so she stretches a bit--but the workbook is so far past that, I can see she's quickly drowning. So we're scrapping that book until later years.

I work at making her lessons brain-appropriate. If I tried to make them age-appropriate, she'd be whipping through the lessons, and not really learning much of anything. However, that's one individual child. Each child learns at a different pace. So, age-appropriate may work for you.

In the end, you need to evaluate your child's needs and abilities. Check out some of the materials available. Pick up a book and have your child try to do some of the exercises. If they breeze through, up the ante and give them something harder. If they struggle, fall back a step and try again. Don't get discouraged if your child is a little behind--especially if they were previously in public school. I had to start my 6th grader out in 5th grade Math lessons just to get her caught up. And don't let your child get discouraged if you've given them something harder than they're ready for. It's not a value judgement on your child's ability. It's just an evaluation so you can better teach them.

And when they finally manage to get ahead of the curve (and trust me, if they've been public schooled, they will get ahead of the curve), you can celebrate their achievement. There's nothing quite like seeing your child reading out of a college level textbook and understanding the material.

Except for the look on her face when she realizes she's reading college-level material and understanding it.

Short Attention Span Theatre

2007-01-18T08:37:00.000-07:00

Over at Musings about Life I wrote a post regarding what I like to call "Short Attention Span Theatre" (SAST) and how it relates to writing.

"Sounds like a joke? Well, it was. I'm not the person who coined this phrase. I gleaned it from some comedian back in the '80s. However, as much of a joke as it was, it has become a way of life today. Everything is thrown at us in rapid fire--from commercials to tv shows to writing. Nothing should be too long because for some reason, the idea is that humans have a very short attention span and if you don't keep it short, your audience's mind will wander. (And they wonder why ADHD is a problem?...)"

I'm writing this post specifically to address the problem of ADHD as it relates to SAST.

If I had a dollar for every teacher who intimated my child had ADHD, I could buy myself a nice meal. Almost every teacher she had hinted around that she needed to be tested for this malady. Every year but one from kindergarten to sixth - when I finally took her out of public school. (And the one year where no one mentioned ADHD was a year when her teacher was so close to retirement, she couldn't have cared less about her students.) One teacher didn't bother to hint, but point blank told me my daughter had ADHD. I ignored them all. It was plain to me she didn't have ADHD, but when everything comes at a child rapid fire--from the television which most people blame, to the textbooks themselves--it's little wonder kids can't keep themselves on task.

Oh, I admit I fell down on the job when my daughter was young. I used the TV as a babysitter, and I wasn't picky about what I let her watch. She would spend hours in a PBS-coma, glued to Barney like he was a watch swinging in front of her face. Then she would leave home and go to preschool where everything is bam bam bam - do this for ten seconds, move on and do that for ten seconds. Then it was regular school, where the walls are splashed with a million different posters, and colors, and the textbooks are just as bad. So, fault those first few years runs 50/50.

Finally, I woke up and paid attention to my child's mental growth. I shut the TV off, ditched the videos, and tried to make my life a bit less SAST. It calmed her down a lot. (A LOT) But still she was hammered at school. I couldn't look at her textbooks and keep any level of concentration myself; I can't imagine what those things do to a kid's brain. Every page is splattered with tidbits of info along the sides, and blurbs dotted here and there - sometimes with important information and sometimes with unnecessary trivia.

I don't know which came first - ADHD or SAST - but it seems to me they feed each other.

Is it any wonder our kids can't pay attention?

Electives

2007-01-17T11:39:00.000-07:00

Here in Colorado, the law states we have to homeschool for an average of 4 hours a day, which pretty well covers the core curriculum of my education program - Math, English (Reading and Writing) and Science. At least that's the core here. I'm sure others have a different idea of the core classes, but for the purposes of Colorado, these are the only subjects they test in, so I'm using it as my core.

Not that we only do the core curriculum. Each term, I give my daughter a course or two above the core - like PE, History, Geography, Government, etc. plus the options for what I call electives. (Like I said, I'm trying to mirror college here.) Last term we did Speech and Theatre for elective courses, and I also gave her credit in Home Ec because I am teaching her how to cook. The term before, she chose Psychology. Before that, Mythology.

Now, according to state law, I don't really have to spend any specific amount of time in any subject, as long as we have school for at least 4 hours a day, and she passes a grade-equivalent test every other year. If I was concerned with keeping the status quo, however, I wouldn't be homeschooling, so we go above and beyond.

This term, I haven't really settled on an elective for her. We have the core plus PE and Government. Additionally, we have spelling bee practice, so I'm not certain how much more she needs to do. Still, I'd like to see her spending a little time learning something different. I'm thinking about teaching her a skill like knitting or crocheting.

What kinds of electives do you do?

That Naughty Word... Achievement?

2007-01-15T18:14:00.000-07:00

When did achievement become a naughty word? Across our nation, the achievements of some are seen as somehow detracting from the self-worth of others. Horrors stories abound of schools where valedictorian status is being ignored, where grades are becoming pointless, and where awards are given to everyone, regardless of merit.

Sadly, this seeping ooze isn't just confined to the educational industry. Just yesterday, after the AFC Divisional Championships (football to the uninitiated) were played and won by the New England Patriots. And guess what those aweful Patriots did. They celebrated their victory. In front of the losing team. Which prompted Charger LaDanian Tomlinson to cry foul. Somehow the Patriots pride of achievement was 'disrepecting' the Chargers. Now I'm not a Patriots fan by any stretch of the imagination, but they played a good game, they busted their butts and they came out victorious. In my world, that's cause for celebration. I don't know what it's like in Mr. Tomlinson's world. (And I don't want to.)

Back to the realm of education, though, I was disheartened to learn in my brother's school district, his sons are no longer able to receive As. It appears that when some children get As, other children feel bad. So, rather than encouraging the children to achieve, they leveled the playing field. If everyone is mediocre, no one feels bad... Oh, unless you count the kids who did work hard to achieve those As and now aren't getting them. But we don't worry about the achievers in this world, so long as the udnerachievers aren't feeling bad.

I was also disheartened to see my daughter's last public school report card--which no longer has a standard grade scale, but some bastardized happy-crappy system of other letters where As now stand for 'Adequate' and the highest score a child can get is a P. ("Hey Mom! I got all Ps!" "Peas? I thought you hated peas.")

On a positive note, a silly little sit-com named 'Yes, Dear' had entire show dedicated to poking fun at the 'everyone gets an award' mentality. (The show's not the best, but every once in a while it says something intelligent... Okay, maybe less than that, but still.)

There's something wrong in a world that no longer celebrates achievement, and unfortunately, it won't be going away any time soon. After all, look what we're teaching our children.

(Oh, and Mr. Tomlinson? You should be ashamed of yourself.)

Hope for the Future

2007-01-14T08:14:00.000-07:00

Before I can get to the point of this post, let me give you some backstory. One of my nieces has been a source of concern for me for many years. She's willful (which is good) but she lacked direction and she lacked any kind of self-assurance to be able to direct herself. She's smart as a whip, but believed she was stupid. She is pretty, and for some reason believed this was the only good quality she had. She is a good person who basically believed she was bad. The combination of these things is a recipe for disaster, and sure enough, it hit her early. She ended up dropping out of school at the age of 16, and spent a few years being a complete waste.

What turned her around was motherhood. She had a child of her own, and the little light bulb went off over her head. She went back to school. Rather than get a GED (which is fine, IMO - plenty of good men have gone far with a GED), she decided to sign up to complete high school via a correspondence course. She takes classes, turns in her assignments, and gets her grades all via the mail. And from what I hear, she's doing very well.

The other night, she called me looking for assistance with her literature homework. After we spent time going over iambic pentameter and trying to discern the meaning of a line from John Donne's poem "Death be not Proud" (yuck), we actually got a chance to talk. She's become a solid, mature adult in the five years since I've seen her, and I told her how proud I was of her. Then she gave me a bit of hope for the future.

She is hoping to start college in the spring, and she is hoping that by the time her son is old enough to start kindergarten, she will be in a position to homeschool.

You can bet, I'll be over here providing whatever assistance I can to that endeavor. Hurray for her, and hurray for the future generation.

The Socialization Argument

2007-01-12T20:34:00.000-07:00

Back in the late '80s my oldest brother and his wife made the decision to homeschool their children. Everyone was completely aghast, including myself.

The major fear was, of course, the effect homeschooling would have on their children's social development. It wasn't long before our fears were proven correct. Their oldest daughter was an odd child, made more odd by the complete lack of interaction between her and other children. She seemed socially backward, and at family gatherings seemed incapable of interacting with even her own cousins.

So, when I made the decision to homeschool, my family was in complete shock. And all the same old fears bubbled to the surface. They feared my daughter would become the same awkward child as her cousins. This fear was quickly proven incorrect.

Thinking about this carefully, I think I have finally figured out what the difference was--beyond the obvious fact that each child develops as an individual, and no kids are exactly alike, that is. I believe the true difference in this case lies in the parents. No offense to my brother or his ex-wife, but neither of them are the most socially capable individuals themselves. Both of them are bright, but we always knew my brother was more book-smarts than common sense anyways. And there is nothing wrong with that.

My daughter is not socially active, and most likely she won't be--not in the typical way. She's outspoken, intelligent and friendly, but only once she gets to know you. She has no problem carrying on a conversation with most people--from the elderly to the toddlers--with the exception of the kids she previously went to school with; kids her own age. Her main obstacle to socialization comes from not understanding the workings of the typical teenage mind. She doesn't go in for cliques, she's not much into sports, and she's not allowed to watch much prime time TV. In short, she's odd. For her, socialization at school proved the biggest obstacle to learning.

I guess what I'm trying to get across in this post, is that the major argument against homeschooling is socialization, and it's a non-issue. If you're worried about the social growth of your child, sign him up for classes at the local public school - many public schools are willing to allow homeschool students to take elective courses. (It helps them with financing. Here in CO, they get at least some financial credit for ANY student taking any courses--homeschool included.) Take your children to the public pool. Have them read books to the residents at the local nursing home. Participate in programs at the local library. But don't let the old socialization argument stop you, or make you feel guilty for making the choice.

In the end, the knowledge they'll gain from homeschooling far outweighs any perceived lack of social interaction.

Writing Education

2007-01-11T15:40:00.000-07:00

This particular subject is probably the closest to my heart, and to my area of expertise. For those of you who don't know it, I am a writer. So, when it comes to writing education, I'm in my element--more so for fiction writing than for non-fiction, but I'm flexible.

Since it is my belief that the teaching of writing should always focus on reality before it ever touches on make-believe, we've been concentrating rather heavily on non-fiction education for the past couple of years. Not that she hasn't had instruction in fiction. Public school would rather give children an outlet for creativity than worry about the fundamentals of writing, so she had plenty of that before I took the bull by the horns.

Don't gasp in horror. Children certainly need an outlet for their creativity. But if you've spent any time with any child, you can plainly see they find their own outlets through their games. Every time they play pretend, they are giving their creativity an outlet. As it should be. I just don't believe kids need to outlet their creavity at school. At least not until they've mastered the basics of grammar, spelling and composition. If they can't string an intelligible sentence together, it won't matter a damn whether they can be creative. They might be able to write the Great American Novel, but if no one can understand it, it doesn't do anyone much good.

So, for the past couple of years we have focused on non-fiction, much to my daughter's displeasure. Still, whether she wanted to spend her time writing essays or not, it has done her a world of good. Her essays are cogent and thoughtful, and I'd stack them up against any child her own age (and most public high school seniors). Finally, though, we have reached the point where she has non-fiction firmly within her grasp; now begins the foray into writing fiction. She's so excited about it, she finished her book on writing fiction in the first 4 days of the semester.

I can't wait to read the first story.

Creating a self-motivating child (Pt 2)

2007-01-10T16:40:00.001-07:00

My mother always told her children that if we reached the age of 18 and could fend for ourselves she'd done her job. Not that my mother isn't still there for all of us, but she realized that once we had reached adulthood, she couldn't really tell us what to do or how to live our lives. She did her best to make us each self-reliant. Unfortunately, she didn't really know how to teach us how to be self-motivating. She did her best, but in the end, we each had to figure that out for ourselves.

So, I reached college age not ever knowing how to light a fire under my own butt. Suddenly, I was 400 miles from home and had to make the choice to either sink or swim. I sunk.

I don't want to see my own child flounder once she is out on her own. Like my mother, I will let her go at the age of 18, and I will always be here for her, but I can't be her flotation device any more than my mother was mine.

We raise our children to the best of our abilities, and with homeschooling, we go above and beyond what the average parent does by providing all of the parental aspects, as well as playing the role of teacher, principal, superintendent, etc. When they reach adulthood, the best we can hope for is that we've provided them with sufficient skills so they're able to swim away under their own power.

In the end, isn't that what parenting is all about?

Conversations with a 5 yr old, 1

2007-01-09T10:46:00.000-07:00

Him: Daddy, what's zero-point energy?

Me:

Him:

Me:

Him: ...

Me: (Googles.) "In physics, the zero-point energy is the lowest possible energy that a quantum mechanical physical system may possess; it is the energy of the ground state of the system. All quantum mechanical systems have a zero point energy. The term arises commonly in reference to the ground state of the quantum harmonic oscillator and its null oscillations. In quantum field theory, it is a synonym for the vacuum energy, an amount of energy associated with the vacuum of empty space. In cosmology, the vacuum energy is taken to be the origin of the cosmological constant. Experimentally, the zero-point energy of the vacuum leads directly to the Casimir effect, and is directly observable in nanoscale devices."

Him:

Me:

Him: What's zero-point energy?

Me: It's the least amount of energy in a system.

Him: Okay.

Me: Whew.

Creating a self-motivating child (Pt 1)

2007-01-09T06:28:00.000-07:00

One of my concerns upon entering into this whole homeschooling venture was encouraging self-reliance in my child. After years of being told what to do and when to do it, she wasn't self-motivating. She would do only what she was told, when she was told to do it. My fears were that homeschooling wasn't going to be any better in this arena. After all, I'm always here to make sure things get done.

But I won't be behind her with a big stick forever. Looking ahead, she'll never be successful in college, or anywhere else, if she can't motivate herself. With this in mind, I've been trying to use homeschool to prepare her for the day when she will have to light a fire under her own butt. I'm trying to make homeschool mirror college--at least in some ways.

I create a syllabus for the term, and define clear goals for what she'll need to have completed during that term. She has the assignments and the dates they're due. It is up to her to get those assignments done and turned in on time. I provide the lectures and the guidance. I answer questions. And slowly, I have backed away from reminding her to complete her work. It's a slow process--weaning her off depending on someone else for motivation--but the rewards are beginning to show.

(to be continued)

Never too Early to Plan Ahead

2007-01-08T05:47:00.000-07:00

This weekend my DH (darling husband) and I were talking about the years ahead when we will have to pay for my DD (darling daughter) to go to college. Sure, she's only 13, but it's never too early to plan for that huge expense. Things are on track so she doesn't have to face college the way either of us did--working outside jobs to pay for college while attended classes fulltime. But I'm the kind of person who wants her to contribute something, even if she isn't working while attending.

So I spent some time this weekend with the DD looking online at various scholarship opportunities. I googled the words 'scholarship' and 'contest', which provided 1.3 million hits. We surfed through the hits on the first three pages just to get an idea of what's out there. Most of the hits are for essay contests, which is good. (We'll get into Why later.) Some are for odd little things, like making a prom dress out of duct tape. Many are national, and some are local or regional. Most provide financial assistance of some kind, and a few provide some other goodie (like a trip to Space Camp, which would look awesome on a college app and be a 'too cool' experience for any kid).

Also, some scholarship contests are specifically designed for high school seniors, while others allow children of various ages to compete for prize money. (If you can start these things early, think of how well prepared your child will be, and how much greater their chances of success will be.)

The point is: There are so many ways of providing the financial means for college, none of us should have to worry too much. Especially since we are providing a superior education and putting our kids ahead of the public school pack.

I'll be trying to place contest and scholarship info over there on the right as I find it and as it's pertinent. They all have different deadlines, so they may not all be available at any given time. Check back or bookmark the ones you're interested in.

It's never too early to begin preparing.

Scripps National Spelling Bee

2007-01-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

As a homeschooling parent, you may not realize how many things are still available to your children. For instance, your middle-school aged children are certainly able to enter the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Whether your child is an awesome speller or not, the experience certainly is worth it.

The first year my daughter participated she was still enrolled in public school, and although her spelling was horrible at the time, she made it through the local bee to reach regionals. The next year, she wanted to participate again, so I contacted the principal of our school for information. They were happy to have her participate. I administered the pre-test here at home, and took the paper over to the school for grading. Sure enough, she made it to the verbal bee again, and once more made it to regionals. (Whereupon she freaked out and missed an easy word, but that's all part of the experience.) This is the last year she is eligible to participate, and we'll be starting the study process shortly.

The above link has all the rules, as well as links to pdf files of the word lists to study from.

If you're interested in having your child participate, please contact your local school district for more information.

The Look-Say Method (or Word Guessing)

2007-01-06T07:35:00.000-07:00

No greater damage has been done to the education of normal healthy children than the look-say method of reading. (Also known as the whole word method, or word guessing.) This method was originally created around the year 1810 to help deaf-mute children learn to read. I would assume it is actually pretty good for its intended purpose. After all, deaf children cannot hear the phonetics of a word, so their only option is to memorize the way a word looks, and then from there, guess at new words.

Since this isn't the case for the majority of our children, I haven't the faintest clue why anyone would think this method was applicable, but someone somewhere got the bright idea to push it into our schools. And even though it has failed miserably, they continue to push it.

Part of the reasoning, or so I've heard, is that adults read without sounding words out. Think about the way you are reading this post. You see the word 'think' and you know what it is. You've seen it a million times. Right? After all the years you've been reading, it's in your memory banks as a whole word. Children don't have that luxury. Now, let's say you're teaching your child science and you get to a word you've never seen before--endothermic, for example. You can read the word--if you've had a good basis in phonics--because you know the rules. If you haven't had a good basis in phonics, you can guess at a word like that all day and never come up with the right answer. You'll have a better chance of guessing if you have a good vocabulary, but you're an adult. Think about what it's like for a child.

Another excuse some people use is that the English language isn't entirely phonetic. Let's assume for a moment that statement is correct. Let's assume only 75% of the words are phonetic. (I would guess it's higher, but I'm using that number for argument's sake.) Using look-say to teach reading, in that case, is like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Or to use an analogy, it would be like the medical community throwing out aspirin because it doesn't work 25% of the time. Silly, yes. But that is exactly what proponents of look-say would have us do.

And one more excuse (I'm sure there are more, but I won't hit them all today): Learning phonics is hard. I won't argue too much there. Learning phonics can be hard. It doesn't have to be, but when a child is being taught by someone who themselves have been taught wrong (or worse someone whose been indoctrinated to hate phonics), it's going to be nothing but plain drudgery. Still, as hard as phonics can be, it STILL is easier than trying to memorize all the words in the English language and it STILL is easier than trying to guess at the majority of words in a 100,000 word novel/textbook/newspaper.

(More later...)

"Stupid in America"

2007-01-05T17:10:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't had the opportunity to see "Stupid in America" - a 20/20 report by John Stossel, here is a little link for you: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1491217.

It's a very interesting and enlightening look at the public school monopoly in America. If I hadn't taken my child out of public school before I saw this, I would have pulled her out soon after.

Contributors

2007-01-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

When I first thought of this blog, I didn't think beyond getting it running. Yet while I was letting my friends know about it, I had an epiphany. Why not invite them to guest blog? So, you will see information and posts from a variety of people on this blog--some who have chosen to contribute directly and others who have sent me articles or other information to contribute.

It is my hope this blog will grow and become one big haven for rational home educators. If nothing else, it will become a place for three homeschooling families and three educational professionals to brainstorm ways to better educate children. =oD

Enjoy.

Guess What I Learned in School Today, Mommy?

2007-01-05T14:51:00.000-07:00

Reprinted with permission:

Guess What I Learned in School Today, Mommy?
By Steven Brockerman
Copyright 1999 All rights reserved

It wasn’t guns that made murderers out of those two kids in Colorado. It wasn't their families' affluence. It wasn't violence on TV, sex in the movies, bombs in Kosovo, competitive sports or Nazis on the Internet. What made them cold-blooded killers, with peach fuzz still on their chins, was much more powerful an influence than all of the above combined. What made them killers were bad ideas.

Ideas move men to action. What kind of action is determined by the ideas men choose to accept. Today, most people derive their ideas from what they learn in school. A logical question to ask in this case, then -- especially since all of the shootings have taken place in school -- would be: What are the ideas being taught to our children in our schools? As an educator I think I can answer that question.

In language study, which is one of my fields, future teachers are told to liberate their students by teaching emotional self-expression, not oppress them by imparting knowledge. Teaching emotional self-expression teaches creativity, they are told. Teaching a student reason and knowledge does not. If student teachers remain unconvinced, they are then told that correctness and incorrectness, precision and inexactness, truth and falsehood are just matters of opinion anyway. Since no one can truly know the truth, teaching students knowledge amounts to forcing your opinions on them.

If precision in language translates into precision in thinking and if our children's teachers are being taught to treat language as guesswork, as an expression, not of reason, but of arbitrary feelings, how precise can the thinking of our children's teachers be? I wonder what those two kids' teachers think about the way those killers expressed their feelings at that Colorado high school. Was what they did creative or destructive? And is it, in fact, just a matter of opinion?
In literature, another of my fields, future teachers are exposed, primarily, to novels in which the heroes, if you care to call them that, are men driven by forces said to be beyond their control. Student teachers are encouraged to believe that man can't help thinking what he thinks, being what he is and doing what he does; that a man's character, his intellectual and productive achievements or failures and his feelings are, ultimately, products of some group - racial, sexual, cultural or social - rather than his own individual choices.

I wonder whether those two teenagers excused their rage, their hatred, their homicidal desires by shrugging and saying, "Well, I'm not responsible. I couldn’t help it. It's all those other kids that made me do it." Certainly, many have since voiced the same rationalizations to try and explain the killings. Such is the power - and the false ideas -- of modern education.
Finally, in pedagogical certification classes - their literary lessons reinforced - future teachers learn that the crowd does indeed create the individual. The crowd makes the individual's personality; makes his character, his prejudices and his vices; makes his virtues and directs his thinking. The crowd, student teachers are told, even creates reality -- makes things right or wrong; true or false.

Would you want your children taught by teachers who believe that one should act on their emotions? That truth is unknowable? That an individual is not responsible for his actions? That the group can, through will or wish, alter existence?

What would happen, do you think, to a child who was taught to rely on his emotions instead of his reason? Who was taught that nothing is certain and that there's no way to discover any truth? Who was taught that he can't be in control of his life but that the crowd can; that the crowd makes the truth; that the crowd is reality; that not he, but the crowd is responsible?

If you answered Jonesboro or Littleton, go to the head of the class.

Homeschooling on the Cheap

2007-01-05T12:28:00.000-07:00

Before we get too far, I'd like to address what I mean by the phrase 'homeschooling on the cheap'.

Homeschooling can be a very big drain on a parent's finances. You have to buy the books, the paper, the pens, etc. Sometimes you have to pay for classes outside the home, or for fees at local organizations (like a gym for phys. ed. or the local swimming pool, etc.). You can even buy curriculum materials and pay for testing. However, none of this has to break the bank, so to speak.

Throughout this blog experience, we'll be working on ways to help combat those costs. Whether it's buying used textbooks (online or at your local used bookstore), or finding inexpensive ways to expose your children to the world (finding free classes and free places to take your children on fieldtrips), or when the time comes, places you can apply for college scholarships.

It's not that your children aren't worth the expense. They certainly are worth it. But as with anything in life, why pay more than you have to?

If you have a tip or suggestion about this or anything related to education, please feel free to contact us. Either via the comment chains or by emailing homeedmusings@gmail.com.

Thank you.

Why I started this...

2007-01-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

I started this blog as a way to reach out to other parents who, like me, got fed up with the educational establishment in America, and decided to do it themselves. I got tired of watching my intelligent child drown in public school. I got sick of watching teachers give lip service to educating while devoting too much of their time trying to socialize children. And I got fed up with running down to the school on a near-daily basis to address some problem they had created-either through their own ineptitude or through their inability to control the behavior of hundreds of children.

Before anyone gets too excited though, please understand I don't think my child is a perfect little angel. She's always been a pretty good, but pretty normal, kid. If given the opportunity, she'll get into some amount of trouble, and public school was giving her way too many opportunities.

Between the trips to school and the hours every night I was spending helping with homework, correcting misinformation, and keeping her brain fed, it really seemed better if I did it all myself and cut out the middle man. It isn't easy, but then again nothing worthwhile ever is. I have been teaching at home for almost two years, and I don't regret a single minute of it.

This blog is going to be devoted in part to helping other frustated parents deal with the issues of providing a superior education to their children. It is also going to deal with addressing pertinent issues in education, as well as tips and suggestions for 'homeschooling on the cheap'.

I hope you enjoy it and that you can benefit from the experience. I know I will.