Do You Homeschool During the Holidays?

This Christmas brought two sneaky homeschool gifts to my son: one which he himself asked for and one which was given to him as not per see as a “gift”, but just because DH was going through a box of old things. Both though have caused DS to “do work”.

My F-I-L thought my son was insane when asked what he wanted to for Christmas, the answer was two three ring binders and plastic inserts. My F-I-L asked quizzically, “Are you sure?” and DS surely was. He was thrilled when he opened his box at our Christmas dinner and this was certainly one of the first gifts that he used (aside from his Nerf Gun).

DS’s plan with these books is to create a Cast Iron Cookbook and to start putting together his Eagle Scout Book. DS loves cast iron cooking, but is frustrated when pushed to think quickly and plan a menu for scouts. His plan is to begin compiling his favorite Cast Iron recipes so that he can just grab his cookbook for both planning meetings and for campouts. This has encouraged him to read carefully to choose the recipes; use the computer to cut, paste, and alter the recipes to the proper size; and to use his organizational skills to put the book together.

The other “gift” was my DH’s old palm pilot. DS has been addicted to it; putting in emergency phone numbers, writing to lists, and filling in the calendar. DS has been checking his spelling on every word he types in. This boy that I have to force to write a sentence has to have the stylus taken away in order to eat dinner. If I had known it would be this easy, I would have bought one of these machines for him. Now, I’m thinking, perhaps I’ll set him up on Facebook too. If it is technology that intrigues him, then I’ll find a way to use it.

So needless to say DS enjoyed his Christmas and mom is feeling a little better about the “time off”.

Samuel Clemens Who?

Trivia question: Who was Samuel Langhorne Clemens? Hint he is one of the greatest American writers of all time. . . He is well known for his quips and quotes like:

“A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining,

but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.”

If you haven’t figured it out it is our dear Mark Twain.

Isn’t that ironic – Harriet Beecher Stowe and then Mark Twain. Here in Hartford, they were neighbors. The Mark Twain house is one of the most beautiful houses of the time. To take a tour of the house online at http://www.marktwainhouse.org/thehouse/floormap.shtml .

Mark Twain authored more than 30 books, many of which are required reading in schools today. Several which have been made into Broadway plays.

Sadly, this year has brought many financial hardships and the Twain house was almost closed. If you are interested in ensuring that this historical building survives for generations, consider donating to the Mark Twain House & Museum.

Here are some lesson ideas.

Field Trips:
Mark Twain House in Hartford, CT
Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum in Hannibal, MO

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Today’s quote is by one of the great authors of my home state of Connecticut, Harriet Beecher Stowe. One of her homes is right here in Hartford.

I did not really know much about Harriet until I attended a fund raiser tea by a local library. At the tea, the curator spoke of woman who I would have loved to have met: a writer, an abolitionist, a feminist. She shared a few pieces of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, one of Stowe’s most memorable writings. As I sat and listened, I pledged that I was going to read this classic. I believe that we may have read excerpts in high school, but never the whole novel. That summer as we traveled to Kentucky, I read Uncle Tom’s Cabin as I had promised. As Eliza escaped across the broken ice of the Ohio, so I drove across it. It was truly surreal.

Later that year, I dragged the kids to the Harriet Beecher Stowe Museum. I was absolutely in awe of this woman. She would have been a force of nature in any era, but in her lifetime, her feats are even more amazing. I encourage you all to get to know her a little better. Here are a great way to do that:

Visit one of her homes:
http://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/index_home.shtml
http://ohsweb.ohiohistory.org/places/sw18/index.shtml

Read about her:
http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/stowe/

Read her works:
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/s#a115

New Gadgets

You will notice that I have added a couple of gadgets to try out on our site. As I've mentioned before, I think half of homeschooling effectively is surrounding our children with interesting information. I was inspired to add these gadgets and will be looking for others after a discussion at a recent Holiday party.

We were talking about historical events and it was clear that Nagasaki meant nothing to one of the guests. Several of us tried to fill in the blanks so that she understood and mentioned Hiroshima, Atomic Bomb, World War II, but clearly it still meant nothing.

It got even worse when we chided one of the guests for using EID stamps on their Christmas cards. People were mixing Muslim and Hindi ideas. They had never even heard of Ramadan. Only one other guest, knew and understood what was being said.

I am hoping that by including such things as these gadgets, by subscribing to History Channel's newsletter, and generally having good conversation in our home will help my children from being this guest in the future.

Frank Llyod Wright Designs

"Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities."
-Frank Lloyd Wright

Ok, you have to check this website out . You can actually learn and design like one of the greatest architects of our time Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright is a great person to study as he was also a homeschooler. His unique view of the world revolutionized the way houses and their surrounding landscapes interacted.

Here are some other websites with background about Frank Lloyd Wright:

http://www.pbs.org/flw/buildings/

http://www.delmars.com/wright/index.html

http://www.planetclaire.org/fllw/timeline.html

If the kids really get into it and you would like more information about architecture for your children, check out some of the links on http://www.loggia.com/designarts/architecture/kids.html .

Once in a Blue Moon - A Homeschool Conversation

A typical homeschool conversation:

As we opened Christmas cards, the kids asked who one of the senders was. I explained that it was a parent of a old Girl Scout whom I hadn’t seen in many moons.

“Many moons. Why do people say that?” DS asked.

“It just means I haven’t seen her in a while,” I responded thinking that would suffice.

“Wouldn’t many moons just mean a couple of days?” He continued.

“No, they mean full moons, so they mean months.” Of course, then I had to add, “except for those blue moons.”

“Blue Moons. What is a blue moon?”

“The second blue moon in a month.”

DD piped in, “How often does that happen?”

“Daddy?” I had used up my knowledge of the moon cycles. He plugged “Blue Moon” into his laptop and came up with www.obliquity.com/astro/bluemoon.html“The average interval between Full Moons is about 29.5 days, whilst the length of an average month is roughly 30.5 days. This makes it very unlikely that any given month will contain two Full Moons, though it does sometimes happen.
On average, there will be 41 months that have two Full Moons in every century, so you could say that once in a Blue Moon actually means once every two-and-a-half years.” He read from the website.

Then we digressed into when the next blue moon was, why they are called blue, and other great astrological facts.

Then dear son brought us back down to his crazy thoughts, “Well, when will four blue moons happen in the same month?”

I thought for sure he had missed the whole concept of what we were just saying. I started waxing on about 29.5 days in a cycle, you would need more than 30 days in a month . . .DD added that we’d need more than one moon and have to be like on Jupiter. But no DS, explained God could cause a miracle and align the moon cycles to his desire. Ok, who can argue with that? I just rolled my eyes. . . “I guess you’re right!”

Now for those states that require reporting - where do you put such conversations? Should homeschoolers try to write all of their digressions down? This was not on our science plan for the day, but certainly is a valid lesson.

Today in History

As homeschoolers, we are always looking for ways to ignite curiosity. One of the ways to do that is just keep lighting the fire in as many different directions as possible and see what areas take light. As interesting way to do that is by starting your day with "Today in History" type ideas or math problems of the day, or some of these interesting daily tidbits.




You may also want to add some of these websites which can give you great jumping off points for daily learing:

Today in History - Library of Congress
Today in History - Yahoo
Today in History - the History Channel - they also have a way to subscribe to a daily newsletter of this day in history
Today in History - History Net

Not only may your kids find this interesting, but you may learn something yourself.

I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.
-Albert Einstein

Writing Rubrics a tool for you and your children

I think that I have mentioned that ironically I am working on at a site that trains teachers for public schools. Tonight, the speaker is talking about rubrics. I know that you are thinking what does this have to do with homeschooling, but I am sitting her listening, thinking that this would work wonders especially for my older child on larger projects. A rubric is a preplanned, objective driven assessment tool that helps teachers greade assignments but also helps students prepare their work to meet the stated goals.

Websites Related to writing Rubrics:
http://www.carla.umn.edu/assessment/VAC/Evaluation/p_7.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_2083034_create-rubric.html?ref=fuel&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=ssp&utm_campaign=yssp_art

http://health.usf.edu/publichealth/eta/Rubric_Tutorial/default.htm

While obviously these are traditionally used in schools, I can see how we can use such a tool especially for some unique work like computer presentation, etc. The benefit to the homeschooling community is not the ability to “grade” our students; frankly, many of us who homschool have moved away from the grading idea anyway. As homeschoolers we can use rubrics as a tool to help our children clearly understand what is expected of them and help them arrange their projects so that the subject / objective is clearly covered. Rubrics can also be a great tool for the kids themselves to evaluate their work before they even turn it in. After completing a project, give them the rubric to review their work and determine if it meets the goals and if they need to adjust something before they consider it finished.

What other “school” ideas have you adapted to homeschooling?

A Good Book For Reluctant Readers

As those of you who read this blog regularly know, my DS is a reluctant reader. Yesterday, however you would have thought differently. He took the Scholastic Book of World Records 2009 and refused to put it down. He pummeled us with questions: What is the place with the world’s fastest winds? What is the loudest mammal? What country eats the most potato chips? We almost could not get him to put the book down. It is a good combination of words and pictures. The captions are catchy and he loves trying to catch us on the answers. Although, I think he is surprised at how many answers we came up with.





FYI – Mt. Washington; Blue Whale; United Kingdom

Igniting your Child's Interests by Exploring Your Own

As homeschooling parents, it is important to stay interested and excited about the world too. By keeping up our interests, we may inspire our children or learn something that may interest them. Today, my find came from The Know-It-All.

Have you ever heard of a gnomon? I had not, but in learning about it the whole idea of square roots suddenly made sense. Interestingly, DD is working with square roots in her math – not the simple kind but some of the more advanced which include variables and rational and irrational numbers, but I thought she too would find this very interesting. He explains and illustrates the idea very simply using dots. If you can put evenly spaced dots representing each number, evenly such that you create a square, you have found a number which is a perfect square. The bottom row, or root, when counted is the square root of this number. Wow, that is amazing! Suddenly, strange mathematical terms made sense to the kids and to me.

Of course just like any other homeschooling home, this spurned us off into questions about the beginning of numbers and who created mathematics? I think truly we have discovered how curiosity killed the cat - - -he got so side tracked trying to satiate his curiosity, he forgot to stop and eat.

The Technological Wave in Education

Maybe they can have an extra 15 minutes on the computer ; )

Lost to history

History and memory . . .we often think of things lost to history meaning 1,000’s of years ago i.e. how the pyramids were built, what was Easter Islands purpose, but what about hundreds or even a generation.

I was just listening to the history channel which was talking about the cornerstone on the White House. A stone that was placed with much pomp and circumstance, a brass plate was even put to it, but today the location us unknown. Under President Truman there was even a study by the corps of engineers to find it but to no avail.

What about even in your own life? Talk to your parents, your siblings – there will already be facts lost, ideas that no one is quite sure of, memories that people diffiantly disagree about. . . My answer write, photograph, tape . . .

How will / do you keep memories alive and accurate?

Geography Game

If you want to challenge your geography knowledge, check this out. I found it on facebook, but what a great way to test your geography IQ.

Survivor - Gabon - Season 17 - Episode 7

Vocab:
Reward
Delusional
Blindside
Totem pole


Crystal tripped over the rice. Matty was quite upset at this and then she opted not to eat. Was this a reasonable, mature response? How do you define the word maturity?

Dan talks about his “inner child”. Corinne says that he is acting like a child trying to fit it. What does it mean to have an “inner child”? How can you care for yours?

Sugar has taken 5 trips to Exile Island. Create a model of your ideal “Sugar Shack”. Also, find out what a real Sugar Shack is and what it is used for.

One of the most touching parts of Survivor is always their contact from home. Choose a family member that has affected you. Write and deliver a heartfelt note.

Sugar seems to have a combination of beauty and brains. Do some research on other women in history that posses this lethal combination.

Rice is the most valuable thing they have right now. What is the most valuable thing that you have? Why?

Play the FreeRice game and help feed others in the world that are starving

Be yourself vs. holding it in – Jeff asked several tribe members where they were on the scale between these two extremes. Which do you think is more advantageous as a survivor contestant? Why?

What would you carry?

Today I had the kids complete a version of "If there is a fire in your house, what would you take?" but with a slightly different bent.

I am reading Suite Francaise. A novel about France as the Germans overtake it. Interestingly, the book is written by a woman who herself was there and was herself deported and later died in Auschwitz.



This book starts in Paris with the Germans on the march. The people of Paris realize that the fall of the city is imanant and that they must leave and so they begin to pack their cars to head to the contryside, so I posed the question to the children - If we had to escape our home quickly and could only take what we could fit in DH's truck, what would you take? They both scibbled down lists.

As the book continues, Petrol or gas runs out and people are forced to abandon their cars. I asked the children to trim their lists to what we could carry on our backs.

Futher along, there is a bombing that causes them to flee for their lives. Many of the characters are happy to make it out with their lives. I asked them to trim again to what they would carry at all times as not to leave something behind. I read them the following section:

She (Madame Pericand) looked again at everything she had brought, "everything she had saved": her children, her overnight cases. She placed her hand over the jewelery and money sewn into her blouse. Yes, during this terrible time she had acted with determination, courage and composure. She hadn't lost her head! She hadn't lost . . .she hadn't . . .Suddenly she cried out in a choked voice. She clutched her throat and fell backwards, letting out a low moan as if she were suffocating.
"My God, Madame! Madame, what's the matter?" exclaimed Nanny.
"Nanny, my dear Nanny," Madame Pericand finally groanded in a barely audible voice, "We forgot . . ."
"What? What did we forget?"
"We forgot my father-in-law," said Madame Pericand, dissolving into tears. (pages 112)

This led to a great car conversation about growing up in fear of Russia and in the importance of relationships and items. We were very happy to see that no only did they see the value and necessity of things, but also of people. They remembered to collect their grandfather (my father) down the street.

Using Speech Recognition for Writing and Proper Enunciation

Today, I have been introduced to a powerful program. In fact, I am using it right now. It is speech recognition. I thought this program would be very helpful for my son who has a hard time when trying to write. I thought he may be able to dictate his ideas. Then he could correct the dictation (which may take more work than I expected).

Like many things in homeschooling, I have found a second use for this program as well. As DD was helping me learn the program, we found that you have to dictate very well for the program to work correctly. DD thought that this would help her in her acting. When he was very young, she had a speech impediment. Now you do not really do not notice it, but it did affect this program. Apparently, you can continue to work with the program so that it can get smarter (i.e. get used to you speech patterns).

This speech recognition program was not an additional cost for me. In fact, it was already on the computer. It was just a matter of learning how to use it.

We certainly have a lot more to learn and all must be more careful in how we speak to it, but it may be a very helpful program to use. You may want you check and see if your computer has the program as well.

Homeschooling Hints - Use Your Resources Wisely

Using your resources wisely is an important mantra when you homeschool (Hint #3). Although it is important for the young and old, it is most important during the teenage years.

Keep your eyes out for people that may supplement your children's interests or studies. Today for example DD and I went to the neighbors for some beading lessons. Pam recently gave me a bracelet as a thank you for sewing on her son's Cub Scout patches. DD was impressed with it. She has beaded before but was concerned that her patterning looked too childish. So I took the opportunity to call Pam and see if she would give us a lesson. She was thrilled at the idea and so we went over today.

It was like having a personal shopper. She introduced us to all the necessary parts and pieces. We have looked at beading before but I always hesitate to buy anything but a kit because I have no idea what to buy - too many options. She really helped us figure out what was necessary and even coached us through making two bracelets and a necklace. DD was thrilled.

So keep your eyes open. Who can help your children? Who may have a talent or skill that they can share? Most will be thrilled to pass on the info. Such relationships may even translate into a internship / apprenticeship.

PS. I'll try to get the digital camera working so that we can post some pictures of our creations.

Child Centered Learning - From Leaf to Maple Syrup to Gum

When you homeschool you always have to be ready to change direction and follow the learning. This is why I was always a fan of open classroom. Teachers need to have the ability to move where the interest of the kids goes. If a ladybug flies in and the kids want to learn about ladybugs, you should be able to adjust. This is not such an easy task when you are tied down by curriculum and checked by standardized tests. At home, you can go where ever you are drawn (Homeschooling Hint #1).

Yesterday, for example, as I worked in the kitchen and DS read his science pages diagramming the leaf and stem, we were led us in other directions. We suddenly had to put celery in dyed water to better see the xylem and phloem. We had challenge questions about maple syrup – do you think we tap the xylem or phloem and why? (I should tell you that DS has memorized which is up and down by using the pneumonic device – phloem sounds like flow. You flow down. Therefore Xylem is up / phloem down. I was amazed at how well he understood the application. Maple syrup making was something that he understood and could relate to. We do it. We discussed why we could not over tap a tree. This used to be just a rule that we had to follow, but now he understood why we couldn’t do that. ) We compared this idea to cuts on a human body. Then something in this suddenly spurred off a question about gum. And while I did not have the answer, we did come over the computer when we finished. I had him write “Bubble Gum” on the last page we were reading so that we wouldn’t forget and so that he could take the distracting thought out of his head.

When we finished, I found a great little explanation on the making of gum on the Glee Gum site. (Actually, I tried to get DH to help him so that I could get dinner done and get to choir, but I immediately heard him tell him to Google “Bubble Gum”. I tried to intervene to encourage DH to add “for kids” or “how to make bubble gum”, but he said that it will bring up Wikipedia and he can get his answer there. Homeschooling hint #2 for the day, work to strengths not weaknesses. As I have mentioned, reading is very hard for DS especially when DH has the tv on in front of him. So I interceded, tried to help him with Wikipedia and then did my own search which came by this site which was much more visual with some reading. It not only was clearer to DS, but also encouraged him to read in short blurbs. )

“While it is helpful to have a map of where you are planning to go; don’t be afraid to follow an interesting diversion. You can always get back to the main road later. Maybe you will even find a short cut.” me

Which of the Following States is in One Time Zone?

Remember me talking about Nautilus learning and how you add layers - Ironically, we had a microcosm of this idea this weekend.

On the train ride back, one of the girls started playing "Who wants to be a Millionaire?" (teaching with technology - Imagine if we sent quizzes / refreshes that way). Anyway one of the questions was "Which of the following states is in one time zone?

Oregon
Oklahoma
Indiana
Kansas"

The problem with this game on the girl's phone is that when you get the answer wrong. It doesn't give you the correct answer - so we were left wanting - TWICE!

Flash forward to today, DS was doing his MATH. What is the math about? Traveling across the country. What is the picture at the top of the page? A time zone map of the US. What is the correct answer to the question? Oklahoma.

To brush up on other useless trivia:

Can't Go Over it, Then Why Not Under it?

Sometimes when you homeschool, you wonder if you are on track. Are your kids going to make it in the outside world? Have I deprived them of something that they can never regain?

And then sometimes, you wonder . . .and I graduated from school (and college)??? How did that happen?

We have started letting our dog have roam of the house when we go to bed and when we go out. However, he has still been know to get into the cat liter. So I figured if we put up a baby gate, the cat could get in and the dog would stay out. But I could only find the very tall gate, I wasn't sure if the cat could jump that high. I must have verbalized my fear, because I hear from DS, "Mom, why don't you just put in up higher so that the cat can just go UNDER it but the dog can't?"

Wow, that made a lot of sense. I guess he got the critical thinking portion of our homeschool curriculum beat.

Integrating Technology and Learning

Since I have been hearing about this video all weekend, I figured that I should share it with you:



Mind you it does not strictly apply to us homeschoolers and many of us will see it as confirmation as to why we homeschool, but if you can get past that you may also be inspired. Of course DD's reason for her excitement about this video is that she sees it as yet another reason why she should get a cellphone. I'm not sure that that is going to work, but I am going to allow her to create a PowerPoint in leiu of a self test in Social Studies. We'll see how that goes and go from their. I'm also thinking, she may be getting some interesting emails. Also, I noticed that our library now has mp3 books on their website for downloading. This may be just the thing for DS.

Let me know any great technology ideas that you have.

TeacherTube.com

Did you know about this? It is just like YouTube.com but with an educational bent.

In one of the lectures I sat in on last night and today, the speaker was talking about the integration of technology and education. Mind you for a homeschooler, the usage is a little different, but it certianly can impact our teaching / learning too. For example, check out the following video:



Show it to your children and then have them pick one of the items in the song to do a research on and write a quick summary.

I am looking forward to really crawling around this site to see what else they have to offer.

Reading Your Way into Good Habits

When I was at work the other night, the Family Consumer Science teachers gave me an article, “Healthful Messages, Wrapped in Fiction” by Tara Parker-Pope. The article discussed the idea of positive messages to girls can be introduced in literature and successfully change their habits. As we have been having problems with DD (teenage issues) and would love to have her get better (more positive) media information, I thought this article may help. I thought it may help me foray into a conversation about the media and its impact on her. Also, I thought perhaps she may read these books.

Impressively, she took to the idea right away. She read the article with interest and then this morning took out not one but three of the Beacon Street Girlsbooks from the library to read and review for me. I thought this was great, because we adults can sit around and discuss what is “good” for kids, but they need to decide if it is really good. When she writes something up, we’ll publish it for your review.

In the meantime, please let me know if you or any of your daughters have read this series.

Dutch Oven Cooking

Homeschooling with heart sometimes means that you do something illogical. Tonight DS and I cooked dinner on an open fire. Did we really have time to do it? NO. Was it the most effective way to cook? NO. Did I do it anyway? Yes.

DS has gotten involved in Dutch oven cooking because of Boy Scouts. He has been enjoying it when they go camping, so tonight he wanted to share one of the recipes he made. So tonight we had Dutch Oven Pot Roast with carrots and potatoes.

DH loves Dutch Oven cooking too, but I think desserts are his favorites. He especially like to make cobblers? DS seems to be fully involved he wants to make soups, side dishes, main dishes, breads, and desserts. We may have a culinary master born 150 years too late.

Note: This is also another great site for recipes.

Rock Star Animation

Check out this new character that DS created. This is actually my rendition of his creation. He has a drawing but my scanner is broken so I have given up waiting and decided to try to recreate it using paint.

Now I'm thinking that it would be cool to create an animation. Does anyone know how to do that? What basic programs would you recommennd? Any information is welcome.

Election Day Plan

Our house is revving up for Election Day. Of course, step one is to get out and vote ourselves. I have always brought the kids to the Polling Place. Many years they have seen me work the polling place and two years they have assisted me in running for office myself. These activities, I think, have made them more aware of the whole election process. When I grew up, my mother would never tell us who she would vote for. She said it was her business and no one else’s. In my house, I can’t imagine that. We talk about politics all the time.

During the primaries, we had a list of the states posted on the fridge. As each state declared its delegates we would post the results. It was CNN and our dining room table coverage. DD was often better informed than even my husband and I were. Our friends were amazed.

I think for tomorrow, we are going to print off a blackline master map and a state by state chart to record the Electoral College votes. This site gives you the number of electoral votes for each state and the number of votes needed to win. I figure tomorrow, we’ll be glued into the tv first thing in the morning and then after 6pm. I just hope that we have an answer by the time we go to bed and not have to wait until Christmas again.

How do you plan to experience the election with your kids?

Update on Science Experiment

I cannot believe how much a plant can grow without light. DS had to grow seeds. One jar with water and one jar without in the light AND one jar with water and one without in the dark. I thought that it would teach him that plants needed water and light to grow, but apparently NOT. See the great thing about homeschooling is that even the adults learn with the kids. The seeds in the dark, wet setting actually have a much healthier looking root system and they actually grew first. I am actually now looking forward to continuing this experiment to find out what other tid-bits I may learn.

Unfair Treatment of Homeschooler

Ok, now I am getting on my soapbox . . . If you follow DD and I on acupofteawithmomandme.blogspot.com , you know that she was invited to the Homecoming Dance by a boy in her confirmation class at church. Her father and I, after much deliberation, agreed that she could go and DD and I ran out and bought her a dress (frankly, I spent money that I really did not have to spend, but we all do what we can for our kids). Well, today we received a call from the principal of the school who wanted to confirm that DD was “enrolled in a High School” and get emergency phone numbers. As a conscientious parent, I called the principal back - - - this was mistake number one. We have now talked to the principal twice and the vice principal once and they have decided that DD cannot attend homecoming. Their stance is that DD is 13 and therefore would be considered a middle school student and ineligible to attend. I tried to argue that as a homeschooler there is no real “grade”. They also said that the boy should have known better. I replied by asking why he should have known better since he and DD go to 9th grade confirmation together. I also argued that there were going to be 13 year olds at the dance i.e. the kids with November and December birthdays. The vice principal tried to tell me that that was not true, but my children were in this district and my son has a November birthday and would be in 7th grade, therefore I know there are others. They then added to the “policy” saying that if there were students that were 13 AND enrolled at the high school then they would be exempt and allowed to come, but as DD was not enrolled she would not be allowed. I asked how they would deal with a child who skipped a grade and noted that we were arguing over barely a month and a half of time as DD birthday is in February. I’m sure you can imagine the response “policy is policy”. You know if they allowed one student then there would be a torrent of homeschooled 13 year olds that might want to come to the dances. I felt so badly for my DD and for her date. Of course, before I got off the phone I made sure to tell him what I thought (I’m sure he could care less), but I pointed out that it was this kind of inflexibility that made us choose homeschooling in the first place. Public schools have a very difficult time looking at issues on a one by one case. Futhermore, while my DD does not attend this district, we do live in this distict and have paid for these schools for twelve years and received nothing in return for the last five. We haven’t balked the system or asked for anything for our kids, I was only asking for her right to go to the dance. And that although I knew he did not have children that I hoped he would think back to this decision one day when he had a 13 year old daughter.

Of course my husband and DD has to see the principal next week at an Eagle Scout award ceremony, I said that my DD and husband should make a point of going over to introduce themselves. And as for the school’s request for help in fundraising, I think we’ll be skipping that!

P.S. I thought this one would send my DD over the edge. I’m sure at her age I would have flopped on the bed, slammed the door, and cried and cried. She, however, took it like a trooper. At least she got a beautiful holiday dress out of the deal.

Planning Around Life's Events

One of the great things about homeschooling is the schedule. This week it has been a blessing to us. With so many balls in the air, I needed time to resolve a multitude of issues. Fortunately, I could adjust accordingly. I’ve heard families that have made adjustments for traveling, illnesses, moving, etc. Often school can become an additional stressor for everyone; Homeschooling allows more flexibility.

Don’t get it the school rut and miss this blessing. It is wonderful if you regularly plan your lessons for the “regular” school day, but it is ok if you go outside those parameters. I have worked in the evening, put lessons off, or come up with alternative lessons to better fit with what we are doing. Many people ask us why we school throughout the summer, but this is exactly why. If we work year round, we can be more flexible in our daily schedule.

What tricks have you used when life has gone crazy, but you are still trying to get things done?

Survivor - Gabon - Season 17 - Episode 6

Vocabulary: Liability, oath, challenge, burden
Today’s episode is rated “PG-L”. What are the different ratings? What do they mean? Do you think ratings are a good or bad idea? Why?

Science – Fire and heat is very important to the players. Fire produces radiant heat. Find out about radiant heat. What are the benefits and deficits? List three other examples of radiant heat.

Volunteerism - Our bodies must have food to survive. Both tribes are very concerned about rationing , but this is not an issue reserved just for Survivor. Find out about world hunger issues. Find a way that you can help and do it.

You can see that people are starting to mentally break down. Do you think Survivor is a more physical or more emotional challenge? Why?

Have you heard the saying, “There is no ‘I’ in teamwork.” What do you think this means? How does this relate to FANG?

Kenny may have made the move of the game in the episode. How did Kenny use psychology to get the idol back into Sugar’s hands? Why would Sugar give her power away to another person, let alone such a powerful man? Do you think this is wise?

Did FANG miss a huge opportunity tonight?

Drawing Inspiration

I had intended to share with you a drawing made by DS today, but my scanner does not want to work. It says that there is a paper jam - not that a paper jam should have anything to do with scanning, but whatever - technology is great when it works and frustrating when it doesn't. So while I can't show you the picture, I can give you his words of wisdom:

"I start my drawings with a curved line.
When I start with a straight line,
I don't get any ideas.
I start all my drawings with a curved lines.
A curved line can be anything."

Setting up a Homeschooling House

Yesterday, DS had to set up a photosynthesis experiment. Four jars were put together with paper towels pressing beans against the glass; Two had water added to them. Then one with water and one without went in the sun and the other two were set in the dark. We tried to find the most inconspicuous place to put them.

I often wonder what people think when they visit a homeschoolers home. We tend to think our homeschooling is that obvious, but look around. Is there a science experiment fermenting somewhere, an art project drying? Is there a set of encyclopedias that instead of decorating a shelf, are sitting open on a coffee table? How many maps and globes are visible?

When I visited my friend Paula’s house the other day, I thought my theory might be blown. There was no sign of homeschooling. Then she took me on the tour of the house. As we went downstairs – BAM! There it all was. She had bookshelves with bookshelves, work areas, dry erase boards, three ring binders. It was a homeschooling mom’s dream. My house isn’t quite like that. 99% of our work is done at the dining room table or the coffee table, but a mom can dream.

If you could set up your home to accommodate your homeschooling, what would you do differently?

Getting Ready for Halloween

First of all a disclaimer: I am not a fan of Halloween myself. To me, it seems like a made up holiday that focuses on Pagan ideas. In a really great year with perfect weather and neighbors having outdoor parties, I can tolerate it, but when it is cold or damp, my interest is completely lost. I think my enthusiasm dissipated somewhere between trying to divvy out the 26 pounds of candy (on average) that the kids would bring home from trick or treating and the costume mania that consumes everyone during this period. Families are now actually spending an average of $98.00 between costumes and candy and I personally believe that this is a conservative estimate given some of the costumes that I see around. What happened to white sheeted ghosts? Robots made from cardboard boxes? Baseball players sporting their Little League Uniforms?

The first recorded reference to Halloween actually appears in 1911 in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, but the term “trick or treat” did not appear for the first time in print in 1934. There are conflicting reports of how the idea of Halloween developed. Some relate it as far back as Celtic ritual of Samhain. Samhain was the Celtic New Year, a time to celebrate harvests. Samhain actually began at dusk on October 31st and signified the beginning of the dark period of the year. During this day, the break between life and death was shattered and spirits could roam the earth. When Celtic lands were Christianized, this holiday melded into All Saints Day. Others related it to the Roman celebrations of the dead, Feralia, Paternalia, and Lemuria. They may have blended with Samhain as the Roman Empire spread across Europe. However the celebrations of the dead developed, they were sternly squelched under the Puritan rule in the New World and do not seem to reappear until early in the 20th century. Treating seems to relate back to the medieval idea of souling; when poor people would go door to door requesting and receiving soul cakes in return for prayers for the giver’s dead family members.

One of the most interesting and one of my husband’s favorite family traditions is the jack o’ lantern. Legend has it that jack o’ lanterns relate back to the story of Jack. Jack was a troublemaker who tried to trick the devil into not taking his soul. There are conflicting stories of exactly how he accomplished this task, but the devil did agree not to take possession of his soul. So when Jack finally died, his soul was too sinful to rise to Heaven and had been barred from Hell. Left to roam the earth, he asked the devil to help him find his way. The devil sent a flame to light his way. Jack captured it in his favorite food, the turnip, and thus the Jack o’ Lantern was born. When this tradition came to America, pumpkins were larger and more plentiful and therefore become the preferred vegetable to be carved. However, in some parts of the world turnips and beets are still carved instead of pumpkins.

Certainly, no matter what its origins, Halloween is here to stay. I recommend you run to the store so that you can spend your portion of the between 5 and 6.9 billion dollars getting ready for for the holiday. We’ll keep our lights on for you.

Survivor - Gabon - Unit Study - Episode 5

Ethics – A major part of Survivor is lying, but the 10 commandments strictly prohibits lying. Do you think just because it is a game that it is ok to lie? Is there other times that it is ok to commandments? When? Why? Discuss with your parents.

Science – an elephant comes very close to one of the camps this week. Study elephants. Try to answer the following questions:
1. Where are elephants still found in nature? Mark on a map.
2. How heavy can elephants get?
3. How old are elephants known to get?
4. Find out about elephants endangered status. What issues relate to their decreasing numbers.
Create a poster about your findings.

History – Dan called the other tribe the “axis of evil” and the “evil empire”. What historical references is he making?

Critical Thinking - Independence is usually seen as a positive characteristic but when G.C. goes missing the other tribe mates see his independence as a negative trait. When is independence seen as a positive when is it a negative.

Physical Education - Create a simple obstacle course. Blind fold a friend and lead them through the obstacle course using just your voice. Switch positions. (Be very safety conscious when you set up your course)

Critical Thinking – do you think Jeff alters the outcome of the game through the choice of his questions at tribal council? Why or Why not? Do you think this is fair?


If you are as big of a Survivor fan as my DD, you may want this to help you along with your research.

Artistic Undertakings #2 & #3

Ok, we / I am continuing to try to draw and redraw the same object. Here are two more gourd picture (no comments needed for my absence spelling - thus, the reason I declined an invitation to participate in the local spelling bee).






DD is working on the artistic challenge we posted on acupofteawithmomandme.blogspot.com .

DS seems to have discovered the idea of embossing. It will be interesting to see what he comes up with. He started with simple pencil over a Boy Scout Merit Badge and then something made him get the tinfoil out.

I'm always interested to see how a little inspiration can lead in so many different directions. This is also why it is so important not to be running everywhere. For some of these things, you need time for ideas to perculate. You need quantity in order to glean out any quality.

Accepting Tax Rebates for Homeschoolers

I ordered some more curriculum last night. I was surprised that the LifePac’s were less expensive on Christian Book Distributors than directly from Alpha Omega. DD really wants to try their Bible curriculum, but I am still wary. I am not sure what their philosophy is. Does anyone else use it? What do you think of it? I figure that I will wait until after she finishes confirmation at our church before I order it.

Although I think that the LifePac’s are very well priced, I need to be very careful what we spend right now. There is definitely a part of me that wishes that we could keep the portion of our property tax that is used on education to use toward our children’s education, but I have read several articles and have come to the belief that accepting any government assistance would lead to regulation. While this money is my money, in order to deduct it from my taxes, I would at minimum have to check some sort of box which exempts me. Then I am sure that some politician would say, “How do we know that they are really homeschooling?” or “How do we know that they are really spending all that money on their children’s education?” Then they would further expand their oversight or require receipts. I reconcile myself to paying this portion of my taxes just like the elderly, single, and childless must; it is our social responsibility to assure the education of all.

DD has also decided that she would like to change from Latin to Spanish. I have relented and said that when she finishes the current book that she is doing, she can change. So, does anyone have any recommendations for a good Spanish Curriculum?

My Artisic Endeavor

What do you do while the kids are working on their work but you need to be near by? Today, I did this:







I am going to try to be a little more artistic after seeing the great artwork yesterday. Maybe it will inspire some little artists too.

Artistic Undertakings

Has there ever been a talent that you wished you had? I would say for me that I wish I had a more artistic hand. I was thrilled when I painted a mural on my son's wall and he called me an artist. I thought that this was the greatest compliment.

Today I came by a blog by Matt Lopez. You have to see his drawings. I was especially ennamoured with his picture of the beanstalk.

I read somewhere that one artist would draw over 100 pictures of the same object, trying to look at it closer and closer to explore it in 100 different ways. I keep thinking that we should try this. Maybe we'll try at least a few. I'll scan them and let you know.

Survivor - Gabon - Unit Study - Episode 4

Vocabulary – Rank, Confidence, Contributor

Oral conversation - The contestants participate in a ranking challenge. Using picture cut outs from the Survivor website, create your own rankings of the two tribes. How is your ranking the same and / or different from the ranking of the tribes on the show? Explain your choices to someone.

Bible - Matthew 19:30 says, “But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.” How might this scripture be applied to this challenge in the game? What do you think it means in life?

Critical Thinking - If you were to put together the ultimate tribe, given the players in the game, who would you have chosen?

Critical Thinking - Think about how it feels to be picked first and last. Design a way of picking people that does not inflate or deflate people’s egos.

Morals & Ethics - Winning, Trying, Dominating, Giving Up. Rank these words in importance. Explain your choice to someone.

Fun Fact Friday - Haiti

Sometimes facts are not so fun. I know that this is called Fun Fact Friday, but last night DD and I listened to a woman who has gone to Haiti several times on missions and has now begun her own orphanage in Haiti. Inspired by her, we felt that we should learn a little more about the country. You will be sad to read the following facts, but turn your tears into action, finding a way that you might help.


Haiti and its attached Dominican Republic are the original Hispaniola that Christopher Columbus “discovered” in 1492.

It is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ha.html

The average Haitian families are living on less than a dollar a day.
http://www.bemhaiti.org/tp40/page.asp?id=87578

Haiti has the highest rates of infant, under-five and maternal mortality in the Western hemisphere. Diarrhoea, respiratory infections, malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS are the leading causes of death.
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/haiti.html

Haiti became the first black republic in 1804 after a successful slave revolt against the French.
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_haiti.html

UN experts say just 2 to 4 percent of forest cover remains in Haiti, down from 7 to 9 percent in 1981
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/16/AR2008021602511.html

Some Haitians eat mud pies to quell their hunger. Watch a video:
http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs4141

Some Haitian Artwork for purchase:
http://stores.ebay.com/Haitis-Back-Porch

Applying Newton's Laws

Physics and the laws of motion can be interesting and fun. They can creep up at the strangest times. If you watched the Lego version of the Newton’s three laws then you are already familiar with the laws, so you may be able to dissect it better than I.

As we are doing our work up at DH’s office, DS pushed his chocolate milk bottle with his pen. As expected the bottle moved forward (little push = little motion) but then interestingly, the bottle took a little extra jump as the milk continued in motion after the bottle had stopped. Then it finally came to rest (inertia) having expended all its energy.

See this little experiment shows exactly what I say – lessons and learning are everywhere, you just have to be ready / interested enough to explore them. I’m sure bottle of milk are being pushed in cafeterias around the country right now. How many do you think are discussing Newton’s Laws?

How to Play X-treme Cards

I know that I have mentioned that one of the great things about homeschooling is our ability to be very involved in other programs like Scouts. I thought you would enjoy this picture of DS during his summer canoeing trip down the Delaware Gap. During this trip, he got to canoe with a bald eagle, earned the Indian Lore and Canoeing Merit Badges, and apparently learned some good card games.

Anyone interested in exploring a program like this should check out The Pack Shack. You don't have to be in Scouts to enjoy what these hard working people have to offer.

Survivor - Gabon - Unit Study - Episode 3

Vocabulary
Idol
Strategy

Photography / Storytelling – The producers of Survivor constantly uses symbolism in their film edits i.e. a snake or a spider eating a fly. Choose one and explain the meaning.

Arts & Crafts – In Survivor tradition, eventually there will be an individual immunity idol. Using the information that you have amassed about Gabon, create a potential immunity idol.

Math – The immunity challenge involved a math problem. See if you can solve it yourself. “The sum of both end values equals the sum of the middle two, the last is equal to the second minus the third and is one less than its neighbor.” The numbers are 1,2,4,5,6,7. Watch the clip, http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor/video/video.php?cid=834167134&pid=it9TiKBc_LWzcEWzw92X8T8riBm1Xxgv&play=true&cc=86 to find the answer.

Be Fruitful and Multiply

Today, you get a bad joke from my husband.

DD ad I were working on math. For one of the problems, I picked 100 as the LCD (Lowest Common Denominator). DD corrected me and said that 50 would be the correct LCD. She was quite pleased that she was up on Mom, “Mom, you can’t even multiply.” She turned to DH, “Dad, Mom can’t multiply.”

DH replied, “ Mom, can multiply. She had you didn’t she?”

I think the pun was lost somewhere between delivery and reception, but I thought it was pretty quick witted on his part.

Memorizing the Books of the Bible

Does anyone know a good way to memorize the books of the Bible? DD has to memorize them for Conformation Class. She will probably do fantastic as she can memorize multiple lines in a play, but if anyone has any helpful ideas, we would appreciate it.

A Great Day in the Life of a Homeschooler

Today DS said the words that every homeschooling mom hopes to hear, “I love homeschooling”. Today was a great homeschooling day with DS. He did his work and then we made dinner together and a batch of zucchini bread. I figure that I will count the time as Home Economics. We found a delicious recipe on Allrecipes.com . It took a very long time to cook, but was very yummy. DS also decorated some scripture signs for me for a program this weekend and practiced a recitation on the history of the Pledge of Allegiance for his volunteer service as a Den Chief (Did you know that the original pledge was not specifically for the United States and did not contain the words “under God”? “Under God” was actually added by President Eisenhower and objected to by the daughter of the author, Francis Bellamy.) Also, after trying to do his geography work. I have realized that there are times that a 43% is still an excellent score. I have been working with the Sheppard Software site to familiarize DS with the countries of the world. He has already satisfied the US states and capitals and so we’ve moved on to Africa. He is working on Level 4, which has him click on the correct country on a bare outline map of Africa. Now I realize that 43% doesn’t sound that good (he actually got a 63% today so we are improving), but you have to click inside boarders of the countries that you cannot see. I might add that some of those African countries are very, very small. So when I watched him today, I realized that DS may be getting marked as wrong, but most of his clicks were within millimeters of the correct location. I had to take my hats off to him. Africa is tough.

Even DD survived her self-test in Math with limited tears and frankly, she did very well. She just needs to relax and think in small steps. On the positive side, she is becoming much more systematic in her math work. I can ask her to read her second or fourth line and she can find it and read what she has. If there is an error, she can even back up through her work to double check her work. This alone has been quite a triumph and will help her tremendously as she continues in her work.

So all and all, today was a great homeschool day.

Fair - Unexpected Lessons

Well our fair is over. Now all that is left is clean up. The lessons from the fair were a little different than expected. The kids learned about erosion, drainage, gravity. In Connecticut, apparently September had 9 inches of precipitation in September with 5 to 6” of that coming this past weekend. The Discovery Tent was redesigned with a river running through it (I think that may be a movie or a book – A River runs through it. It is probably a better book than location at the fair). Two performances on the main stage had to be cancelled and instead kids used the hill as a mudslide. And apparently despite the torrential rain, the fire marshal was still concerned about the fire hazards. He made the fair association fill the mud pits on our town green with gravel instead of hay. You can only imagine what our green is going to look like when the tents come down – maybe we should rename it a brown. I’ve got to tell you that I think the fair grounds were in worse shape than they were the year that Gloria shut the fair down on Friday.

The kids still had a good time and did well in their entries. And fair food is always delicious even if it is becoming ridiculously expensive. Unfortunately, due to the weather many of our non-profits did not make nearly what they normally do and they will all have financial problems this year. Tonight some of them are going to reopen as all of us townies return to pick up our prizes and entries.

DD calculated that she has now been to the fair 37 times and frighteningly, I am at 104 times (and my friends wonder why I don’t get as excited as I used to). So, goodbye fair for at least another year.

Survivor - Gabon - Unit study - Episode 1

Ok, I finally had time to watch the entire Survivor episode 1 (If you did not catch it on Thursday, find it on On Demand or at http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor/. Here are some ideas to begin creating a unit around the show. I would start with my entry on September 25th, so that you have a little understanding about the location. Then you can begin with some of these ideas:

Careers – Each candidate comes with their own experiences and careers. Listen to all of their jobs. Which job would you like and why? What jobs do you think will help them survive?

Prediction – Having been introduced to everyone, who do you think will be the sole survivor? Why?

Bible –
1. Jeff calls Gabon “Earth’s last Eden”. To what is he referring? Why do you think he makes this comparison?
2. Jeff talks about fire being life. Where else have you seen this correlation?

Government – In Gabon elders are respected as leaders. Why do think this is? In the history of your country, has this idea of elders being leaders been a tradition? Explain.
For those that are in the US, how did our founding fathers ensure that we would follow our elders?

Opinion –
1. What would you consider essentials for survival?
2. In the race for individual immunity or food, which would you have chosen? Would you have turned around to help your other teammates up the hill?
3. What characteristics help a survivor? What characteristics hinder a survivor? Add to these lists throughout the course of the program.

Action –
1. Try to create a hut / shelter in your own backyard. If you don’t have a backyard, create one in your house.
2. With parental supervision, try lighting a fire with two sticks, with a bow, or with flint.
3. Ace had his tribe practice Yoga before the challenge. Learn at least 5 Yoga positions.
4. Puzzles are always a big part of survivor. Try to solve a Tower of Hanoi puzzle.
5. Tree mail and exile hints are often written in riddles. Visit Squigly’s House and try to solve some riddles of your own.
6. Create a map to a hidden treasure. See if someone else can follow it and find what you have hidden.

Science –
1. Elephants are a help and a hindrance. How? What dangers do elephants pose?
2. In the challenge, the contestants have to march through a leech filled swamp. What is a leech? Find out how leeches were once used in medical treatments.
3. The show depicts many different indigenous animals. Identify at least 5 throughout the course of the show. Create a poster that tells about these animals.
4. Hindsight is 20/20. Create a field journal that the survivors would have appreciated at the beginning of their experience. Throughout the course of the show compile a journal that teaches contestants important information and skills that would have helped them to be the sole survivor.

Math – If every contestant’s name was put in the pot to be pulled, what would be the likelihood of any one survivor would be picked out. What increases the odds of having your name in the pot? What decreases it?

Vocabulary – Look up the definitions of the following words. Practice spelling them correctly.
Immunity
Exile
Pedestal
Alliance
Analytical

Come back next week to see what I come up with for episode 2. If you have any additional ideas, please add comments.

Husband Homeschooling too - Astronomy

I think that I have failed to mention that DH is an astronomy buff. Not a big crazy buff that spends hours behind the telescope, but a mini-buff with a passion to know what is going on in the sky. He was thrilled when DS earned a telescope for selling Cub Scout popcorn and then he found a couple websites that he follows to give him little tidbits about our sky. I think it is funny because he always says that he isn’t smart and that he doesn’t teach the kids, but you should hear him when he talks about these astronomic facts. He is positively giddy. You can't help but be interested too.

Currently he is following the decent of Jules Verne spacecraft as it hurdles toward earth to crash “harmlessly” into the south Pacific Ocean.

The other day he was particularly smitten with PHA’s. He came home asking us if we knew what PHA’s were. Even after our game of coming up with acronyms for STC, we couldn’t think of one reasonable answer to his question. We then heard all about Potentially Hazardous Asteroids and LD's (Lunar Distances).

It is funny because this is his first foray into the homeschooling mindset: learning for the sake of knowing instead of learning to pass a test. He has found it as contagious as we have.

If you have been inspired by his interest too, check out SpaceWeather.com & Satellite Tracker.

The Romance of School to Homeschoolers

Interestingly, when we pulled the kid’s from school 5 years ago, I found that my DD started to romanticize school. It is kind of like when you talk about an old boyfriend. When you tell someone about him years later, instead of talking about all the horrible things that caused you to break up with him, you espouse wonderful dates, his handsome stature, and other romantic details. This is what DD did with school. I was convinced about this when she told me that she even missed lunch. She used to hate lunch. She never had time to eat. The cafeteria would echo horribly and she would complain about headaches almost daily. This romanticism continues to today. She would now be in 8th grade and is blissfully thinking of hanging with her friends and leisurely going from class to class. She thinks of middle school like she experienced 1st & 2nd grade. She has never tried to get to a class in a three minute break. She has never been forced to sit in a class with a horrible teacher. She has never been lost or confused on a subject and begged for help, trying to learn a subject before a test that accounted for 50% of her grade. Sometimes I wish I could put her in school for two weeks so that she could see what the requirements really are, see how teacher’s deal with late assignments, and see how much of her day would be eaten up in meaningless requirements. I think part of this romanticism comes from peer pressure and part from the media. School is seen as the hub of all social activity; sometimes overtly like in Saved by the Bell or the Secret Life of the American Teenager, and sometimes covertly like in Teen Vogue pictures with lockers in the background.

I have heard from some people that have never put their children in school that their children often romanticize the school bus. The kids have never been on the bus so they don’t understand the long rides, the lack of a/c, or the bullying, but instead they see the pretty yellow bus taking kids to an exciting new adventure. The yellow bus is embedded in all of their children’s shows as this wonderful doorway to excitement, knowledge, and a rite of passage. Think of the Magic School Bus.

It is certainly easy to understand why they think so fondly of an ingrained institution: They hear about the great things, but have never experienced the bad. It is a little harder to figure out how to clear their rose colored glasses without getting them caught up in the system, which is not all that they believe it to be. Of course on the other hand, I have DS who would be ok if he never walks into a school again. Even in his short time in school, Kindergarten and 1st grade, he experienced the "bad" of school and he never wants to experience it again.

A Study Guide to Survivor - The Beginning Season 17: Episode 1

Our homeschooling will take an interesting turn starting today: Survivor, the show has started. Unfortunately, we were all busy tonight and did not see the whole show, but even in the few minutes we had the show on, a fun fact came up. DS said, “Oh, I’m glad I’m not there right now.” They were showing one of the contestants sitting on the edge of the water with a hippo nearby. DS knows that interestingly hippos are very dangerous and have been recorded as killing humans. He also knows from one our visits at a zoo that Hippos projectile poop and spread it even farther by flipping their tail (there are various YouTube videos to show this phenomena if you are interested – you can’t quite get the full effect because you miss the beautiful scent, but I’m sure you can imagine.).

This will be just the beginning of our exploration. We will have to find Gabon in Africa and research the culture, habitat, animals, etc. Maybe we’ll have to create a little study guide for the season. I’m sure DD would volunteer for that job.

You could always start with some geography games placing African nations in there right locations on Sheppard Software.
You could listen to music from Gabon.
You can color in the Gabon flag.
Perhaps you could even have the kids pretend that you are going to travel to Gabon and ask them to find out about currency, language, weather, etc.

I did not get an opportunity to really see the whole episode, so when I do perhaps I can add some more ideas. In the meantime, you may want to check out their website.

Some people may not feel that Survivor is appropriate for young children. My DD has watched it since the first episode and yes there were a few uncomfortable issues, but we have always watched it as a family and discussed things that we agreed with in the show and things that we didn’t. We have been able to have many interesting ethical discussions and a few conversations about the difference between real life and cyber life. Fortunately, the advent of On Demand and the internet has helped alleviate some of DD’s stress over choosing tv over real life. Now I try to use her tv addiction to encourage learning. II also find it to be a great behavioral persuader. There is nothing that gets DD to rethink her behavior faster than the threat of loosing tv privledges on the night of Survivor.

If your child is like DD, let’s ban together and come up with some activities that can expand their learning while they follow their interests.

Website Wednesday - Newton's Laws of Physics

Newton’s Laws of Physics – Today’s subject is as much for me as it is for you. I just scored DD’s Science test and we need to understand this subject matter better. So I’m hoping a little web work will help.

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/newton.html - This NASA site has an explanation of the laws as well as grade appropriate activities.

http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/Class/newtlaws/u2l1a.html - This in depth site will help mom and child understand the concepts.

http://www.physics4kids.com/files/motion_laws.html - When you think you understand the concepts, read and review this site, and then take the quiz.

Here’s a rather inventive description of the laws:

A Game to Play in the Car

As we drove to drop off our food entries at the fair. DS asked what “STC” stood for on a stop sign. I had no idea what he was talking about. I expected to look over and see some kind of graffiti on the sign, but what he was talking about was the tiny little imprint on the very bottom edge of the stop sign. Leave it to DS to notice the smallest possible thing. Something I hadn’t noticed on a stop sign ever. I’m not sure if it was the acronym of the company that made the sign or the department that might authorize the sign, but of course in a homeschooling car, it led to a game of acronyms:

Save the Camel
Sterile Turkeys Captured
Stalking Talking Computers
Sell the Car (see DD’s post about my car)
Stop the Car
Soon to Collide
See the Color
Swerve Toward Chimpanzees
Sweep to Clean
Service to Country
Stop Talking Computer
See Turbo Chameleon
Spend the Cash
Spare the Child
Shoot to Chill (we’ll it should be kill, but we all know that is not nice)
Spend Time Carefully
Savor the Candy
Sink the Canoe
Sift the cranium
Shake The Caboose
Swim to Canada
Shuck the Corn (which pathetically started as Suck the Corn, but we decided Shuck might be a better word choice)
Service Tall Candles
Supply Treasured cookbooks
Sing Traditional Carols
Silly Trained Chimpanzee


One of them was “Stop Talking C”. DD did not appreciate that very much and was bummed that no one else had an initial that she could use in an acronym.
This is a great silly game that can be played with any letters you might find and is a great way to work on synonyms, adjective, and brainstorming.

Let us know if you come up with any that are really funny.

Homeschooling Can Wait Until After the Fair

In our hometown, all things wait for the fair. In most towns, people get back from the summer schedule after Labor Day, but in our town everything waits for “the fair”. Nothing really begins until after the fair. You have summer and fall, and in between an interlude called fair time that lasts almost the entire month of September. It is our town’s Brigadoon: time stops and doesn’t start again until the big tent is taken down.

Our kids await each August for the booklet with all the possible crafts and cooking that they can enter. They pick a few projects and a few food categories to enter. We then have to plan to create and get their projects there on time. Today is one of those days. Last week, the crafts and photos had to be dropped off, but tomorrow is the day for the cooking to be dropped off. Needless to say, DD has taken over the kitchen and is created her one crust pie and getting ready to begin the Junior baking contest recipe. DS can’t wait to finish his math so that he can cook up a batch of oatmeal Craisin cookies (he doesn’t really like raisins so he wanted to try it with dried cranberries). The neat thing this year is that while DD is cooking, I’m out here on the computer and working with DS on his math. She is doing it all on her own. I will admit that it is difficult for me to release enough to say that what it is it is and not want to oversee everything she is doing. We decided this morning that I have a very specialized form of OCD, it focuses directly at her. When she has a hair out of place it haunts me. If she is making a pie that has even a small issue, I will want fix it and make it perfect. So it is taking me a lot to stay away while she works. I know that she feels very adult working on her own. This year if she gets a ribbon, it will be all hers. DS still needs a little helping hand.

DS has already spent all weekend at that fair putting in community service with his Boy Scout troop and will be back tonight putting out recycling barrels for water and soda bottles. Tomorrow, we will be dropping off the food entries. DH and the kids will all be back down there on Thursday and maybe another time or two in between. The fair certainly messes with our regular schedule, but at the same time in gives us reason to explore some of our other talents. We’ll get back to our regular schedule “after the fair”.

Elections at the Dining Room Table

I came by an interesting question on www.thehomeschoollounge.com regarding how we were going to teach about the election. My answer was:


“I hate to say that we don't teach it. We live it. I have not set aside special time per se, but they watch the conventions with us. We discuss it at dinner. Fortunately, DS was just working on the Citizenship in the Nation Boy Scout Badge which helped him to understand a little more about the process. Also, as I have run for office twice locally they have had firsthand experience with the ins and outs of an election. While I don't recommend running for office necessarily, anyone can get involved in a campaign on the local, state, or national level.”

Often the dining room table is the most instructive time of the day. There are no specific lesson plans, but instead good, open conversation about current events. Certainly recently, the election is a big part of the conversation. My father finds this to be a concern because people of other opinions may not be at our dining room table and therefore perhaps we are in a way biasing our children. I have tried to counter this by having them talk to other people as well. My mother would never tell us who she was voting for. I take the opposite approach. We talk, discuss, argue the issues. While my husband and I probably dominate the discussion now, we respect what the kids have to say and I'm sure it is not in the too distant future that they may take over the conversation.

During the primaries, DD started tracking the delegates for each state and I’m sure she will do a similar thing on Election Day. We will definitely watch the debates and the children have seen several interviews with each candidate. DD also likes political humor so she has to make sure that she knows enough about what is going on so that she can understand the jokes. DS isn’t as interested but definitely hears the conversation around him. I think just like any other subject some people will be more interested than others.

Both of them really received some insider information when I ran for office and while not everyone will want to run for office, everyone can help on a campaign. Find a candidate on the municipal, state, or national level that you believe in and offer to help on their campaign. Candidates will usually be very receptive to the help and you will get an education that you could never find in a book.

What are you doing to teach about the election?

What does your home school look like?

I love finding a fellow homeschooler to talk to. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak at length with a friend who I knew homeschooled but with whom I rarely have had a chance to talk to about it. It was extra special because she took me down to their school. We don’t have anything nearly so formal – our school work occurs at the dining room table, on my bed, or on the couch. There is no dedicated section of our house. In their house the cellar is their school. As soon as I walked down the stairs, I knew why Paula and I got along so well – books, books, books. She had shelves and shelves of books. She also had set up work stations for the kids and had a white board to work on and a desk area for herself. It was awesome. I’m not sure that we will ever go that way, but I sure admire her set up.

What does your homeschooling area look like? Is there even a designated area?

Fun Fact Friday - First Ladies

Today's topic was inspired by DD blurting out fact number one as she worked on her homework. I'm sure that we could go on and on with these facts, but hopefully these interesting facts will just inspire you to continue the journey:





Rutherford B. Hayes’ wife, Lucy Webb Hayes, had a college degree. She was the first among the national first ladies to have one.
- LifePac, Grade 8, Unit 6, page 65



Caroline Harrison, 1832-1892Benjamin Harrison’s wife was the first to use electricity and have a Christmas tree in the White House. She was the second first lady to die in the White House.
http://www.firstladies.org/FacinatingFacts.htm

Elizabeth Monroe became a popular figure in France, where she was affectionately called la belle Americane because of her beauty and style. . . Their youngest daughter, Maria, was the first presidential child to be married in the White House, in a small, private ceremony. . . The couple supplied some of their own furniture to the government because the White House was almost empty when they moved in. . . Nine pieces remain in the White House today.
http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/firstSpouse/?action=monroe Note: The USmint has a wonderful array of teacher resources - not just related to money, but also history, math, and other subjects.

Dolly Madison prevented a valuable painting of George Washington from being destroyed by British soldiers during the War of 1812.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies

“I do not believe that being first lady should prevent me
from expressing my views . . .”
—Betty Ford
http://www.aetv.com/class/firstladies/index.jsp

The first Thanksgiving dinner was hosted by this First Lady.
Sara Polk. Sarah Childress was born in 1803. She helped her husband during his political career. Sara was a devout Presbyterian and as such would not let anyone drink or play cards in the White House. During the inaugural ball, she would attend but not dance. Sarah would not let any business be conducted on the Sabbath while they were in the White House. Sara's home was not destroyed during the Civil War because it was deemed neutral by the Union and Confederacy. Sarah Childress Polk remained in 'Polk Place' until her death in 1891. http://www.funtrivia.com/en/subtopics/Behind-Every-Great-Man---155170.html