Review… and a Complaint
This is something that’s been bugging me for a few days, so I thought that if I posted about it, maybe it won’t bother me anymore.
If you don’t know this already, then consider this a PSA. There are some bloggers out there who make money off of reviewing things. I guess that’s fine, as long as the reader knows *immediately* that the recommendation is because the reviewer is an affiliate and that it’s not only the awesomeness of the product that is prompting the praise.
I’m not one of those people (at least not yet). If I talk about some product or service that I love, then it’s because of that – I have it or use it and I think that you might like it, too. If it improved my life in some way, then I’ll write about it or recommend it or suggest you try it for yourself. If you have something better, then I want to hear about that, too – but don’t bribe me to recommend your product.
Oh, I forgot to mention; I’m also cheap, so whatever I recommend either has to be free, inexpensive or so freakin’ awesome that it’s worth the cost. You’ll notice that when I recommend things, esp. books, I link to Amazon.com because you can get used versions super cheap.
That said, a few days ago, I got a comment on one of my posts that recommended Homeschool Tracker. If you’ve been following my blog, then you’ll know that I only found it a few weeks ago and have been singing its praises every since. It’s made record keeping for the kids super easy, and lets me see at a glance what we need to finish for the day, or what I have and have not graded. I can keep track of reading logs, attendance, subjects, grades, resources – you name it, it probably does it.
The email I got was from the creator(?) of a program called Homeschool Day Book and said something to the effect of, “Hey I know you love that, but check THIS out. We’ll even let you have one free if you review it on your blog!”
o_O
So I checked it out. And was singularly unimpressed. And annoyed that I got spammed.
Homeschool Tracker is, first and foremost, FREE. Did I mention that it’s free? And also, you don’t have to pay anything to use it. Homeschool Day Book offers a free…. TRIAL. And then, you have to pay to use it! Consider that Strike One.
Homeschool Tracker offers multi-function goodness. I can track attendance, assignments (completed and still due), set assignments due to a future date, reschedule them, copy one assignment to multiple children, copy an assignment to multiple dates (and auto-increment the lessons so I don’t have to edit to add “page 1″, “page 2″, “page 3″ to every lesson after I enter it), track time spent on a subject, track time spent on each thing (like daily work vs. field trips vs. in class discussion), and most importantly, track GRADES – and run reports on any and all of that – and more – all in the free version! The paid version must come with candy because there’s nothing else I need in a record-keeping program for homeschooling.
The Plus version (paid version) of HS Tracker is the same price – $50.00, but it does SO much more, including creating high school transcripts.
Homeschool Day Book, from the info available on their website does not offer the ability to track grades at all. If they do, then they don’t mention it on their site. You can track time spent on a subject, but not individual assignments and grades. Since that was the main feature that I was looking for, consider that Strike Two.
Strike Three is that they only commented on my blog in order to spam their (clearly inferior) product. Why would I pay for a program that does less than the free program that I am currently using? Bad spammer. No cookie for you.
However, I am nothing if not eager to please, so here’s my completely unbiased and non-compensated review:
If you want a multi-functional homeschool record keeping system that lets you track all of the pertinent information you might need to evaluate progress, then Homeschool Tracker is a product that is worth checking out. It’s free, versatile and super easy to install and set up. I use it; I love it and I highly recommend it.
Warmly,
~h
“Little Beauty” – a book review
I met some friends* at Barnes & Noble this afternoon for coffee and some kid-free (well, my kids free, anyway) social time. One friend had her littles with her, so we brought our coffee to the kids area to chat while the kids played with books and such. One book, on display, was this one about a gorilla and a kitten.
The story starts off great – Gorilla and Kitten have this great relationship; they are the best of friends… until one day, when Gorilla loses his temper and smashes the TV. When the “keepers” become concerned about Kitten’s safety and come to take Kitten away, Kitten jumps in and explains the damage away by taking the rap for smashing the TV and everyone laughs and the incident goes away.
Wait, what?
The bigger, stronger person in this relationship gets mad, smashes something and then the smaller and weaker person, wanting to protect the relationship, takes the blame? The everyone laughs and it all goes away?
Let’s stop for a moment and think this lesson through. Your friend, dare we say “partner” in your relationship, gets mad and breaks something. Rather than be chastised for such an outburst, and having a discussion on more productive ways (giving our kids alternatives and strategies) of dealing with our angry feelings, we’re going to teach our kids that:
(if you’re the aggressor) you don’t have to own up to your momentary lapse in good judgement and apologize, or
(if you’re the bystander) that it’s okay to lie and say that you did something you did not in order to protect your partner?
And people are PRAISING this piece of work? Are you freaking kidding me? o_O
“Little Beauty” by Anthony Browne – it’s a piece of something all right.
Surely we can give our children better reading material, right?
Warmly,
~h
* for Amy, who knew I’d blog about it!
TAL Word Cloud
“What’d you do in school today?”
I don’t know about you, but here’s what we did:
Got off to a late start! WE didn’t start school until almost 10AM. It’s cold and wet outside and that does not make for early mornings. We let the house heat up and then got crackin’ on school work. The boys started out with math and the we dove into our history lesson.
Since this is our “year 1″, we’re studying ancient civilizations for history/geography. Normally, LittleBoyBlue would be studying … I forget what 2nd grade is, but it’s not ancients – anyway, I don’t want to have to do 2 history lesson plans, so we’re just doing one, and year 1=Ancients. So there 
. His former school did not cover history in the same logical way that we plan to (i.e.: chronologically), so he’s getting entirely new material as it is, which is good.
In an effort to keep “history” from being super dry and boring, I found some lesson plans and books with activities that bring history to life. We tried one such activity today. In the book Stone Age People by Keith Branigan (a “Make it Work” book), we found “Make a mammoth bone hut”… and so we did. Sorta.
We didn’t follow the lesson plan exactly; I didn’t have some of the books it called for and we’re not in a class big enough to simulate “hunters” and “gatherers” called for in lesson 1, but I think our activity was true to the spirit of the lesson. We talked about the Bering strait and former land bridge, Pangaea, tectonic plates and how they move(d) and made shifts in the earth’s surface and other such geographically related topics, then got into a discussion about the people and how they lived. We made the bones of the structure from sentence strips and found they were too flimsy,so we reinforced them with cardboard, latched together with a combination of duct tape, staples and desk tape, then added construction and brown craft paper “hides” that we decorated and crumpled to give them some texture and attached to the bones of the building. The hut actually stood for a while, then fell while we were at lunch – I think this room has too much moisture in the air and it wilted the cardboard – but even so, the boys learned that it was hard work and a lot of it to make such a “home”.
After we finished our hut, we made lunch and the boys helped make Amish Friendship bread for Tuesday Tea, which went into the oven while we worked on spelling and phonics. I finished my day’s training (1.47 miles plus step and hula-hooping on Wii) while the bread finished cooking. It made the house smell so good, and turned out fabulous.
While the boys played, I read aloud. We began The Rime of the Ancient Mariner today. I found this performance by David Olney (part 1) on YouTube that we enjoyed quite a bit. There are also a couple of other links (one read by Orson Welles) that we looked at too, but this was the best “performance” in my opinion. We’ll read (and watch and discuss) more tomorrow and again until we get done with that, then begin on something new.
We didn’t get finished with school until 4:30, but the hut took a while to build, so it was a long day. Tomorrow is playgroup and our weekly library trip, so we’ll have less time for sit-down lessons. Anyway, that’s our re-cap!
Warmly,
~h
Back into the Routine
This morning started out a bit disappointing. I really expected us to pick right up where we left off a week ago and for things to move along swimmingly. In retrospect, I don’t know why I thought that since none of us are particularly quick to adapt to new things (be they schedules or shoes). One of those silly super-mom things, maybe?
I think the break was good; it gave the kids a lot of time to re-charge and me some much-needed time to plan. I’m better prepared going into this mod than I was when we pulled the kids out of their former school. Over the break this past week though, I think I failed to help them stay in the mindset we were in at the end of the least mod. Failed may be too strong of a word. On one hand, I wanted to take a complete break – to let the kids really pursue their own thing – and they did. It was more entertainment driven than academic driven though, and part of me is disappointed by that. Maybe it’s vanity? Could it be that “now that I’m a homeschooling mom”, some small part of me wants them to be academically driven 90% of the time or something? That’s dumb, but I can’t guarantee you that in some dark corner of my mind, a part of me wasn’t expecting that. Realistically, I don’t want them to be little encyclopedias. I want them to be well-rounded, and to know how to enjoy life – so that precludes becoming little egg-heads who are book-smart with no common sense or social skills. We went straight from school-school to homeschool, so we probably really needed some time to adjust to our new reality. “Break” meant ‘veg-out’ to all of us this past week, and I’d like to feel like that wasn’t a bad thing. Not too much TV (more than usual, but sprinkled liberally with days outside, plus they were grounded for the latter half of the week, so that helped, lol). I do feel like I could have helped create more opportunities for natural learning; though we did hit the library Wednesday as scheduled, and LittleBoyBlue took much more interest in seeking his own books (outside of the ones I assigned him), so that makes me happy. I’ll definitely work on making more of an effort to expand daily activities into learning ones next break though. I wonder how much of that will start to come naturally the further away from “school” we get? It seems like a sort of natural transition; I’m curious to see how that plays out.
Accomplishments during the break:
… not much, other than lesson planning for this mod. {sigh}. We did hit the library (as mentioned) and Manning’s (local school/office supply store) and got a new wall calendar/weather station and some other materials that we’ll use for this mod (I think I mentioned the math manipulatives in a previous post). I made more sourdough bread and have a starter for Amish bread that we’ll make tomorrow for Tuesday Tea.
Disappointments during the break:
I didn’t touch my sewing or even get started organizing my office. I forget what all else I said I was going to do, and thinking back, I can’t really remember what we did do. It seems like a waste… In the grand scheme of things I know it wasn’t, but to look back and not see visible evidence of accomplishment in my home (other than my lovely filled-out lesson book) is disappointing.
Not that this is an “excuse”, but my maternal grandparents are both in (different) hospitals, and my grandfather is not expected to make it home. My mom has spent the past week and is still in Houston with them. We went funeral clothing shopping and have discussed death and dying and our beliefs regarding the afterlife with the kids, as well as expectations, proper behavior and what they might see and feel at the funeral. That falls more under “life lessons” than school, but I’m glad we had the opportunity to talk about those things before there is need. It would be harder for me if I had a closer relationship with my grandparents, but due to a difference of opinion on religious outlook, I’m somewhat of an outcast. I feel bad for my mom; even though she conforms religiously, I think she’s a bit of an outcast herself, and I think she really regrets that they couldn’t show her more non-verbal approval and support than they have. Telling someone that you love them and are proud of them, that you believe in them and that you’re necessary in their life is one thing. To make them believe it, you have to show it. Frequently. I think a lot of people miss that. I know I’m guilty of not doing that enough, with my friends especially. I don’t have as much of a problem letting my family know what they mean to me, but friends – geesh. I have a much harder time letting them in. It’s easy to see areas of your life where you’re succeeding. It’s much harder to admit where you’re failing. I’m working on peering into those depths.
On the plus side, we spent several days visiting with my SIL and niece and nephew, who stayed with us for the first part of the week and then again this past weekend. We don’t often have company, especially overnight company, so it was a nice change of pace. I really enjoyed having my 2yo nephew underfoot. He’s adorable, and that’s my favorite age – so it was all-round pleasant. I’m also enjoying the closer relationship with my SIL. We drifted for a while, but we’re getting closer and it’s nice.
School-wise, I was fielding a lot of complaints today, which is frustrating. It took us longer to get through lessons, which is also aggravating. That’s a direct result of the complaining, which makes for a grouchy mom and grouchy kids. I know that part of the complaint has to do with how much writing we’re (well, they’re) doing. More compared to last mod, but they both have horrible handwriting – it’s not something we focused on, so we’re going back and re-forming the foundation there. Just about the only way to do that is to write, write, write…practice, practice, practice. Even doing it on the chalkboard or whiteboard, in crayon or markers – however “different” one tries to make it, it’s still “writing” and as such is boring (according to my kids). I am going to try the fingerpaint-in-Ziplocks method mentioned on Teachers.Net Gazette, though I think we’ll use pudding in a bag with food coloring since I am lacking finger paint at the ‘mo. I re-found a book I’ve had for ages, The Psychology of Children’s Art by Kellogg and O’Dell, and it’s so neat! Many of the pictures used as examples are finger-painted, so I’ll probably be obtaining some finger-paints and paper in the near future for the kids.
We’re also getting into science experiments this mod, and with that comes journaling and “scientific method”. We started off with too much writing there, so we’ll shorten that portion of that for the next experiment, I think. Here’s a photo re-cap of today’s experiment, “Insta-Snow” with a Super Snow Smart Tube. (and after looking this up on Amazon, I totally feel cheated! I paid $8.50 for mine; you can get them for less than half that at Amazon. Oh well, you live, you learn.)
It wasn’t cold and it didn’t “poof” as PeaGreen hypothesized or “explode into snow” as LittleBoyBlue projected it would, so both were disappointed in that regard, however snow in any form in our area is a rare and beautiful thing that is to be enjoyed to its fullest capacity in every way. We only used 1/2 teaspoon for each bowl, so there’s still plenty left for another day and another experiment. I’m thinking we’ll try mixing it with a variety of other things (milk, soda, tea, coffee, rubbing alcohol, and maybe liquor and see what the results are. We may also try adding some food coloring to one batch. We’ll keep you posted on our results!
I guess what started out as a not-so-great day ended on a pretty good note. Couple that with filing our taxes (and an expected refund) this evening and today hasn’t been so bad after all. Now, I’m off to crank up the Wii and do some yoga stretching and cardio with WiiFit, then with the kids for a bike ride. I’m “officially” training for the Gusher Half-Marathon and 5K in May starting today (I’m only doing the 5k portion though).
Warmly,
~h
Final Lesson Plans for M2
If you read my post about planning, then you’ve seen how much information I’ve processed in the last week to come up with the final lesson plan for the next 6 weeks (our “M2″). So here are our final choices, arranged by subject:
History/Geography/Social Studies:
- Earliest Man to the Creation of Early Civilizations I’m using this almost as-is. It’s 8 lessons, and we’ll probably do 1 lesson each week, but we’ll probably work all 8 into this mod.
- I found this book, Early Humans, that is a thematic unit study book with tons of cool ideas that I will pull from while we’re working on early history.
- I am also making use of the online timeline and we’ll be working on making our own paper version as well.
- Everything from the lesson plan will be mapped in an atlas, and there are great ‘real’ maps at Perry-Castaneda Library Online and I will print out map worksheets as needed for the kids to work on. These are not “kiddie” maps, and I like that.
Spelling
- We’re continuing spelling in their workbooks for M2. PeaGreen will have plenty of spelling lessons left in his book to last a couple more mods, and LittleBoyBlue will most likely start Power to Spell in M3. I will probably start PeaGreen in Power to Spell when he is done with his current book. I wish I had a link on PtS, but it’s OLD old… 1967, published by Houghton Mifflin Company. We’ll supplement that with spelling lists from SuperTeacherWorksheets.com’s spelling lists as needed.
Copywork/Handwriting/Journal/Narration
- My boys start the morning with copywork from the board. I write a few lines of a poem (whichever one we’re working on) and they copy. Most of that is coming from Ambleside Online’s poetry list or one of the books recommended. I did find this notebook – RediSpace from Mead “training” notebook to help kids learn proper spacing when writing. I’m going to start the boys in this notebook for copywork this week.
- They both still have their handwriting books from their former school, so we’ll probably add in a page or two per week in that. My friend compiled a few links for kids who hate to write in her blog, so I’m going to look more into them to see if we can use any of that.
- Journal is something we need to work more on this mod. I write a prompt on the whiteboard and they will do that after copywork and Morning Meeting (which is calendar, weather, and we go over our charts (math, clock, character traits, alphabet, days of week, months, seasons, etc).
- Narration – we’re going to work more of this as well in every subject that requires literature or that we do orally. I’ll read and let them tell me what they learned, and then write a couple of lines in a notebook.
Math
- PeaGreen has plenty of work in his workbooks to keep him occupied for this mod. Once we finish basic math, we’ll start working on money. I bought some place value flats, rods and units to help him with those concepts. (Mine are for an overhead projector, so they’re clear yellow, and didn’t come with the cube, but they’ll work just fine.)
- LittleBoyBlue is going to be working on fractions and I bought some manipulatives to help illustrate those concepts to him. (not exactly the picture, but close. Mine are for an overhead projector and only go to 1/8 – but, they were much cheaper and illustrate the same concept.)
- I also bought a Math Minutes workbook for LittleBoyBlue to start in; we’ll begin Saxon 3 in Mod 3 or 4, I think.
- We’ll use game sites like Mad Math Minutes to brush up on skills or possibly for Friday tests just to change things up a bit.
- We’ll also use IXL.com to make sure we’re on-task with Texas testing requirements for their grade levels. (There’s a commentary about standardized testing coming soon, too.)
Phonics/Grammar/Language Arts, Literature & Reading
- My boys are both pretty good at reading and writing, but they’ve learned with “whole language” style (sight words). We’re going to go back and re-lay a good phonetic foundation with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.
- We’ll still work on their word banks and our word wall, and use the pocket chart more to create sentences and to work on punctuation. I know LittleBoyBlue was working on basic punctuation correction in his former school, so we may start that this mod as well, but probably on the board or the pocket chart.
- For Literature & Reading, we’ll continue with Shakespeare and some additional stories from the Blue, Red or Green Fairy books.
- The boys will both have leveled readers that they’ll read from every day for 20-30 minutes. I’ll make more of an effort to catalog the books they’re reading for this mod, too so we can have a lovely printed report at the end of the mod.
Science
- We’re using a couple of school textbooks, so we’ll continue with that. We’re studying plant life/life cycle, so a trip to the local botanical garden will be a field trip this mod, and also boxed planters and we’ll plant some herbs and maybe tomatoes or something to watch grow and keep a log about it.
Art/Music
- We’ll continue to have Mozart during math and our composer study will go along with our art lesson (music playing while we do art).
Life Skills/Home Economics/Etiquette/ Social Skills/Volunteering
- This will continue to be chores, learning about how our household works, Tuesday Tea, playgroup and good citizenship activities (like picking up litter and such). We’ll also plan a volunteer activity for sometime this mod.
I think that’s pretty much everything! I have most of their lessons added to the computer (Homeschool Tracker) and what’s not will be added as we do it.
Warmly,
~h
Planning for the Next 6 Weeks
One of the things I am always interested in is the planning process. I’m curious how other homeschooling moms go about planning their lessons – where they start, how they make choices, how long it takes them, etc. So I thought I would share a bit about how I plan my lessons. For me, planning is possibly the most important step in homeschooling (if you’re not unschooling). An organized method of presenting information is key to making things “flow”. I think there is a logical way to present information, especially in the core subjects. Each new thing builds upon the foundation previously laid, and so I want to ensure that my kids’ foundation is strong. That means good planning is essential so that nothing is left out … and so, I plan.
As I mentioned in previous posts, this week is our “off” week. We do school for 6 weeks, then take a one-week break. We follow that schedule all through the calendar year. I use the week off to plan the next 6 week lesson period (what we call a learning module, or “mod”), which leaves us with 7 mods for the year. If you’re new to lesson planning, I recommend getting a good lesson planner. You can buy them in office/school supplies stores, online (Donna Young has a good selection of printables. Here’s her homeschool lesson planner) or you can make your own, which I recommend once you know what you want to do. I also use Homeschool Tracker, a free downloadable program that lets to plan and/or keep records on your computer. Helpful because you can generate reports on everything and I am a fan of good record keeping.
Now, for the actual planning process, I begin by browsing. Today, I am just surfing the web, reading homeschool blogs and checking out websites that other moms like and making notes. I’m also reviewing my bookmarked sites because I tend to forget what all I have saved. I often will bookmark something with the intent of using it for a certain lesson and forget that I have it, so this review helps me use the resources I have gathered. I am using Ambleside Online (link in sidebar) as a basis for our year with heavy influence by The Well Trained Mind (link below). I also want to incorporate more Waldorf style into this mod, so I will be working on meshing that this week. I’m using these two articles about Waldorf curriculum to draw from: 1st grade & 2nd grade. You can search that site for Waldorf curriculum overviews for other grades.
We covered “Paddle to the Sea” for history/geography in the first 6 weeks (M1), so I need something new for M2. I am thinking of buying History of the World, but since we covered “history” in M1, we might work on more “social studies” in M2 and then switch back to history in M3 and just alternate for the rest of the year. If we do social studies, we can still work in concepts like mapping (drawing our neighborhood, a local park, finding routes to locales around town), visiting a local fire dept and police department, the courthouse; even things like paying bills can become a discussion and lesson on how our society works. If we do stick with History, I am considering using the history section of The Well Trained Mind’s strategy and starting on a timeline. I have read that kids under 3rd grade don’t benefit from a timeline, but I am not so sure about that. It seems like such a logical way to show history in relation to a little kid’s lifetime. That will require some thought over the next week or so. I did find this online timeline, which is way cool. We’ll still make our own, but this will be a good one to start with and to help me know what to add and when. I also found a set of lesson plans at Core Knowledge (link below) that we may use for history as well.
I found a recommendation for Sequential Spelling while reading through this blog’s list of resources. The workbook we’re using for PeaGreen is one from his former school (though oddly, not the one they were using for spelling lessons) and so we’re going to continue using that for now. For LittleBoyBlue, the book I am using is just a workbook I picked up from somewhere and it’s short (only 8 lessons) so we’re doing that for M2, but it will run out in week 5, so we’ll do a review of the words form the book and I will probably pick up Sequential Spelling to begin in M3. I also found some spelling lists here, and if you scroll down, there are holiday and special occasion lists, too. I also have a book called Power to Spell 2, which is a teacher’s edition (it’s so old that it doesn’t have an ISBN number…), and one called Dr. Spello 2nd edition that I may use if we don’t get Sequential Spelling. (Wow – I looked that up and maybe it’s worth something??) One thing I am noticing is that the older spelling books seem more advanced in grade 2 than the newer ones I am finding. Proof that schools are dumbing our kids down?
For math, the boys are almost done with the workbooks we started in, so I need to come up with something to carry us through. Actually, when I looked, LittleBoyBlue is done with his. I have Saxon Math 3, but I am not sure if we’re ‘there’ yet. I will be looking over the skills they need for their grade on the IXL website, and planning quite a bit from there for this mod. I found a list of lesson plans at HotChalk that offers some neat games to plan that are math related using cards, dice, spinners and other manipulatives, which my kids love. We’ll add in a bunch of those, too. I am looking over Math programs and am considering going with Math-U-See, but am not committing to it just yet. I am going to get some of the block/place value manipulatives, but probably from Manning’s since I’ve seen sets there cheaper than $30.00. I may check and see if Manning’s has a 2nd grade workbook to finish out the year since “technically”, LittleBoyBlue will begin “3rd grade” in the fall.
I have Learning Phonics and Spelling in a Whole Language Classroom but we’ve never used it. I also have Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and we have used that before, so I think we’re going to use that more completely during M2. We’re using a couple of readers that I found at Goodwill (always good to pick up lost and older versions of text books…) for Reading and Language Arts. We didn’t focus a whole lot on reading last mod, so it’s going to be stepped up now. The kids read books, but not aloud, so I need to make sure they’re doing that more this mod. We’ll probably just use the readers (Bookworm for PeaGreen and Rainbow Bridge for LittleBoyBlue) chapter by chapter until we’re done with them, then look for something else.
Field Trips – we didn’t do many (only 1, not counting the library and playgroup) of these in M1, so I definitely want to plan several for this mod. I really want to go to the Botanical Garden in Orange, and since we’re studying plants is Science, and it’s getting closer to Spring, this will be a good time to go, I think. I’ll probably call or email them at some point this week to get their recommendation and see if they offer a lesson plan based on a trip there. I’d love to hit some of the museums around town, too. I’ll have to see what’s out there and how it can fit into our lessons for this mod.
For art, we’re going to continue with our study of Raphael. We’ve only covered 3 of the paintings recommended by Ambleside for the first term, so we’ll stick with that, and then move on to the next artist. Music will continue with AO’s recommendation as well. I’m also going to buy some silk scarves from Dharma Trading Co. and we’ll kool-aid dye them for playsilks. I’ll get several 35×35 and a couple of the larger sized for tent-making. Handicraft-wise, I think we may work on some needlecrafts this mod. I remember learning how to crochet when I was about 7, so the boys might enjoy that. I have a beginner’s kit, so this might be a good time to re-learn, myself! I also will plan holiday-oriented crafts for St. Patrick’s Day and Easter/Ostara /Spring Equinox will fall in this mod on March 20, so we’ll have some activity corresponding with that as well. Spiritually speaking, I don’t profess to claim any one religion; I think there is value in almost all kinds and want to present my kids with a well-rounded, open-minded view of things and so we’ll learn about the Christian holidays and the Pagan ones that influenced them.
Here are some of the sites I have bookmarked:
Big IQ Kids – spelling lists grades 1-7, math lessons and US Geography – This site is pretty neat. It features a “tutor” that speaks to your child. Downside is that all of the lessons are done online, so if you don’t like that (I prefer not to do lessons online) then this might not work for you. However, the geography one seems pretty cool.
Books available in whole online:
Main Lesson – LOTS of books here, many from Ambleside’s curriculum including Milo Winter’s Aesop for Children, The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and Elementary Readers by Treadway.
The Rosetta Project – Vintage picture books and lots of classics
Handbook of Nature Study – Anna B. Comstock’s 1911 version online.
And videos we like:
50 States and Capitals and worksheets
The Colors in Spanish, Numbers 1-30 in Spanish, The Alphabet Song in Spanish
You can also search story books, circle time or the name of a book and it may be read by someone and published on YouTube. Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, The Carrot Seed (from FIAR) and many others can be found there.
There are also lots of kids’ TV series and videos, like The Magic Schoolbus and Grammar Rock (and School House Rock, too) videos!
So… that’s where I begin. I have a lot of information; now comes the part where it gets put together into coherent lessons. Basically, I take the information I want to cover and break it down into 6 “bites” – or more, depending on how many days per week we do that subject. For example, with copywork, math, spelling, phonics & reading – those are done every day so I need 24 lessons to cover the whole 6 weeks. With art, music and drama, I only need one per week, so 6 lessons will suffice. With history, geography and science, I can get away with only 12 lessons, or 2 per week for each. There are other lessons, too, like character education (Aesop and other resources), etiquette (Tuesday Tea and I’m using a book called White Gloves and Party Manners that I picked up a long time ago) that may happen daily or weekly, depending on our schedule.
I am going to go ahead and publish this now, but I may edit it later and add to it, so check back! If you have resources that you’d like to share, please comment. Any additions will be noted. Thanks for reading!
Warmly,
~h
During our “off” week…
What does a homeschooling mom who does not have to “do school” do? Well, I’ll tell ya 
I’ve been baking bread. I made beer bread last week (didn’t turn out very good; tasted unsurprisingly like beer – ick!), which sparked this whole little jaunt into bread-baking. I found a website called The Fresh Loaf with a ton of recipes and tips for baking better bread and its been fun browsing. I have 2 bread starters fermenting in my kitchen, 1 sourdough and 1 Amish sweet bread. I made sourdough bread a couple of days ago and it turned out great! Now, it’s all gone, so I made more today only to realize when it came out of the oven that I forgot to put salt in the dough. D’oh! It’s edible, but not completely delish like the previous loaves. I still want to try my hand at French and Italian bread, so tomorrow, I am off to buy more flour and yeast to support this new habit.
Another high priority for this week is to work on the kids’ quilts. I have a lot of work to do with them still and I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t worked on them much this week and not at all this weekend. We’re planning on ordering the kids new beds this week sometime, so I need to get on the ball. We’ve been planning on getting them new beds for a while. I’m torn between a regular bunk bed (that can be separated into two twin beds) made from wood or a metal-framed loft bed for each of them. The cost is about the same and I really prefer wooden furniture, but I LOVE the idea of loft beds for them. That would give them a lot more floor space in their room and since they share, I think that would be good. The loft also allows some “private space” in a shared room. I can make curtains for the underside of the bed and they can each have their own little nook by closing the curtains. A desk and a lamp would make it a great place to study or work on projects – I think that as they get older that will be more and more important. Something like this:
(there was a picture here, but freakin’ Photobucket has stupid new rules that screw things up if you pull pictures from there. {sigh})
Only more “little boy”-ish and not so much “college-dorm”-like! I’m leaning more towards the loft, I think.
Another project that will have to get some attention this week is my craft room/former office. I took my desk out of that room to use in the school room, and put all the stuff that was in the school room in there – so it’s overly crowded and extremely cluttered and unorganized. I have shelving in there and I desperately need to organize my books. I’ll have to remember to take before and after pictures, too. My crafting supplies are all in there as well, so the function of the room is kinda convoluted right now. I have a great cutting table for fabric that can double as a crafting table, so I think I am going to set that up. That will make quilting easier, too.
That room is actually the master bedroom in our house. It’s a split floor plan, and when the boys were small, we didn’t want to be across the house from them, so we put our bedroom in one of the other rooms. Now that they’re older, we could use the 2nd bathroom and it would be nice to have a little more space. In the school-room switch, my husband lost his “man cave” space, so we’re planning on re-establishing that in some form in the office, but think we’re going to move our bedroom into the master room first, and the office into what is now our bedroom … but everything needs PAINT before we can do that.
I also think that it’s time for real curtains in our house. We’ve lived here for almost 9 years, and I only have curtains with rods in our bedroom, but they’re not decorative – just plain. The other rooms have curtains attached to the window frame or on spring-rods. I want actual rods with real curtains (that I will make). Something like this, only less “finished” looking; more edgy:
My sister in law is also homeschooling her dd (1st grade) and she’s coming tomorrow so we can work on planning. I have a post about that in the process now that will probably go up tomorrow with resources and links and my “process”.
That’s a big list! I’ll try to remember to update on Friday with pictures so you can see what all was accomplished.
Warmly,
~h
Thoughts on Accountability in Homeschooling
One of the great things about homeschooling in Texas is the freedom parents who choose to educate their kids at home have. We don’t have to register with anyone if we choose not to enroll in Kindergarten. We don’t have to ask permission to pull our kids out of public school. We don’t have to be evaluated or take tests or hand in reports or samples of work to anyone. Homeschools are regarded as private schools, and like any private school, we’re pretty autonomous.
For those of us who have been indoctrinated into the public school system, it’s a bit hard to shift from the mindset that there will be some sort of testing going on to assess where your child is at the beginning of the year and again at the end of the year to see how much he’s progressed, to realizing that there really is no system for tallying accomplishments and improvements that gets handed to you when you decide to homeschool. Sure you can go look at the TEA website and get an idea of what your child would/should be learning in public school, but you have to look for it – it’s not handed to you.
On the one hand, that’s great. I think that standardized testing is a crock to begin with; though I realize and agree with the thought that there should be some kind of system in place to ensure that students in an institutionalized educational setting are getting a minimum set of skills and/or knowledge base, there has to be a better way of determining that information than the testing that schools (in Texas, at least) do periodically. It would also be nice if teachers had the autonomy to make decisions about the method of testing for their students based on their knowledge of the student’s ability without having to go through the red tape of having a 504 designation and IEP* if your child is a special-needs child. If you don’t have a special needs child, but do have one that just doesn’t perform well on written tests, letting the teacher assess the information orally or in some other format than the formal “test” would be a huge benefit to the student.
Aside from that, teachers spend half their time teaching kids how to take the test (dealing with trick questions and absolutes, etc), which means that there is less time spent on teaching the material they’re being tested on. Even on off years when there is no testing, they still do mock tests so the kids don’t forget how to deal with testing. Then there’s the level of importance that is placed on test scores. If you’re not a good test-taker, then you’re pretty much screwed, even if you know the material. I always got hung by trick questions – ones that used absolutes (always or never) or phrased things tricksy, and so I scored much lower than I would have if the question assessed my knowledge coherently.
On the other hand, there’s a certain reassurance in the testing. With it, you have a concrete starting point and yardstick with which to measure. It’s easy to look at the scores and see where your weak points are and where you’re good to go. Without it, there are no guidelines to go by, no system of checks and balances to help guide a parent/teacher or show her that she’s doing a “good enough” job in setting and reaching educational goals. There’s no one to have a conference with and ask how he’s doing and get tips and pointers on how to help shore up the weak areas. There’s no set list of skills or knowledge that must be learned “this year”. In a way, that’s bad. It means that WE (loverly husband and I… well, me) have to pour over websites and through curriculum outlines and decide what all needs to be addressed this year. WE are solely responsible for making sure that our kids are not lagging behind their peers.
Or do we?
Who’s to say that the way the institution has laid out their year and the subjects/skills the “right” way? The “best” way? Does my 1st grader really NEED to know Roman numerals this year? Or can that wait until we start studying the Roman Empire? Does my 2nd grader HAVE to study ‘whole language’ style (sight words), or can we omit that altogether and learn phonics instead? Or what if I have one child who does better with whole language and one who does better with phonics? Shouldn’t we do both in that case?
I think that’s another benefit right there – lacking the ‘paperwork’ to tell you about your child, you actually have to (get to?) focus on your child. You’re also not limited to the lowest common denominator when you’re homeschooling. In the classroom, rather than bringing the students all up, they tend to drop everyone down. That means that if your child is excelling, unless real effort is made in the classroom to tailor to that child to some extent, their potential goes untapped. At home, there’s no cap on learning.
Next year would have been our first foray into standardized testing. There’s a small part of me that would kind of like to have LittleBoyBlue tested – and I’m not ruling out buying the test-prep/mock TAKS book at Manning’s even though I am philosophically opposed to standardized testing. It’s expensive though, so I may not. And by that time, we may be on a whole different homeschooling agenda page by then. Who knows? I honestly don’t think that he would do very well on the test if he were to take it the way they give it. If I gave him the test, it would be piecemeal where we could and orally, I’m sure – my goal would actually be to assess his knowledge, not trick him up and see how well he tests.
I don’t really have a goal with this post. I’m still new enough to homeschooling that I can see the benefit in the way that institutionalized schooling operates. It must function the way that it does to meet the goals they have, and though they fall short and are in drastic need of a complete overhaul, there does have to be some form and structure there. Institutionalized schooling cannot mimic homeschooling without… well, so much is lacking to even come close. I really do feel that home should be the standard and everything else should measure up to that and not the other way around. Only when I can’t provide what my child needs should I start looking for someone else to help me provide for my child.
Warmly,
~h
* As I understand it, 504 is the designation in TX for students with handicaps or learning disabilities that allows modifications and accommodations to be made in the classroom for them to help learning/functioning. IEP stands for “Individual Education Plan” and outlines to modifications and accommodations that will be made for the child that the teacher must follow. That may not be entirely accurate, but it’s close.
Competency?
So I have been surfing the ‘net, reading blogs and articles about homeschooling and I came across this one that asks the question, “Does homeschooling do a disservice to kids?”. It’s an argument-and-rebuttal style article that talks about who is short changed. It was short and fairly uninteresting … until I came to this line:
“Then there’s the question of a parent’s aptitude. Parents may have the right to control their child’s education but do they have the right to practice an occupation without any skill?”
How many “parents” have absolutely zero experience with children before they have their own? By that logic, no couple should be allowed to conceive a child until they have demonstrated proficiency at child-rearing. To assert that a parent is incapable of nurturing her child’s education is ludicrous. The competent parent will recognize where she needs more knowledge and seek it – either through education or apprenticeship to a more learned peer. In the event that she is unable to acquire the necessary education or training, a competent parent will seek someone who can provide what her child needs. She may learn along with her child, stay up late reading up on a subject or she may seek a tutor or co-op where homeschooling families support each other in order to provide her child with what she lacks.
I find that statement offensive. It is the indoctrination of thought that institutionalized education should be the gold standard that is the flaw in this equation. How different would things be if instead, the home, where children are loved and nurtured in every way (including academically) was the standard and everything else had to measure up to that? If instead of being admonished for possibly doing irreparable harm through hopeless inadequacy by homeschooling their children, parents were encouraged and supported by both the experts and the public educational system? If they were given easy access to tools and materials that would make the job of educating their children easier?
Instead, parents have their confidence constantly undermined by “experts” who are holding up a flawed model as the gold standard of educational excellence; experts who readily acknowledge that the model is flawed, but don’t have faith in a parent’s ability to successfully prepare her children for life in the real world. Parents, who have a keen personal interest in their children and have only their best interests at heart, are more motivated, I would say, to ensure that their children are well-educated and individually prepared than the under-paid expert who must divide her time among 20+ children.
And really, how much “training” do teachers have that is directly related to breaking down information or concepts and conveying them to children? How much time is spent on classroom management? Dealing with parents? Learning the bureaucracy of “being” a teacher? In contrast, every parent has some skill or hobby that they’ll teach their child, intentional or not. The father who plays guitar, the mom who is practically a gourmet chef… both will likely pass that knowledge on to their kids and neither will have trouble “teaching” their kids those skills. Every parent has a subject on which he or she is a minor expert – chances are that knowledge, too, will be passed to the child. Children learn! People learn! It’s in our nature to do so. Just because we parents haven’t spent time in a classroom having someone tell us how to teach our kids doesn’t mean that we’re unskilled or incapable of learning as we go. Furthermore, *I* am a hell of a lot more familiar with how my child learns than any teacher is. Upon entering Kindergarten, I have spent 5+ years of daily interaction with my child. By the end of the first day, a teacher may have spent all of 26 minutes with my kid… and she is the “expert” on educating MY child? I think not.
… and because I like posts with pictures better than ones without, I found this one and felt it applied in this situation:
Warmly,
~h
Report Cards!
Today marks the end of our first learning module in homeschooling – and, thanks to Homeschool Tracker’s lovely (and FREE) program, I have report cards to prove it! Yay!! I have found that for lessons that don’t have a point value assigned or easily visualized, a “scale of 1-10″ works well, and I enter all tests 2 times so they count more (I didn’t know that was a thing to do until I read about it; apparently, it’s called “weighting” the grades…handy!).
I don’t remember if I’ve covered this before so if I have, please forgive the lapse in memory. If I haven’t, here’s a breakdown of our schedule. We begin our school year in January, so even though we’re technically in the middle of the 2009-2010 school year according to traditional academic calendarl, my kids aren’t really starting in the middle of the year according to our calendar. We’re using Ambleside Online’s curriculum (link in sidebar) and staging, so we’re officially in Year 1 with them as well.
January 3 (the first Monday), 2010 began the first learning module (“mod”) in our year. I mark off 6 weeks (that’s M1), then we take a one week break. We do another six weeks of school (that’s M2), and then a one week break, and so on for the whole calendar year. That gives us seven 6-week learning modules (instead of only 6 like “regular” school) and we stop at the end of November/beginning of December, depending on the calendar. Then we take the month of December off (except for maybe the first few days or so if the calendar is wonky that year), and begin the next school year in January. I haven’t done the math to figure up exactly how that compares to a traditional academic calendar – we end up with 168 school days per year; I seem to remember our former school’s calendar had something like 77 school days in a year (but that could be off).
Our school week is Monday through Thursday, and we test on Thursdays in Math and Spelling, and we do a mid-mod review at week 3 in Science, Social Studies/History/Geography (combined) and another review at the end of the mod. We go to the Library on Wednesdays and we also meet with our playgroup (weather permitting). Since we have a short school week, we try to schedule field trips for Fridays or in the afternoons so they don’t interfere with “class time”.
I guess you’d say what we’re doing at this point in time is “school at home”, though admittedly with much more flexibility than “real school” (that’s not to say that we will always “do” school this way, but it’s working for us right now, and so we continue). A lot of what we’re doing is oral, or comes from literature instead of text books, so it doesn’t feel like school-in-a-classroom, even though we have a mini-classroom here. I was reading about how some families started out with a dedicated homeschooling room/space and eventually abolished it because “school is life”… while I respect the sentiment, I know that I need to have “school” contained in one area and not taking up half my kitchen, and I definitely don’t want it cluttering up the living room! It makes me a much happier mama to be able to close the door to the school room and have my house company-ready (not that we ever have company, hermit that I am lately). That doesn’t mean that learning stops when the door closes – most of the kids’ craft supplies, and mine, too eventually has migrated or will migrate into there, so we’re constantly using the space for something, and as soon as I get a rug, I’m sure even more fun will be had, strewn across the floor. Today, even though our tushies were cold, we made Valentine’s cards whilst lounging on the school-room floor. It was nice!
So, like I said, today marks the end of our first mod in homeschooling. Even though this mod is short by 2 weeks due to the boys still being in public (well, charter) school for the first 2 weeks of the year, I want to stick with our calendar so I am marking M1 officially
SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED!
{bows to wild applause and whistles of congratulations}
Thank you, thank you… it’s been a journey, but one we were more than happy to undertake. {/smarmy speech}
I just can’t get over how impressive it all looks on paper! Well, impressive to me, at least. In 4 weeks, we’ve had 16 school days, and spent 67+ hours (it varies a bit by kiddo on the minutes) in official lessons. That doesn’t include the extra learning that happens just because we’re an inquisitive family… and just think – that’s 67 hours of almost PURE learning/instruction time – not 5 minutes of learning and 20 minutes of trying to get in a quiet, straight line so we can go to the next classroom/lesson. With only 2 kiddos, my time is pretty evenly divided between them, so that’s nearly 34 hours of one-on-one instruction time that each of my boys has had over the last month. If they were in school-school, taking out 30 minutes for lunch and 15 for recess, that’s 6.5 hours of instruction time per day (and that’s not counting the 5 minute between-class bells – so it’s actually going to be even less time than that). Anyway – with 6.5 hours in her day, a teacher with 25 students (the ratio at my kids’ former school) can give each child, at most, 26 minutes of her time per day. Over a week, that would be a whopping 1.3 hours per week; 7.8 hours per 6 weeks; 46.8 hours per school year. And that doesn’t include making lesson plans, keeping the “class” on-task, lining up, handling discipline issues, sick kids and emergencies, fire drills and other interruptions that plague the classroom teacher daily. Gee, based on that math, I could stop RIGHT NOW and my kids will have gotten almost as much time with their teacher as they would in school-school….
Seeing everything laid out like that is really reinforcing the idea that we made a good choice here. So… any friends out there who wanna make plans for next week since we’re out of school?
Warmly,
~h
“Just Leave Them Alone”
A friend of mine posted this on Facebook a few weeks ago and I read it, rejected most of it off-hand as semi neglectful, but I have to admit, I keep coming back to it. I’ve probably read it 50 times since she posted it, and it sounds less and less awful every time I read it. Dare I say at this point that it sounds like wonderful parenting advice?
Going hand-in-hand with the Imagination post I made a few days ago, that article has some sound theory. I’m sitting here watching my kids play Legos on the living room rug. There’s no TV on, no music on and neither child has asked to have either of those things turned on. They, like me, are simply enjoying “being” here. Now. With each other.
When someone calls my house and asks what I am doing, the answer is often “nothing”. That’s not entirely true. I am almost always watching my kids, or listening to them if they’re outside. I have noticed that when they’re outside lately, there will be long stretches of time when I can’t hear them. I’ve gone from being slightly freaked out by that to reveling in the fact that they can entertain themselves for that long, without making a ton of noise. When I peek out at them, it’s a game or a scenario that they’re playing. It’s just so neat! And this is without the interference of parental involvement.
I think what turned me off about the article initially was that it makes a parent who follows such a way seem lazy. I don’t like lazy parents. Parents who are too busy with their own thing (even if that things is just watching TV) to be bothered with their kids. I think there’s a balance that needs to be struck between letting your kids have the freedom to do their own thing and being unwilling to interact with them because you don’t have time for them. The article really doesn’t address that. It’s probably meant to be a bit tongue in cheek, and that’s fine, but I can’t help but feel like there’s some lazy mom or dad out there reading it and using that as justification for being a crappy parent.
I can see the value in leaving them alone and not having every entertainment be parent-directed. I never wanted to be one of those over-scheduled moms, shuffling kids back and forth to lessons that they don’t need to learn how to do things they don’t enjoy. We did tae kwon do one year and dance another, and though it wasn’t a huge imposition on our time, they didn’t enjoy it enough for us to stick with it, and there’s nothing right now that sparks their interest enough for me to manage classes either. I do want them to take piano at some point, but that can come later. I told my husband that with all the money we’re saving by not having the kids in classes, I am going to take the classes I want to take – probably a better use of our money and make me less inclined to ‘want’ them in classes that they aren’t interested in, too!
So here’s the manifesto… my comments are alongside in parentheses.
Manifesto of the idle parent
We reject the idea that parenting requires hard work (sorta… it requires effort, which is not always the same as hard work)
We pledge to leave our children alone (for the most part…)
That should mean that they leave us alone, too (with child-to-child issues, certainly. Letting them hash out their own problems is good for them. But there are times when they just NEED Mom or Dad’s attention, and not because they’re hungry or hurt, but because they genuinely need some of Mom or Dad’s attention. And when they do, they should have it, without reservation when they’re tiny and according to their ability to understand and wait as they age.)
We reject the rampant consumerism that invades children from the moment they are born (yes, I wholeheartedly agree!)
We read them poetry and fantastic stories without morals (yes, yes, yes!)
We drink alcohol without guilt (Occasionally, and let the kids have a sip now and then, too. Pretend you’re French or Italian and don’t be so damn puritanical!)
We reject the inner Puritan (This is why that word was stuck in my head, lol – yes – talk to the kids about life as it is, not as we were raised to think of it. Life is GOOD and full of pleasures that should be enjoyed to the fullest. Don’t deny them because someone else says you shouldn’t)
We fill the house with music and laughter (and love and life and peace and rambunctiousness and worn comfy furniture and tons of books and art supplies and good food and yummy smells…)
We don’t waste money on family days out and holidays (It’s not the big vacations that count. It’s small things like going out to a family fun night every week or making a special project that create lasting memories of childhood. No one big vacay to Disney will make up for not being present and involved every day.)
We lie in bed for as long as possible (sometimes with the kids, all snuggled up in a big puppy pile…)
We try not to interfere (but are every watchful over our young brood)
We push them into the garden and shut the door so that we can clean the house (daily)
We both work as little as possible, particularly when the kids are small (definitely)
Time is more important than money (undoubtedly)
Happy mess is better than miserable tidiness (truer words were never spoken… though a neat and orderly house does tend to lend itself more to creativity because things are easily accessible and handy. Nothing stifles creativity than having to wait until the supplies can be located.)
Down with school (more and more, yes…. though I am enjoying homeschool immensely)
We fill the house with music and merriment (or peace and quiet – whichever strikes your fancy and mood at the time.)
So that’s my thoughts on that 
Warmly,
~h
Record Keeping for Dummies
So I was browsing homeschooling stuff online and I came across this, Homeschool Tracker. It’s a free, downloadable program that you can use to keep track of everything from schedules to attendance to grades – awesome! I was struggling a bit with trying to figure out how to keep track of and “do”grades, and I think that this program is going to help with that. Anyway – Just thought I’d share.
Warmly,
~h
Updated to add: We’re on day 2 of using this and it seems to be working quite well, I’ve put in enough info to check out some of the reporting features like report cards and such, and it seems like it will be exactly what I didn’t know I needed! This week is the end of our grading period, so I am going to go back and add our work from the last 4 weeks and print report cards. I’ll update again after I do.
Thoughts on Meshing Homeschool Philosophies & Styles
Maybe this is bad form, and if so then I will apologize in advance. I am going to comment in my blog on another blog’s post. I have a small readership, and it’s not my intent to start a discussion about it; I just wanted to voice my thoughts on why we do things the way we do.
I guess I have the opposite issue – my question is, “Why limit yourself to ONLY one style?” There are so many wonderful things about almost all methods – and IF you have the right kind of personality, you can happily and easily incorporate different aspects of different methods into your day/week/month or whatever schedule you use. I don’t want to invest a ton of time or money into one method and then find that it doesn’t work for my kids or meet our academic expectations. I tend to get bored quickly and so do my boys, so having something new up my sleeve to change things up a bit is always a plus. If one day, attention is high and distractions are low, we may use more traditional methods or lessons. If attention is hyper-focused or scattered then we may use more child-directed methods, or abandon curriculum altogether and do something that doesn’t at all seem like “school”… but over it all are my husband and I paying attention, making notes and guiding little hands and minds. We’re guided by reading and researching different methods and utilizing the best method at the right time for our children, including utilizing family to teach lessons that are their strong suit
I want to address point #4 in particular. I think it’s a matter of personality. If you NEED the “structure” of one particular style then that’s great. Using only one method is best and can work well for your family if that’s what you need. Personally, I would have more trouble (and a less peaceful and happy household) trying to fit my kids into one mold, and why should I? I don’t think that our days are disorganized or our lessons are haphazardly thrown together. I put a great deal of effort into meshing the styles that work for us and making sure that our lessons are well-covered and fresh and that they are meeting my kids’ needs.
Maybe I am doing a disservice by not fully committing to any one method, and that may be a valid point in some people’s minds. But I don’ t think it’s a matter of “serving two masters”. The beauty of homeschooling is that you are NOT bound by any one method. I think that being trapped into thinking that you can (or should) only do things according to one method is falling more into a traditional educational mindset. Schools “only” allow one way of doing things, and I think that one of the reasons many families end up choosing homeschooling is precisely because of the flexibility and individual tailoring to the child that homeschooling allows. I dislike the thought that utilizing more than one style should be something one is “guilty” of, as if in doing so, you’re committing a crime or short changing your children in some way. I think it takes more effort and more focus to pick and choose – schooling “out of the box” in any style is easy. Someone has laid out all the plans and motions for you; all you have to do is follow along. I’m not saying that eclectic or that my way is better or anything, just that one method might not be right for every one and that is perfectly fine!
I do like the philosophy of Waldorf style education. It truly seems to be set on the nature of a child at each age. Second grade’s overview does fall in line with what LittleBoyBlue is into, and reading this is a good reminder to me to drag out the Kindermusic cds and materials and incorporate some of that into our routine for PeaGreen. Sure it’s designed for itty-bitties, but there are a lot of really cute and fun active dances that will work well for my kiddos even at this age. We’re still using things we learned from Five In A Row style lessons in class now and using lapbooks to emphasize and enhance that method. We’re using Charlotte Mason in a big way (because I have an addition to books…) and that lends itself well to WTM and more rigid learning.
All in all, I like this:
No Academic Work until the Imitative Cycle is Complete
Delaying academics until age 7 is perhaps the most controversial aspect of the Waldorf early childhood curriculum in countries like the United States, where many children are memorizing flashcards and doing worksheets at ages as young as 3. While many children do learn to read and write at very early ages, Waldorf educators believe that diverting a young child’s energy from physical development before the cycle is complete weakens the will and can damage a child’s natural love of learning.
Waldorf teachers believe that a child who gets the chance to fully explore the physical world during the first seven years of life stands the best possible chance for success and happiness in the next phase of development, when academic work begins and the curriculum focuses on reaching the child through the emotions.
Full article at Suite101: Waldorf View of Child Development from Ages 0-6
I can see the wisdom in that, and if I am ever blessed to have another child, I am sure we’ll follow that to more of a degree than we did with the boys, as we’ll most likely be homeschooling from the start. I do plan to incorporate more Waldorf into our routine, but it will not be our “one and only”.
Warmly,
~h
A Week in Review (with pictures!)
One of the best things about homeschooling is that when you wake up and KNOW that if you try to follow the prescribed plan for the day you will accomplish nothing, you can change the day’s plans on the fly and without a problem. Our Tuesday this week was one such day.
I chart my fertility cycles, so it is rare that something happens with my body that is unexpected. Yesterday, I woke up to a surprisingly unexpected visit from “aunt flo” if you know what I mean. In light of recent events (including a surprise pregnancy last April and tragic miscarriage last June, plans to TTC again put on hold due to gall bladder surgery and now unsuccessful TTCing for the past few months), this visit was not a pleasant event, and did not bode well for Mom’s patience and ability to focus on “doing school”…
So, we took our homeschooling selves on a field trip. Completely unplanned, and not really related to anything we’re studying right now, but that’s okay. I took the boys to the Texas Energy Museum and we learned all about how crude oil is manufactured into gasoline, and about the history and founding of our city. One of the coolest features about this museum is that they have mannequins at various places throughout, in period dress, outfitted with a holographic projector that makes it seem as if there is a person standing there talking to you, telling their story. It’s really, really neat and kinda disturbing at the same time.
This museum opened during the years I was homeschooled, and my mom organized a big homeschoolers field trip there. The holograms made a lasting impression, so I was keen on the idea of my boys seeing them. Unfortunately, all but one of them were non-functioning. Grr… Not a big deal, since we can go back anytime, but still.
We had lunch and went to Goodwill to scrounge through there books (I get a lot of books from there) and then made our way back home for some Wii entertainments. Overall, it was a much better day than I had anticipated, and I am very glad that we are in a position to adjust the day’s plans and activities to meet our needs.
Wednesday was more “on track”; we had a super early school day and then went to playgroup, lunch, the library and to visit some friends to welcome their new baby. Thursday was the last day of our school week, so we had spelling and math tests, art appreciation and a trip to the dentist in the afternoon for teeth-cleaning, and then to the grocery store.
Thursday evening, I spent cutting fabric for quilts for the boys’ beds – well, soon to be. we’re getting bunk beds and need decor. Unfortunately, it’s expensive and none of it seems to “grow” with them that we like, so I’m making bed-spread quilts for them both. I have made quilted blankets before, but this is my first (and second) real patchwork-pieced quilt. I’m excited about finishing them. I’m working on both of them simultaneously and have no idea how long it will take. So far, I have this:
I’ve also been working on some homeschooling-related sewing projects. One of the things I wanted to have was a wall chart with clear pockets for words and sentence construction (kinda like this one), but they’re expensive – $20 or more, depending on size. I found black nylon at Joann’s yesterday for $2.00 and got clear vinyl for $4.00 and made this:
I also wanted a place value chart like this one, but again, didn’t want to pay that much when I knew I could make one, so I did. This is made from leftover vinyl from the pocket chart and a scrap of fabric that I had lying around, and I made all of the cards from sentence strips and index cards.
In effect, for free! I truly enjoy making “stuff” more than clothing. I never could get into making clothes, especially for myself, but craft-sewing – I am all about craft sewing!
Warmly,
~h
Vaccinations and Homeschooled Kids
This was posted on Facebook earlier today “Lack of Immunization Data for Homeschooled Children“. I was reading it and I thought I would share my thoughts on the matter.
For one thing, it should be noted that the article is talking about “high immunization rates” and NOT “low disease rates”. That’s a VERY important distinction that must be made. It’s not disease prevention that is the problem here; it’s that homeschooled children are potentially not being vaccinated and there’s no system in place to track them. That is the chief complaint in the article and yet many parents will read the article and come away with the sense that the authorities are actually concerned about preventing disease.
However, in the interests of discussion, we’ll pretend that the article is talking about disease prevention, and that their position is that not vaccinating your children places them at ‘great risk’ for serious illness and death and poses a general health risk for the community at large. {eye roll}… Sorry. I threw up just a little bit in my mouth when I was typing that…
Moving on…
First of all, if the non-immunized students were that big of a risk, then you’d have heard about it by now. There would have been several major outbreaks of VPD’s (vaccine preventable disease) among unvaccinated populations that spread into the vaccinated population – news would have been all over that story and every big pharma president and CDC vaccine advocate would be crowing, “See?!? We TOLD you!!” on every major news show. You wouldn’t be able to step outside your door without hearing how right they were and how wrong all these non-vaxers have been.
But you don’t.
In fact, in the last 10 years that I’ve been paying attention, the only outbreaks I’ve heard about have been among vaccinated populations. Sure they’ll throw in a little blurb about the original exposure being an unvaccinated child, but in many cases it’s a child too young to have been vaccinated in the first place. In other words, it’s not my healthy 6 or 8-year-old that are breeding grounds for disease. It’s your kids who live in a household with weakened immune systems who are holding.
There is a lot of hype about “vaccine preventable disease”. Chicken pox comes readily to mind. In Oregon in 2001, a CP outbreak was noted among a highly vaccinated population of kids. It made national news because of the fact that nearly all the kids were vax’ed. That’s what led to the varicella booster that they now want you to pump your kids full of. Now they’re saying that even the booster isn’t effective at preventing chicken pox so they want to increase the dosage? o_O
Let’s clarify here: what that means is that chicken pox is NOT a “vaccine preventable disease”. It’s maybe a “vaccine lessens the severity of” disease, but realistically chicken pox is not deadly in a healthy child to begin with. There’s less risk of dying from chicken pox than say… driving in your car. You’re more likely to get into a traffic accident than you are to die from chicken pox, so is it worth injecting your child with all the poisonous material that’s in the vaccine on the chance that maybe it might be ‘less severe’? Not only that, but the first dose (that they assured us would work) wasn’t enough, so now you must have a booster (that again, may not be enough) – when will it end? Exactly how much of this junk are you going to “have to” inject in order to become deemed safe from the dreaded chicken pox?
I’m sorry, but I remember chicken pox. I was in 3rd grade and it was a slightly itchy, calamine-lotion covered, cartoon filled 2-week holiday from school vacay. I’ve had several severe poison ivy infections than were much worse than any chicken pox blister! And I had a “good case” of chicken pox.
Lets’ put this into perspective with some math:
Compare that to the number of adverse reactions to chicken pox vaccine per year: weeeeeeeeell, that’s not so easy to figure out. Of 48 million doses, adverse reactions are reported at a rate of 2.2% per 100,000 doses.
So (if I am calculating that correctly, then) you have more of a chance of an adverse reaction from the vaccine than you do of even contracting chicken pox in the first place. Based on the math alone, clearly a parent would want to go with what is less risky for their child. And that’s only for varicella vax – that one’s only been around for the last 10 years or so, when record-keeping has been slightly more “important”. There are numerous articles (Google search it!) that discuss the possibility (likelihood? certainty?) that things like improved nutrition, clearer understanding of hygiene and how it affects overall health, and better sanitation practices are the primary cause of disease decline.
We’re taught to believe that vaccines are the best medical invention since clean water, but are they? I think that’s a myth; a modern-day fairy tale based on greed and perpetuated with lies that plays on the fears of parents to get them to comply.
Back to the article, ”The lack of immunization in some children not only increases the risk for disease in these children but also in all other children in the community.” Umm, excuse me? HOW? If vaccines work the way that the vaccine manufacturers claim (by tricking your body into thinking you’ve been exposed to a disease and creating antibodies to it; i.e.: immunity) then there is absolutely ZERO RISK to any vaccinated person from contact with an unvaccinated one, because you’re immune. That means you can’t get the disease.
The logical conclusion that must be drawn from the insistence by the authorities that unvaccinated people pose a danger to the vaccinated population is that vaccines are supposed to be effective at preventing disease and they don‘t work the way they’re supposed to.
They’re also supposed to be safe (they’re not), but that’s another post.
Greed is a powerful thing, and the authorities have their hand in the till just as much as big pharma. As lawmakers, our politicians are entrusted with the responsibility of enacting laws that protect us from harm, but (former? soon-to-be former?) Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s recent laws concerning Gardasil and his connection with Merck shows that he’s more interested in lining his pockets than he is concerned with the welfare of his state. That brings to mind the old adage about the phrase ‘honest politician’ being an oxymoron…
It’s infuriating to me that my obligation and right as a parent to determine the best course of action for my family and my children is being questioned and circumvented by the authorities. Not vaccinating is not a crime, yet I had to fill out forms and get “permission” (for lack of a better term) for my children to attend school in their unvaccinated (i.e.: natural) state. I get notices and letters “reminding” me to get my kids vaxed. I’ve been lied to and hassled by state insurance people who don’t know the laws but think they do (or do and are just arsed off that someone knows their rights).
Worse are the people who just accept the party line propaganda and assume that my decision not to contaminate my children’s immune system is a direct attack on their health and safety. I’ve done my research and chosen the best course of action for MY family. I’m not out there campaigning to abolish the practice of vaccination (but only because I lack the time to devote to such a prodigious undertaking), nor am I picketing pediatrician’s offices and attacking unsuspecting new moms as they enter the building, precious newborns in arms, and warning them of the dangers of vaccination. I’m not belittling the real risks that choosing not to vaccinate can carry; I’m well aware that my children may indeed contract chicken pox or measles or something “worse” and that death is a possibility.
What I AM saying is that there are real, documented, tragic risks to vaccination, too. And they get pooh-poohed or swept under the rug as ‘unlikely’ or denied altogether. Parents are told they’re overreacting when they report a reaction. We’re treated like we’re stupid, incapable of having access to and understanding all of the information and making a good choice for our families… The doctor will tell you what’s best for your kid, “Oh hang on a sec; I need to interrupt your appointment go talk to this drug rep really quickly”… (Yeah, that happened to me.) and here, sign this with the Merk pen, on the Ross Labs clipboard, and take this school excuse on a pre-printed note pad published by Phizer.
Yep. There’s NO financial motivation for doctors to push vaccines. None whatsoever. (Read under the heading “Vaccine Delivery and Promotion, paragraph 5) (Center for Telemedicine, page 4 – there are more, but you can look that up for yourself). {sigh}
… to your health, salut!
Warmly,
~h
February 26, 2010 | Categories: Parenting, Vaccination | Tags: alternative medicine, commentary, vaccination | 4 Comments »