A title?

  I'm a mom. A wife. And I spend a great deal of my waking/breathing/thinking time concerned with educating my kids.  In my executive capacity that those occupations entail, I also function as an accountant, strategic planner, forecaster, designer, tailor, chef (sometimes), cook (the rest of the time), short order cook (when I forget to plan our days strategically), financial wizard, janiorial superviser, homework overseer, chauffeur, driver training instructor, idea generator and implementor (who heavily relies on my husband for both tasks!), computer overlord, scheduler.  

Did I mention I have an increasing tendency toward forgetfulness?  Yeah, I use TWO planners.  One to see where I've been and one to make sure I don't forget future plans.

I'm sure I've forgotten half the things I do.  Like laundry.  Which I happen to enjoy.  Unlike de-cluttering. Yuck.

Here's my beef. After ignoring many invites to Linked In, I finally created a profile.  Actually, I think it's the second time I've done it, but I have no record of what my ID or email may have been back in that early sleep-deprivation time of mothering small children.  I don't honestly care either.

What really bothers me is how many other homeschooling moms feel it is important to have an important sounding title.  The two titles I most wanted back in my outside-the-home-paycheck-receiving career days were Wife and Mother.  I've had to give on Mother; my kids call me Mom but essentially it's the same thing.  The paycheck could jump ship.  

At first I wanted to come up with something equally important, but they felt like fraudulent titles and waaaay too limiting.  

Because I remember how bored I got at work with an important sounding title of Business Systems Analyst.  Same thing day in and day out.  There were parts I enjoyed and parts that were stodgy.  

Kind of like now.

Like when I really don't want to explain that math concept ONE MORE TIME! Or dinner. 

Or grade that economics paper that for some ridiculous reason, I thought was important to assign.  Something about making them think and research a pertinent topic.

But you know what?  That's what I signed up to do.  That's what every mom signed up to do.  Okay, maybe not grade the paper, but I know my mother certainly helped me work through many assignments!

When I had that title, I never felt that what I did would matter in two years.  I yearned to do something that mattered.

Now it matters, and sometimes I wish it didn't matter so much.  

The reality is that no matter who presides over the government, and no matter what state society or the economy finds itself, I'll never be out of a job.  When my kids are grown and gone, I'll STILL be their mother.  I'll still be a wife--(sorry Jim, you're stuck.  You made an eternal contract.)  

So my title on LinkedIn isn't very fancy.  It's pretty plain and wraps up what I spend most of my time doing.  I'm a mom.  And for the unimaginative, I've added Homeschooler.  

Is it enough?

Hi!  It's me again.  Still homeschooling for a little bit longer.  Still grateful I have the opportunity to do so.  Still condemning myself because I don't/haven't always done it right.

Yesterday I read about a woman who lost custody of her child to his father.  The claim was that she did not attend to the boy as she should have, spending far too long visiting on the telephone and taking naps while the boy watched TV, and the like.  My heart broke.

Maybe she really was a terrible mom.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Maybe the father has been making her life miserable and she needed support from others.  Maybe she was worn out.  How did the courts get this information?  It sounds like she may have been critically watched.  Wouldn't that be stressful to you?  I certainly cannot imagine living through that, and I think everyone has seen some nasty, nasty, hurtful custody fights.

At any rate, the story made me think about the past 17 years.  About how exhausted, stressed, and worn out I frequently felt.  How some days the best I could do was find a decent movie about something educational and shove it in the VCR and take a nap so I didn't yell and scream and rant at my kids.  Other days were stellar.  We did experiments and made quantum leaps in history and read story after story after story.  I lived in fear that my neighbors would learn my secret:  That I was a terrible mother.

I've been a mother long enough now to know that I probably compared my worst days to others' best days and imagined that those were their "typical" days.  I also know that there are some marvelous mothers who hold it together.  There are marvelous mothers with family close by who help out too.  I had a supportive family 2000 miles away.

I also know my kids love home and family.  I know that there are things that they understand well and some that they don't.  I know that there are some things I should have been more consistent about teaching . . . and wasn't.  I know there were things I taught superbly and they remember.  There were other things I taught superbly and they didn't grasp.  I know there were because one of my children always grasped it when the others did not.

I wish I had stayed in a superb co-op in Springfield instead of leaving prematurely because I thought we wouldn't be there very far into the year.  We ended up being there long enough that we could have completed another year.

I wish I had stayed with the math curriculum that worked instead of straying (and losing monumental amounts of time) to other programs.  I needed to take a couple of months off, not switch. But that is part of the "Live and Learn" mantra, I guess.

Most of all, I wish I had been more patient and allowed things to take as long as they needed to take, which in some subjects may have been a couple of years.  I wish I had understood that was okay.

I wish I had not allowed "others" (who are they anyway?) pressure me into feeling like my children had to be superstars because they were homeschooled.  Yes, there are some who turn out to be genius physicists (like Einstein), but then again, he only excelled in science, Latin, and music.  Literature and history?  Not so much.  We don't know exactly why he left school in Germany, just that he was disruptive to others.

Why does any child (meaning any student, any age) have to be an expert in everything, whether homeschooled, private, or public schooled?  That's ridiculous.  I think that's the problem in our society.  We have to have everyone excel, and if they can't all excel at everything, then everyone has to be mediocre.  How else do you explain the necessity for top scores in all classes, with very little variance in what classes are chosen, if the student wants to attend the best colleges or receive scholarships?  That's crazy.  Some can do it, yes, but where did our biggest advances in any field come from?  Probably people like Einstein.

So, yes, I allowed myself to be guilted into thinking I wasn't, and never could be, enough.  My house wasn't clean enough, my lessons not interesting enough, my children weren't learning enough.  In short, we were not enough.  I wonder how many mothers feel that way, homeschoolers or otherwise?  This is still a constant battle for me.  (And no, I don't have as clean of a house as my mother does, but I may never have that. It's clean enough to be livable with one room that is a disaster.)

The reality is that I am enough with the Savior.  He is enough, and He knows I have tried.  He knows my heart; he knows yours too.  Sometimes I have tried and failed.  Sometimes I've tried and tried and kept on failing, and finally bagged it and decided that thing wasn't important, for now anyway.  And some of those bite me now and make me think, "If only I had persisted."  Yes, and I may have thrown my children out the window too.  Their well being was more important so we changed our attention to other things.

There will always be more to learn.  A book my nephew recommended several years ago just arrived in the mail today.  I finally bought it.  It's actually a text for younger students, but it's fascinating.  It reads like a storybook but goes deeper than a surface story.  It digs into science from the angle of stories of the scientists.  I haven't even introduced it to my kids yet, but I've already been drawn into it.  I have NO idea how I'm going to use it, but somehow I hope I can.  We're specifically studying Biology right now so the study of physics doesn't exactly mesh, but we still have time.  Even if we don't, they have a lifetime to read it themselves.

I pulled out the books I consider to be classics that I think might interest my kids and found it made several stacks, all of which I've read at some point.  I think it's time to reread some now.  So maybe home schooling is really about educating Mom anew and then naturally retell it as it fits into our studies and into our days.  Maybe education is really about students finding out how much there is to know and getting interested enough to keep after it for the rest of their lives.

So. . . what about the woman who lost custody and the father who gained it?  I don't know.  Way too little information.  Maybe she was a drug addict too.  But I've been the mom to two way-too-active little boys before with a little girl to care for too.  I know how difficult it is to make things make sense when you still deal with hyperactive issues well into the teen years.  I've known the frustrations of trying to cope with a husband gone on business most of the time.  I understand.  I wish I'd had a friend I could have chatted with for support on the phone because I often couldn't leave the house.  I've planted my kids in front of Aladdin while I took the dog for a walk because I needed a breath of fresh air ALONE.  I CRAVED silence sometimes.  (Not all the time, obviously, because public school was always an option.)  At times, I sent my kids to public school because pressures were building too high and then brought them home again because the stress went even higher.  I don't have child geniuses in every area, some gifts in certain areas, but certainly not in all.  Maybe that's the hardest piece of all, the realization that we weren't perfect.

Mostly I wanted to scream at the judge and the father about what incredibly hypocritical jerks they were being.  Where in the world was the father in all of this?  Was he just focused on getting custody or was he really and truly interested in providing the best possible care for his child?  He was probably withholding child support, whether that was emotional support for the mother or physical support in terms of money, it doesn't matter. Both cause insane stress. One of those was probably missing, but we'll never know.  I've had friends with similar situations like that where the father has created a living he** for the mother.

There is a possibility, however, that the mother really was a lazy, inept woman who spent all her time complaining and pampering herself.  I've known some like that too.  Then again, maybe neither parent has it totally together, but they were bent on ruining each others' lives.  That happens too.  Or any of a number of other possibilities. We'll never really know though.  There simply wasn't enough information including information about the state of their hearts. God knows though and one day we'll all know.

As for me, I keep plodding.  I've grown up alongside my children.  Sometimes I refer to one or another for a fact check because they remember some things better than me.  Sometimes I seek help from other professionals.  Sometimes I wish I could have had those professionals in our lives sooner.  Is it enough?  I pray so and I'm ever so grateful I don't have a hateful father or neighbor to contend against--especially the times when I was at my weakest.  We're finishing strong now and for that I'm also thankful.  We've survived the tremendous growth of the last 18 years, and I think our family is stronger for it.

We aren't done, but the path is clear enough.  It's never totally clear, and it's a mistake to expect that.  Life is a test; it the path was always clear, it wouldn't be much of a test, would it?

Help! I lost a website

I need some help today.  Once upon a time I used a worksheet creator for math problems, all kinds.  It was a free site where you could custom what problems you were working on.  I thought I mentioned them here, but I can't find ANY mention of it.  I used it a lot, but it has been years since we have done any drillwork.  Does anyone still read this that might have any idea of what website that was?  Thank you for your suggestions!

March update

This has been a very strange year.  We started the year with all three kids in school, requiring the boys to back up a grade so they could fit into the public school mold.  Within one quarter, we pulled Twin B out.  The drama wasn't worth it.  The next quarter, Twin A started showing signs of extreme stress and anger issues.  We pulled him out at Christmastime.

At that point, our daughter became extremely angry that she was still in school.  She wanted to come back home last summer but we didn't let her because she was doing so well.  I realized I was cutting off my foot to spite my face--the message we were sending was that you had to stay until your grades suffered or your self-image shattered.  That wasn't the intentional message.  The reality was that they were all put into school for selfish reasons.  I wanted to lower my stress.  When it backfired, I was ticked.

It has taken 3 months but anger issues are under control again.  The kids get along most of the time.  All three are reading 100% more than they were before.  I am experimenting with Thomas Jefferson style of  education (mentoring) because I HATE being the expert teacher standing up in front of the class, pouring knowledge into their noggins.  Face it; I have too many off days when I just want to say, "Do your work. Do something to enrich your life long term."

We have reverted to one language in the house (Spanish) using Mango Languages which is free through the library, Kahn Math which is free online, and a wide variety of books to read and discuss which are not free.  We just started reading some math history books and I have a line-up of about 40 math classics which I'm excited about reading.  The boys take a Constitutional-style class online and our daughter uses an Ancient History course of study that I used with the boys. Finally, I'm looking for some good computer programming approaches since our sons are keenly interested in website design.     

In the meantime, we're progressing toward moving.  We think we know where we're moving, but we're looking at another house today.  That might have some possibilities.  Owning has decided advantages as well as disadvantages.  We'll see.  It will be nice to get settled.  All three kids will be performing in the Kansas City Temple dedication's Cultural Celebration at the first of May and then we'll move.

Yes!

Math programs

Recently I was asked about math programs.  Because I think this is the area where so many programs exist and is so confusing to navigate, I thought I would share our whole math path here.

So here goes on my map of our stumbling through the years.

1)  Mortensen Math.  We started here based on my sister's family's success with this program.  She gave me the "basic" manipulative set and I bought the workbooks, teacher's manual, and fractions manipulatives.  Unfortunately I really had no idea how fast to expect the boys to "get" it.  The training they offered would have been invaluable but that was financially out of the question at the time.  I bought every video and other tools they had, and the kids LOVED them!  They really helped.  Their order taker on the phone was very helpful and knowledgeable too.  I really wished they had produced more videos to step me through their program.  Also in later years, I had an incredibly difficult time ordering products.  Steve Demme later developed and marketed Math-U-See based on Mortensen Math.  (He doesn't ever say that and MM is very careful not to say he stole their program.  However, they verified that he began his career as a Mortensen Math instructor.  His manipulatives use the same colors as MM's rather than Saxon Math's which is odd considering how many people using Saxon often want to switch without buying new manipulatives. At the time, MM had workbooks through Algebra. (I just looked at their website and it has TOTALLY changed so they may have changed a lot of things in the past 8 years!)

2) Singapore Math.  Based on reviews, I next tried Singapore Math.  They especially excel at story problems. This program was more successful for us especially at the beginning although I grew frustrated with it because of my prior exposure to Mortensen Math.  I also became frustrated with the lack of sufficient practice for the boys to fully grasp the concepts.  They offer additional workbooks, but purchasing those quickly adds to the cost, thus diminishing the attractiveness of the program.  If I felt like I had the $$ to spend, I would have bought a more expensive program in the first place.  I do think the beginning levels are excellent though, and I have since heard quite a lot of other homeschooling moms say the same thing. I know of no one that stuck with the program all the way through however.

3) Various and sundry workbooks.  Most of these were geared toward helping the kids learn their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division which don't really require a full-fledged program if you understand math.  Not a long-term solution however.

4) Teaching Textbooks.  We used the Grade 5.  The only problem is that this program is not intuitive enough. If the student misses a question, he misses it.  There is no going back, no additional problems, etc.  Kahn Academy was the ONLY computer program that fully addressed this lack.  Because it didn't repeat at all, once they started missing very many problems in one section, their later scores underscored the lack. I didn't use it again.  The BEST part of the program was the immediate accolades it gives the student when they answer the question correctly.  That feature totally rocked, but I understand that gets dropped from Algebra on.  Otherwise I would rate this product the lowest of everything I tried, especially when you look at the price of it and how badly it flopped for us. In fairness, I have met others who loved it, but it failed us.

5) From there, we fished and just continued to work on basics on our own.  After being unsuccessful with so many purchases, I basically gave up canned programs and concentrated on other areas.

6) Jones Geniuses Accelerated.  I stumbled into Dr. Jones' math program at a homeschool convention and almost bought it.  I sometimes wish I had but #7 entered the picture again.  For those who deal with any form of dyslexia, they also offer an incredible reading program. Even without dyslexia, that would be an excellent choice.  However, dollars and time constraints ruled when I found an affordable way to purchase Math-U-See.

Because my daughter was going to enter public school 5th grade the next fall, I was incredibly anxious to make sure she was at grade level in math.  Her spelling was atrocious, but I figured that would come with time and reading but the math could seriously set her back.  Since I was not assured we could cover the required amount of material in 3 months that we needed, I forged ahead into Math-U-See because I could fully control the speed of learning.  My daughter arrived a little past her grade level 2 weeks after school started that fall.  I consider that to be my greatest achievement in homeschooling!  (By the way, her spelling did indeed improve with time just as Steven's did.  Both of them were greatly helped as they read more. James always had good spelling because that's how he learned to read.)

7) Math-U-See.  What a boon.  I have always associated with parents who used this program, but when I first heard about it, you had to put out a LOT of $$ to purchase the first module.  They have made it seemingly more affordable with the DVD program but it's actually more expensive in the long run.  Each book used to cover about 2-3 years while each DVD covers 1. This program basically rounds out Mortensen Math with videos and better workbooks.  Elementary through pre-algebra was covered in 3 books in the VHS version. I purchased the Foundations, Intermediate, and Advanced modules complete with teacher's and student's manuals and VHS instruction for about $50 on eBay.  Correction:  I couldn't buy the Intermediate Student Manual for sale but found it at the local homeschool lending library. This program looks, smells, and feels like Mortensen Math but is accompanied by video for each lesson.  Since I had older learners, they watched it with me and then we would work some problems together and I would explain concepts covered in the teacher's manual but not video before they began their assignments.

We raced through the Foundations book in about 2 months because it was almost all review until the last fourth but even then remained simple to comprehend.  Then we began the Intermediate book.  James began that about 2 weeks before his brother and sister and pretty much understood it on his own.  We only needed to get about a third of the way through to get my daughter up to where she needed to be in school and we almost made it.  We got far enough though.  She excelled in math at school the next year partly, I believe, because of the base she achieved in this program. Fractions was the only part we didn't reach in time, and that was the only part she struggled with at school.  For the record, none of my kids like fractions. Neither does their dad and he's very competent in math.  I'm the lone wolf in our family that never had any problems with fractions.  Their pattern still seems amazingly obvious to me.  Perhaps I didn't teach it as well because I thought it was so simple.  Math-U-See also contains many word problems.

James and Steven continued with Math-U-See through the next year, completing Intermediate and beginning Advanced.   Advanced takes them all the way through Pre-Algebra.  Then they would have been ready for the Algebra DVD program.  However, other maturation changes began to manifest that finally rendered Math-U-See not as useful, namely their desire to work independently of me.  They also were fatigued with Math-U-See because we had been working it so intensively.  About that time, I explored another option I had heard about from many sources:  Khan Academy.

8) Kahn Academy.  Beautiful stuff especially for kids who want to be independent from Mom or for Moms who feel inadequate to teach the upper maths.  Or Moms who need a break from teaching everything else and want to hand off something to another.  Each module has a video explaining the concept by the instructor and then they complete the exercises.  They can skip the videos (not recommended!) but must begin at the beginning.  Once begun, they can skip sections. (Unfortunately because I've found my kids follow one thread too far and skip other threads, thus hindering their undertanding. Thus it's important you follow their progress online.) It's worth the review though.  James took to this like a duck to water and Steven eventually began voluntarily using it.  My daughter has never used it.  Students have to begin at the beginning--it doesn't let you skip--but it's good review and can be covered in a week or less depending on your student's motivation. There is a You-Tube video followed by completely interactive exercises.  You have to get 10 problems right in a row before it will allow you to advance.  You can always go back and do more as desired. This is the only program in my experience that does this.  I found that I had to enforce them watching the videos--they're very good--and often I would sit down to review the video with them a second time.  Usually the second time through was enough for them to get even the hardest concepts for them, and I would only have to give minimal emphasis to various steps. Khan goes through Calculus and it covers Developmental Math, Econ (I think), and Banking as well.  It also has branched into other disciplines now.  The best part is that if you don't like it, you aren't out any money because it is free.  It runs off donations from various unnamed benefactors.

My conclusions:  That has been our math path.  Convoluted, I know.  If I could do it all again, I would have spent the $400-450 to buy Math-U-See in the first place.  (It is now between $75-100 per year on DVD.)  It would have been worth it.  Math-U-See goes up to Trigonometry (I think--the Catalog isn't coming up right now) and Khan goes through Calculus, including Developmental Math.  It's strongest point is that it won't allow the student to complete each module until they master it, i.e., pass 10 in a row correctly.  Khan covers other subjects as well such as a little American History, Biology, Banking, etc., etc., etc. It is also free.  Both Math-U-See and Singapore Math offer placement exams geared to their programs.  Use them before you guess at what level to place your student! Neither program follows public school programming so you need to use their diagnostic tools.

Good to know I'm not alone

Sometimes I think I'm the only one so unsure about what we're doing on this homeschooling journey.  I look 4 years into the future and I tremble.  I look at what my goals are for my sons, and I feel almost sick.  I wonder if we did the right thing, if we'll be ready for missions and college at the right time.  Somehow four years seems like forever when children are 6, but they disappear in a flash at 14.

Yesterday, though, had a lengthy conversation with my sister over the phone.  She is a veteran homeschooler, meaning that her oldest three sons survived and are in college.  Two of them finished high school at the local public school though and her third hasn't started yet.  He is serving a full-time mission for our church for the next two years.  He was her first to be solely homeschooled.  Her younger children are all enrolled in K-12 in Utah which has some gorgeous opportunities.  Even so, she is equally nervous.  I took comfort in knowing I wasn't alone.

Previously I have also had similar conversations with other homeschooling moms in my co-op and realized they are as jittery as I am too.  High school options are out there, but there are fewer options than in the elementary grades.  Many of the students I know are taking at least some of their classes at the local college here.  It caters to high school and college students although the homeschoolers roll their eyes at how the class physically divides according to which high school the students originate from.

More lapbooks

I just finished making an American Civil War lap book to wrap up my sons' studies. The template came from In the Hands of a Child. We used the American Government one last fall, and I really enjoyed how it helped keep us on track.

Time for a review

It's the end of summer now and fall term has begun quietly. Now is a good time to kick back and tell you some of my impressions of the things we have done this summer.

Math-u-See: I still love it. I still believe he pirated it from Mortenson Math, but he has much better workbooks. I highly recommend getting the VHS version because you will spend much less money. Obviously the VHS version has been discontinued and turned into a more profitable venture by breaking each main category into its own level and has probably been changed somewhat, but the old way works very well. Math-u-see has a website with lots of review material right there--very nice, but I haven't used it much. If you can get your hands on it, the workbook with extra practice sheets is a nice addition. You won't always use it though. (At least I haven't.) If you don't have manipulatives, Math-u-see sells a small set inexpensively. If you have Saxon Math manipulatives, sell them. Mortenson Math manipulatives work very well. Another reason I believe he pirated it.

Education made easy and even pleasurable!

One thing I learned last year was that the day after co-op is a total waste educationally. I wake up late and drained, often with a mutinous headache. Or is it me that is mutinous?

Every year, I get this marvelous catalog showcasing some fabulous video high school courses, and this year I caved into desire. I bought. Not only that, but I'm passing the word onto anyone who might stumble across this blog. The web address is www.SAVETEACH12.com. The caps really don't matter; they'll convert to lowercase. Everything is 70% off until August 30.

Whether you homeschool or not, this is a big deal! Instead of planting your kids (or yourself) in front of the latest episode of whatever, flip this on. Many of the courses come in both audio and DVD so whatever learning style matches yours the best......

For us, among the myriad of courses I could have chosen, I chose World History and Early American history by Professor Linwood Thompson, from the Bellflower High School in Los Angeles, California. He is both historian and dramatist. That's how he presents the history--by introducing the watcher to people from those times, both actual and fictional people. He throws his own name into the fictional person's name so you can keep them separate from the real ones.

Reading list

Working on our 4-year high school reading list and looking for help. I'm open to additions and recategorizations. Thank you for your input!

Reporting

Just looked over my last blog post and realized I haven't progressed at all on most of those goals except one.

MATH!

We're going fast and furious on it, and the kids are progressing well. That's about all I have to report. Most importantly, we still like the Math-u-see program. We're doing about a unit a day---given that he recommends taking a week or more on each, we're doing well. It's not a 15-minute a day item though. Normally I wouldn't suggest doing it this way but we have a really tight timetable and the kids are getting it.

Scout merit badge: Citizenship in the Community: Only 2 things to complete. Yes!

American Government: I don't like the text so this is not going to be easy.

Ancient Greece: Might be put on a longer hold. I really want to do U.S. History. It has been a few years since we covered that, and then it was mostly colonial and Revolutionary War with a little Constitution as well as Civil War. The boys learned about World War I and II last year, but there is a bit in between.

What happened?!

I'm going to stop blogging about what we're doing because it seems to curse us for a course change!

Seriously, we are going to be doing Ancient Greece, but life has been getting in the way. It may have to wait until August or September.

One item down: belt rank test. My sons have taken their black belt test and now await their results, given next Saturday at Nationals. My daughter has taken her blue belt test and likewise awaits her results.

Second item for the summer: Eagle. One last stinking merit badge and 2 projects (1 per boy).

Third item: Map out the American Government class I'm teaching at co-op next year. Moving has never looked so good!

Overriding goal: Math. Math. And more math. Yeppers. That one's happening and has not been derailed. Math-u-see. Got it at e-Bay--all the way to Trig via the older VHS curriculum. We have VHS capability and I'm all about getting it cheap! It is going well even with the other interruptions.

A look forward and another one back

Part I

I'm one step closer to our next unit which will be Ancient Greece. This time, we are using a lapbook study from In the Hands of a Child as the basic unit. I am curious to see how this goes. We will also learn a little bit of Modern Greek (as opposed to ancient.) If this unit captures my kids' imagination, we will use this approach more.

The only lapbook I have ever done is one on pirates which my son loved. We did a few of their Scout badges via the lapbooking route too. Because they take so much of my time to create them, I haven't pursued them as I probably should have so I'm willing to pay someone else to do the legwork for me.

When I ordered the unit, I purchased 3 premade kits but I'm hoping I can cancel that order. I'm too hands on to let someone do that much of the work for me especially when they include all the templates in the project pack! If I can't, I'll know better next time! Or not, if it doesn't work as well as I hope. They have a download option which I took for the project pack. I will be adding some assignments of course, and we will be doing some additional reading---The Illiad and The Odyssey come to mind---at least for my sons, but I fully expect this will go very well.

Part II (Follow-up to my last post)

The Notebooking study worked okay, although not as well as I had hoped. It's a little too sit-down and write for my kids to have fun with it. I think I'll probably work it into a lapbook study and it will go more smoothly and with fewer complaints.

Pioneers unit study

We just started a Pioneers unit study by Amanda Bennett. It is a notebooking program. So far, it looks like it will be a good unit study although easy to get bogged down doing every exercise listed. I did that with her American Government unit study so I'm being much more careful this time around! Here is the outline of people and events we will study.

Daniel Boone
Thomas Jefferson, including Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark, and Sacagawea
The Monroe Doctrine
Jedediah Smith, including the Santa Fe Trail, Oregon Trail, Mormon Trail, Mormon Battalion Trail
Davy Crockett
John Chapman
Zebulon Pike including the Pony Express
Jim Bridger and the Gold Rush, Trascontinental Railroad, and Homestead Act
Buffalo Bill
John Deere and the Manifest Destiny
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The village Blacksmith

The only major omissions I saw were Brigham Young, considered to be the greatest colonizer of the American West and the Mormon Battalion which began several major settlements in California and built a road through the southwestern United States used by settlers. We will study those as well.

Spring is here!

Hello! Spring is here, and the temperatures are rising very quickly! We have a long-haired dog that needs to shed! Our kids are looking forward to summer and the freedom it brings to run and play without regard to coats and bundling.

Co-op is wrapping up as well. My daughter is dancing in the elementary grades' musical. She is very happy to stop listening to Parablelooza soon. My sons are still working on papers and worksheets for their classes. I think one forgot about a paper for Speech. Oops! Hopefully next week won't be too late.

I am busily studying Teaching a Generation of Leaders, A Thomas Jefferson Education for the Twenty-First Century, by Oliver Van DeMille. That will be my model for high school, I think. I have really been struggling with how to finish off with a bang that will prepare my sons for college and life, and I was led to picking that up again on Sunday. I have some work to do in preparation for it though!

I'm also going to be busy preparing for an American Government class I will be teaching this fall in co-op. Unfortunately, my sons aren't old enough for the class, but they will be studying with me here at home. I plan to use many of the TJEd principles in this class so it will be a natural fit, I think.

Now I must hurry and get lunch before we leave for co-op. Love you all!

A quick note

As for science: We're trying a little LifePac for 8th grade. Only comment? Hmmm....withholding judgment. I'll decide by the end of the first book. Not sure why I got the first 4th grade book; my daughter is already studying solar systems rather than plants. By the way, you can buy LifePacs a book at a time from Alpha and Omega Publishing for those who want to try it and see or simply don't have the money to buy it all at once. The biggest difference is in the shipping costs.

Now for a bit of humor-filled encouragement/advice for those "rebellious" firebrand homeschooling families, a cute post from Lee Binz. http://www.thehomescholar.com/parents-hang-together.php

From science to World Wars

As I mentioned previously, we are studying the book World War I as an additional study to the boys' co-op classes. This book studies the causes of World War I and how it built into World War II.

In the book, the author recommends viewing several movies directed by Frank Capra as propoganda for the war, and he gives some things to watch for (like the music) and how they affect the viewer.

I have been trying to figure out how to do this course, and others, at as little cost as possible so I was thrilled to find several of the recommended movies at the local library. This has been something we have talked about off and on for a long time, especially as it relates to textbook authors. Hopefully it will bring home the idea that we need to figure out who the media author is trying to accomplish whether their medium is newspaper, internet, movies, etc.

P.S. The technical side of me emerges: When typing World War I or II, use a capital I (as in the letter immediately following H in the alphabet) instead of a number 1. If you use the number one, World War number 2 becomes World War number 11. There really weren't 10 wars in between!

Density part 2

Today we learned that density measures how tightly atoms are packed together.


Democritus believed 1) all matter is made of atoms, 2) differences in atoms were in shape and size, 3) atoms were indestructible, and 4) atoms were in constant motion.


Of the four, scientists have proven that 1 and 4 are true. We know that atoms are basically the same shape and are limited in size. Over 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms can be on the head of a pin. Now, would someone tell me in English what number that is?


We also know that atoms are destructible because we split atoms to create atomic bombs and nuclear energy.


Next, we experimented to test the theory that atoms are in constant motion using a bottle of hot and a bottle of cold water to disperse food coloring. I think we have all done this at some point (we have).




The blue dye is in the cold water, demonstrating that atoms in cold water move more slowly than in hot (the green). Both eventually completely mix. Interestingly, the yellow dye mixed in the cold water much more quickly than the blue. Any guesses as to why? I'm not sure. Is it because we can't see the yellow as easily or is there a difference in the density of the colors?

On another note, here's a picture of my daughter working in a workbook.

Atoms in a historical context

We finally leaped head first into Science. Being naturally disinclined to follow instructions exactly, I am using the Apologia text, Exploring Creation with General Science as a guide. Their approach to science is historical which is right down our ally! We'll deviate somewhat later because some of the history it presents I think is contradicted elsewhere so we'll be learning about that too.

The text opens with a brief introduction of Imhotep (eem' oh tep) from ancient Egypt around 2650 B.C. adding the note "most historians agree that the heart of Egyptian medicine was trial and error" and that a very important reason the Egyptians were so advanced in the art of medicine was because they had papyrus. They wrote everything down.

For example, they learned that they could get open wounds to heal quickly and cleanly by applying moldy bread on it. Sounds gross, right? Of course, most of us know that moldy bread produces penicillin, and that's why it worked. Back in ancient Egypt, they just wanted to know what worked, not particularly why.

Next, we learned that Greek scientists were the earliest "true" scientists that we know about. They systematically collected facts and observations and then used them to explain the natural world.

The Greeks we learned about were Thales, Anaximander (an axe' uh man der), and Anaximenes (an axe' uh me nees), followed by Leucippus (lew sip' us). He is called the "father of atomic theory". Much more is known about his student Democritus (duh mah' crit us)who continued the study of atoms.

I really liked the visual illustration Democritus used to explain atoms. He used the analogy of sand to explain atoms, likening the atoms to grains of sand. Quoting from the book, it says, "Think about walking towards a sandy beach. When you are a long way from the beach, the sand looks like a smooth, yellow blanket. As you get closer to the beach, you might notice that there are bumps and valleys in the sand, but the sand still looks solid. When you reach the beach and actually kneel down and examine the sand, you find that it is not solid at all. Instead, it is composed of tiny particles called 'grains'."

The experiment was simple enough. We put canola oil, water, and corn syrup in a glass and saw what happened. Then we dropped in a cork, rock, ice cube, and a grape and observed what happened. Such as it is, here's the picture from my point and shoot camera:


It's hard to make out the picture, especially through the fish, but the corn syrup was on the bottom, water in the middle, oil on top. If you look closely, you can see different textures in the liquid. The cork (brown) floated on the oil, ice (look at the nose of the largest fish) on the water, grape (see the purple blob?) on the corn syrup, and rock on the bottom.

Afterward, we discussed how the experiment illustrated the theory of atoms. Briefly, we learned that the amount each object sank has to do with the density of the atoms in each item.

Tomorrow we will be discussing a bit more about Democritus and atomic motion with another experiment. It will also be much shorter lesson since we covered twice as much material as normal today.

What makes a good education?

I received this on a homeschooling email list I'm on and found it to contain some good standards for all parents to measure their own and their children's education. I hope you enjoy it.

You won't find "takes honors classes," "gets good grades," or "attends only Ivy League schools" on John Taylor Gatto's list of qualities of an educated person. Gatto taught in New York City schools for 30 years and was named New York State's Teacher of the Year, but his experiences convinced him that what students need is less time in classrooms and more time out in the world. Building character and community, Gatto argues, is more valuable than learning from tired textbooks and rigid lesson plans.

Really educated people ...

Establish an individual set of values but recognize those of the surrounding community and of the various cultures of the world.

Explore their own ancestry, culture, and place.

Are comfortable being alone, yet understand dynamics between people and form healthy relationships.

Accept mortality, knowing that every choice affects the generations to come.

Create new things and find new experiences.

Think for themselves; observe, analyze, and discover truth without relying on the opinions of others.

Favor love, curiosity, reverence, and empathy rather than material wealth.

Choose a vocation that contributes to the common good.

Enjoy a variety of new places and experiences but identify and cherish a place to call home.

Express their own voice with confidence.

Add value to every encounter and every group of which they are a part.

Always ask: "Who am I? Where are my limits? What are my possibilities?"