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.

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.

We call it incentives

So far I'm on schedule for the year. The changing ideas/curriculums schedule. We've been going for about a month and some things that were not on the calendar (like finishing merit badges so the boys can get their Eagles) are gaining priority. Interestingly, some of them are working into their core learning plans (good phrase, huh) very nicely.

Core learning plans. In the next few days, I will be recording all the things I think the kids should learn this year with the things I anticipate will be coming available in our community to begin our core learning plans. A checklist of sorts. Then I will sit down with each one to find out what they want to learn about. I already know Jewell wants to learn about the circulatory system. Then I'll categorize them into major groups: Math, English grammar, writing, reading, history, social studies, science, P.E., music, art, etc. so when it comes time to make out progress reports, I'll have a cumulative score to record on a boring report card. Just for the state.

James just told me he has a need for a report card that he can show to someone else---his taekwondo master---so he can get patches up his leg on his uniform pants for good grades. Sounds good. Better blackmail too. He'll work harder for a patch than a letter on a piece of paper. Right now, the boys are busy reading because they have a report due tomorrow if they want to go camping/wakeboarding this weekend with the Scouts. We call these things incentives, not blackmail. :-)

Oops!

I so oopsed! I planned out our year's curriculum and forgot to take into account what the kids would be doing at co-op.

For example, we were going to study U.S. History and Western Hemisphere Geography. I just bought some of the workbooks I was missing.

Steven is taking World War I and Medieval History at co-op for the first semester, and World War II and Medieval History for the second semester. James is only taking World Geography (for which I do not have the book and just helped another co-op member check out the last copy from the lending library last week.) Don't look for the logic in courses; there isn't any. The boys are totally responsible for their selections for all but writing. The only bright spot is that all of them will count for high school credit while my original history plan would not.

I knew writing would be handled with or without me so I was going to let it be without me. I knew that because I signed Steven up for Creative Writing with some persuasion from his dad, and James, Excellence in Writing. However, we need to scamper on grammar in the next few weeks since neither one is very strong in that!

Thankfully Photography and Health & Fitness don't require much preparation from home.

So now? Home schoolwork, beyond assignments from co-op, wil include grammar, science (why oh why didn't I insist on that as a co-op topic?), and math. Easy Grammar, Apologia General Science (next year we'll do the co-ops), and Teaching Textbooks Math.

Lending libraries

Lately I've been volunteering at the local homeschooler's lending library. It is a really great thing that a local homeschoolers' association has put together, and they even have a place to put the library. A local church has allowed them to use the attic of an old building they have. It has truly been a blessing to the homeschooling community.

In Kentucky, the association we belonged to had a lending library like this, but it wasn't nearly as big, nor did it have a permanent dwelling place unless you call boxes permanent.

When I first went to the lending library here, the attic was extremely hot and stuffy; now they have air conditioning and more books. They are still struggling with organization issues though. Reminds me of our home library........

Still, it has been a huge blessing for us this year. I have had to buy very few books thanks to them. Because they are a non-profit, charitable organization, I have also donated lots of books back! (Tax deductions, you know.)

Being a book fiend, I have to buy books though. It's the stuff of life!

P.S. Why do I always come home tired? Is it because I stand the entire time, and the lighting isn't terrific?

My favorite book

I have a long-standing love affair with dictionaries. Not that I have ever read one from cover to cover, but I usually get caught by something in a dictionary on my way to a specific definition.



When I worked at Thiokol, I received a dictionary that had a chart of all the world's known major language families. When I changed departments, I took the dictionary with me. When I was layed off, the only non-human thing I missed was my dictionary. When I'd had enough of the task at hand, I loved to wander through it for a few minutes for a break.



Yesterday I received my latest $5 e-bay purchase.

This was definitely a used copy because there are marker lines on the top of the front and a couple of names written on the inside front cover. The inside, however, was pristine. Even the pages had a new-ish feel and no markings at all.

We have had a couple of children's dictionaries for the last 8 or 9 years---longer than the kids could read---and I really enjoyed them. Lately, however, the boys have had to use our big red Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. For the record, I have always disliked collegiate editions. In my opinion, they do a lousy job of defining words or just about anything else. (I think that a dictionary that uses the word to define itself is pretty bad.) Don't ask me why I bought it. It wasn't a cheap paperback! For the record, the cheap paperback from college that it replaced was pretty good!

This intermediate dictionary is fun to read because it gives word histories, synonyms, etc., and uses white space effectively so your eye doesn't go batty (like the collegiate one we own.)

Final rating: 5 thumbs up (out of 5)

More changes

I am very blessed to have a homeschool lending library in town, and I took advantage of it this year. I've gotten really gunshy at buying curriculum; I've bought too much that didn't work for us!

The library operates on donations and $1 per book rented. You check them out for one year---it's a steal! A local church donates the space in its attic for its use. How awesome is that? One of the volunteers told me that they are concerned because they have lost 500 books this year (and the shelves are still crammed full!) They finally have a good tracking system, but it still gets crazy when people are returning books and checking them out at the same time!

I checked out about 11 books last week, and then went back this week to help. I learned a lot about different viewpoints of various curriculums, found some new materials and, of course, changed some of my selections. Because I gave 3 hours, I was able to check out 3 books for free. Since I'm thinking about returning about 4 of last week's selections, it will probably work out for both sides! I'll be back to help next week again because there are some other materials I'd like to try. I'm so grateful they have this!

While I was there this week, I met Gwen from another county and learned about a program called Easy Grammar. After browsing through it after closing, I decided to bring it home. I really like it! It's just grammar, nothing else, but it looks excellent (and doable with boys. Very important.)

Another think I decided was to continue my eclectic approach to science. This year, the boys need to do physical science so everything will revolve around that. Science is easy to use for multiple ages/children unless it is textbook based!

With those changes, it looks like the only textbooks I'll be using is history and literature. Lit covers American authors and frankly, textbooks are probably the easiest way to get a survey of a good representative population of authors/poets.

Finally, I asked the kids when they wanted to start school. Their answer?

"How about this afternoon after we get back from our bike ride?"

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Ummmm, too soon. I'm not ready for summer to be over!

Homeschooling through high school

Here we are, poised to begin 8th grade, realizing that we are on the precipice called high school. That thought makes me tremble to realize that my sons are growing up! They really, really are.

On the other hand, that is making me refocus like never before, taking more time to prepare for the year. I am setting up our school to deal with high school transcripts, college applications, and scholarship apps. Translated, that means I'm trying more of a textbook approach with some real books thrown in (of course!) Thanks to a local lending library, I have bought very little. I'm renting the books I'm using for a $1 fee per book for the year. I am so thankful, especially since that is allowing me to use some resources that I'm not familiar with. Hopefully it will help us get to where I want to be by next June---ready for high school.

Here's a rundown of what I'm looking at:

Apologia Exploring Creation With General Science
Janice Van Cleave Biology (not sure)
Rod and Staff English
Abeka Literature: Of Places
Abeka History: America, Land I Love
Scripture Study for Latter Day Saint Families

The boys will be going to a local co-op as well, taking classes from World War I and II to Photography, including a Creative Writing course for one and the Excellence in Writing course for the other. I'm operating from memory on this, though, so I might be correcting myself later.

My daughter will be in the usual 4th grade classes, including Art, Music, History, and Science (I think). Besides that, she will be studying from Abeka's History of the United States and Rod and Staff's English.

Additionally, we will continue with taekwondo for the whole family. Good for leadership and PE!

Need I say that we'll be busy? If anyone has experience with any of these courses with tips to share, I'd love to hear them! I have also run across Lee Binz' site and some of her freebies like How to homeschool through a financial storm. Thanks to her, I realized that with a little work, I could use their home business of mowing lawns as a course in Entrepreneurship that could receive high school credit!

Strip search?!!! I think not!

When my sons were in Kindergarten, they had quite the absentee record because of sickness, and I was constantly pressured to send them to school unless they had a fever. One day after my son had been home for a couple of days, I sent him to school with cough drops. Halls, to be exact. I mentioned to his teacher to remind him to take them in case he started coughing, which he was doing frequently. She had a minor fit, and informed me that I had to take them to the school nurse for dispensing. I thought that was pretty silly and made the use of cough drops a moot point, but I did as she directed.

I never got the cough drops back, and my son didn't get any. Maybe the school nurse had a party and served them as refreshments? For the record, I still don't consider cough drops to be medicine.

Did anyone else ever take Ibuprofen to school and keep it in their locker? Midol? According to today's rules, we would have been breaking school rules. I kept them in my hall locker AND PE locker. Double jeopardy! We all did it though. Most girls that I knew had something on hand for cramps, maybe in a locker, maybe in a purse.

I cannot imagine having to undergo a strip search to be sure I didn't have Ibuprofen on my person like this girl in Arizona (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/04/19/ST2009041902665.html).

Normally, the conclusions that school officials must have the leeway to make sure the school was a safe facility is reasonable. But a strip search because of another girl's accusation? The "drugs" they were searching for was Ibuprofen, people. Not what most people would call contraband. Even if it was contraband, there are certain legal procedures that should be followed. If schools are exempt from the law, what can't they do?!

Here's is another homeschooler's take on this situation (http://www.justenoughblog.com/?p=1460).

I remember dreading jr. high PE because of my sister's tales of having to take group showers. What degradation to have to shower with at least 10 other girls at a time. I have serious issues with that, and that was before the gay and lesbian culture came to the forefront. That was a contributing reason to why we weren't required to shower when I got to the same school. That issue wasn't taken into consideration for the 8th grader either. The sheer intimidation and degradation present by requiring the girl to strip in front of two fully-clothed women who were standing and watching her closely is uncalled for in a civilized society. It takes the girl's humanity down to that of an animal's. My dog will take a dump in front of you with nary a thought of it; is that where we want our society to go?

To think that this came from a "friend's" accusation that she had such a horrible, addicting drug and was sharing it with a friend. (heavy on the sarcasm here, folks) They found Ibuprofen in her notebook but none elsewhere. There was no cause for the strip search. Have you ever shared Ibuprofen with a friend? I have. Shame on me for wanting to help a friend. But the concern named is nuts (see the second paragraph specifically):

The law has long given school officials special leeway to search lockers and backpacks to enable them to better protect students in their care. Instead of "probable cause" -- the standard law enforcement officers must abide by when conducting criminal searches -- schools need only show "reasonable suspicion" that a student has violated the law or the rules of the school to justify a search. A more intrusive search, the Supreme Court has ruled, requires that schools show that it was "justified at its inception" and "reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference in the first place." In rebuking Savana's school, the 9th Circuit departed from this sensible Supreme Court standard and issued a decision that would make it much harder for school employees to justify searches. The court also gave its blessing for Savana to go forward with her lawsuit against the vice principal.

The Supreme Court should strike down the lower-court ruling. School officials must have the flexibility to act quickly and decisively to avert all manner of danger. Fear of being sued for making reasonable if controversial judgment calls will only chill these efforts.

This is fear run amock. Heaven help us if our court system does not protect our children.

Finished!

They did it! The boys finished their workbooks. For a reward, they got some money and computer game time. They're thinking they are pretty special!

December begins

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We did. It was nice to have the whole family home, including Jim. He was determined not to go into the office, and he kept that promise until later Friday. For Thanksgiving, I baked 1 cherry, 2 chocolate pudding, 1 apple, and 1 pumpkin pie. I think we finished them all off yesterday. Mmm.....maybe there is one more slice of apple pie in the refrigerator.

Jim and I went shopping to atypical stores on "Black Friday" and got our major Christmas shopping done. This year, I believe we have "hit" it with just a few presents. I am soooo excited to have them open them. Quantity we'll not have, but quality we will!

The boys took their purple belt test on Saturday and did mighty fine! S-man was on fire! Normally he gets nervous but seems calm. This time his movements were executed with a punch! Both were exhausted when they finished. Guest judges came up from Arkansas and they had a hard time telling the boys apart (important when you are judging!) The local black belts said, "You think it's hard now? Wait until they begin!" The boys tend to work at the same rhythm---even with their eyes closed.

Jewell just competed in a tumbling medal meet---and won a medal. Considering they didn't have long to practice their routines, she did very well. She needed a little help about halfway through, but she remembered it better than anyone else. She loves gymnastics! This week she'll have two classes because it was canceled for Thanksgiving last week.

On the school front, the boys are finishing their American Heritage Publishing workbooks as fast as they can! Christmas money is on the line. I don't usually bribe them with money, but they need Christmas money anyway....

My exciting news is that I just finished the Old Testament. I'm ashamed to admit that I have never completely read the Old Testament all the way through before now. Even in Seminary when I was a teenager. I was truly amazed at how addicting it was. I really enjoyed it. Sure, there were parts I slogged through, but the wisdom I learned was amazing. Things I had always been taught were there; I found them for myself! The last several prophetic writings were especially hard hitting for me---where it talks about the importance, and hence the condemnation heaped on the people, for failing to observe the Sabbath day, build and attend the temple, and pay tithing. Those prophets wrote much of the last days, so much as to engage my attention completely.

So there you have our last couple of weeks in a nutshell!

You'd think kids would say something

Not long ago, my sister and I talked about some of our experiences in public school in southern Maryland. Both of us commented that home was an oasis in an exceedingly complicated and awful world, but neither of us talked to each other or our parents about it.

Before anyone decides that we didn't have good family relationships, let me explain that we came from a highly verbal family. In other words, we talked! I know that I didn't see any benefit in complaining about the school situation because I didn't think there was any alternative.

As an adult, I realized that just about every teenager goes through garbage at some point at school. That was such an empowering moment for me to realize I wasn't the only one!

I thought it was interesting that my sister felt that we should have told Mother because she would have pulled us out and homeschooled us. I don't think so because I know (from conversations with her) that she had never heard of such a thing and would have tried to help in other ways. At that time, I was afraid my mother might go talk to the principal and/or teachers, and that could have backfired severely.

Ironically, my mother basically did homeschool us. The only subjects neither my sister nor I did well in were the ones Mother felt inadequate to help us with. Namely, science and math. The only time I brought home less than adequate grades was my last quarter in Maryland. Since my parents had already left and I flew to meet them in Denver, I intercepted the report card and destroyed it. That was the quarter a dear "friend" decided to spread miserable lies about me that I was sure everyone believed. I learned later that those who knew me understood those rumors were untrue, and nobody else cared.

Even though I didn't know of a solution and thought it pointless to tell my parents about what was going on, I did have a solid knowledge of who I was. I knew I was loved by my parents, and I knew I was a daughter of God. That knowledge strengthened me and created a reservoir that I drew on many times in my life. That is what our sons and daughters must know if they are to stay spiritually strong and morally clean. If my husband and I can only teach that to my children, we and they will be successful in this life.

This is just plain funny

Proof of educaiton? Another example of our tax dollars hard at work.