Thursday, October 06, 2005
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Grammar Time
I sat my Dodo down at the table, handed her a pencil, eraser, R&S 3 opened to her assignment, and a fresh sheet of paper.
"Grammar? Yuk." She says.
"Just do it."
"But Mom, this has no point!"
So I spend a good five minutes expounding on the benefits and necessity of a solid grounding in grammar, while she rolls her eyes.
She groans, sets her head on the table, and holds up her hand.
"The pencil, Mom," she says, shaking it in the air. "The Pencil has no point, see??!"
Oh yeah, I knew that.
-EH
"Grammar? Yuk." She says.
"Just do it."
"But Mom, this has no point!"
So I spend a good five minutes expounding on the benefits and necessity of a solid grounding in grammar, while she rolls her eyes.
She groans, sets her head on the table, and holds up her hand.
"The pencil, Mom," she says, shaking it in the air. "The Pencil has no point, see??!"
Oh yeah, I knew that.
-EH
Sunday, September 11, 2005
The Chicken and the Egg, so soon
Out of nowhere Scote came up to me, his small face squinched and scrunched and strangely adult for someone only two weeks past 5, and said,
"Mommy, if caterpillars turn into butterflies who lay eggs that become more butterflies...where did the very first butterfly come from? Because if he came from a caterpillar then he came from an egg and was laid by another butterfly too, then where did that one come from?" Then he groaned and said, "My brain hurts."
Yeah, mine too.
(And no fair asking how I answered him in the hopes of sparking a creationism/evolution debate, that's a can of worms I only care to open in private.)
~EH
"Mommy, if caterpillars turn into butterflies who lay eggs that become more butterflies...where did the very first butterfly come from? Because if he came from a caterpillar then he came from an egg and was laid by another butterfly too, then where did that one come from?" Then he groaned and said, "My brain hurts."
Yeah, mine too.
(And no fair asking how I answered him in the hopes of sparking a creationism/evolution debate, that's a can of worms I only care to open in private.)
~EH
Sunday, September 04, 2005
An actual note from my Dodo
After being told several times to settle down and get to bed, as well as threats about a certain lack of hot chocolate tommorrow morning if she failed to comply I recieved this hastily-scratched note...
Dear Mommy,
To me Sunday nihgt is the hardest to sleep because I get to excited.
Love,
Dodo
Note: the only thing *special* we do on Mondays is a full day of school. Wednesday is library, Thursday swimming, but Mondays we work all day. She can't sleep because she can't wait for Ancient History, Latin, Grammar, Math, and Spelling. Think I am pushing my child, turning her off with developmentally innapropriate materials and drill so I can live vicariously through her? HAH! Proved those guys wrong, nah-nah-na-nah-nah!
Dear Mommy,
To me Sunday nihgt is the hardest to sleep because I get to excited.
Love,
Dodo
Note: the only thing *special* we do on Mondays is a full day of school. Wednesday is library, Thursday swimming, but Mondays we work all day. She can't sleep because she can't wait for Ancient History, Latin, Grammar, Math, and Spelling. Think I am pushing my child, turning her off with developmentally innapropriate materials and drill so I can live vicariously through her? HAH! Proved those guys wrong, nah-nah-na-nah-nah!
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Triumph brings the Void
While reading Doomed to Fail: The built-in Defects of American Education by Paul A. Zoch I came across this quote from William James,
"The Sovereign source of melancholy is repletion. Need and struggle are what excite and inspire us; Our hour of triumph is what brings the void."
This quote really illuminates the recent exponential explosion of need for anti-depressants in our society, doesn't it? We are a society that spends our time and money striving to eliminate struggle in all things, and in nothing moreso than education. Challenge and rigor are dirty words used by elitist, sadomasochist families who want to live vicariously through their children instead of letting them languish their way into a media-soaked, consumptive frenzy of ignorance, depression, and unhappiness like everyone else...right?
-EH
"The Sovereign source of melancholy is repletion. Need and struggle are what excite and inspire us; Our hour of triumph is what brings the void."
This quote really illuminates the recent exponential explosion of need for anti-depressants in our society, doesn't it? We are a society that spends our time and money striving to eliminate struggle in all things, and in nothing moreso than education. Challenge and rigor are dirty words used by elitist, sadomasochist families who want to live vicariously through their children instead of letting them languish their way into a media-soaked, consumptive frenzy of ignorance, depression, and unhappiness like everyone else...right?
-EH
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
"The Science Museum from Hell"-- no, excuse my characteristic hyperbole, ..."The Science Museum from a Third-World Country"
I am not sure I have the heart to complete this post, so full of woe am I.
We finally went to the local Science museum, Insights. I had been bugging my husband to go with us since last year.
I refused to go without him because I pictured some big, modern museum with a days worth of fun science stuff to see and do.
BIG dissapointment.
Very Bad.
It was one room, think HS gym. VB. About 12 broken exhibits, some not plugged in, dirty, non-functioning,. I am so upset by this I can not even speak in coherent sentences but must ramble on without punctuation and interject Bridget-Jonesish abbreviations (VB.VVB.)
Apparantly they were working with a budget somewhere in the negative numbers, so I won't be too harsh on the poor state of their displays, the disorganization, the broken exhibits, missing puzzle peices, peeling paint, or piles of wood and other random debris. But maybe they could *try* to hire someone who knows more about science than my 7 year old? That would have been nice.
(sigh)
It is rare for me to long for my childhood home in PA, but this really did it. I wanted to hop directly on a plane and take my kids to the Franklin Institute.
(double sigh)
They had some fun, though. Just like they have fun playing with a bucket of mud or a unrolling a roll of toilet paper.
Thosethings have more science to them, though.
Oh yeah and they don't cost twenty bucks plus gas.
(sigh)
We finally went to the local Science museum, Insights. I had been bugging my husband to go with us since last year.
I refused to go without him because I pictured some big, modern museum with a days worth of fun science stuff to see and do.
BIG dissapointment.
Very Bad.
It was one room, think HS gym. VB. About 12 broken exhibits, some not plugged in, dirty, non-functioning,. I am so upset by this I can not even speak in coherent sentences but must ramble on without punctuation and interject Bridget-Jonesish abbreviations (VB.VVB.)
Apparantly they were working with a budget somewhere in the negative numbers, so I won't be too harsh on the poor state of their displays, the disorganization, the broken exhibits, missing puzzle peices, peeling paint, or piles of wood and other random debris. But maybe they could *try* to hire someone who knows more about science than my 7 year old? That would have been nice.
(sigh)
It is rare for me to long for my childhood home in PA, but this really did it. I wanted to hop directly on a plane and take my kids to the Franklin Institute.
(double sigh)
They had some fun, though. Just like they have fun playing with a bucket of mud or a unrolling a roll of toilet paper.
Thosethings have more science to them, though.
Oh yeah and they don't cost twenty bucks plus gas.
(sigh)
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Song of Longing, or The Broken Goodwill Piano
I am a goodwill-junkie.
My junk-of-choice is books, and our goodwill gets a terrific selection of teacher and homeschool cast-offs, so several times a month you will find me at my local goodwill scavenging like a crack-addict bag-lady searching for old smack in a dumpster.
This is hysterically ironic to me since I distinctly remember the grade-school taunts about the ultra-uncoolness of such places, and the shame associated with a family member allegedly seen frequenting such a house of ill-repute.
(Where's you get that shirt, the goodwill? I saw your Mom at the goodwill last night, she was buying you underwear! was particularly cutting.)
But as in everything else, my brainwashing must have went askew because I love going there with a passion that might embarrass some of you more religious types.
Mmm.
Cheap books. Er, exuse me a moment...
I just need to...
uh......
...
Where was I?
Ah.
So I head to visit mi amor, la tienda, on Friday, sans kiddos since DH is around for once, and lo and behold they had a ....
dum-da-da-dum...
piano.
Now my piano covetousness goes back at least 20 years, but had lain dormant until that very moment.
Now I needed a piano. I could wait no longer. My children MUST have musical education starting NOW and it must, must , must include a piano.
Any piano.
This particular piano was most likely found in the bulk garbage pickup from some seedy 70's strip club deep in Juarez or something, it was sporting at least one broken key, and acres of tawdry graffiti, carvings, scratches, and neglect.
Did that stem my unholy piano-lust?
Good news/Bad news
The good news is they WAY overpriced it and I haven't been able to talk my husband into buying it.
The bad news is they WAY overpriced it and I haven't been able to talk my husband into buying it.
(sigh)
-EH
My junk-of-choice is books, and our goodwill gets a terrific selection of teacher and homeschool cast-offs, so several times a month you will find me at my local goodwill scavenging like a crack-addict bag-lady searching for old smack in a dumpster.
This is hysterically ironic to me since I distinctly remember the grade-school taunts about the ultra-uncoolness of such places, and the shame associated with a family member allegedly seen frequenting such a house of ill-repute.
(Where's you get that shirt, the goodwill? I saw your Mom at the goodwill last night, she was buying you underwear! was particularly cutting.)
But as in everything else, my brainwashing must have went askew because I love going there with a passion that might embarrass some of you more religious types.
Mmm.
Cheap books. Er, exuse me a moment...
I just need to...
uh......
...
Where was I?
Ah.
So I head to visit mi amor, la tienda, on Friday, sans kiddos since DH is around for once, and lo and behold they had a ....
dum-da-da-dum...
piano.
Now my piano covetousness goes back at least 20 years, but had lain dormant until that very moment.
Now I needed a piano. I could wait no longer. My children MUST have musical education starting NOW and it must, must , must include a piano.
Any piano.
This particular piano was most likely found in the bulk garbage pickup from some seedy 70's strip club deep in Juarez or something, it was sporting at least one broken key, and acres of tawdry graffiti, carvings, scratches, and neglect.
Did that stem my unholy piano-lust?
Good news/Bad news
The good news is they WAY overpriced it and I haven't been able to talk my husband into buying it.
The bad news is they WAY overpriced it and I haven't been able to talk my husband into buying it.
(sigh)
-EH
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Zen and the Art of Homeschool Maintenance Subtitle: Dealing with Distraction Sub-subtitle: Daddy's home
We are running a full curriculum even with Distraction-Daddy lounging on the couch, interjecting peanut gallery-esqe commentary, flying paper airplanes, and generally making a nuisance of himself to get attention.
Or, okay, I guess I should say we are trying to.
Ssgt eccentric, the airborne ranger /formerUS Marine is used to commandeering the attention of all and sundry when he comes to town, which all too seldom these last few years, thanks to Dubya. So he has had to make an adjustment now that the kids are busy at least until lunch. They're not babies anymore. Even if we weren't homeschooling they'd be off all day somewhere, not paying court to him. It's hard for me sometimes to acknowledge how much they've grown and I see them every day. He's been averaging a few times a year.
No, we are not divorced.
Yes, it is very, very hard.
The last few times he was home on leave we stopped lessons completely, we were already far ahead and the kids were so young still I didn't stress, but since he is home for almost a month this time I made the executive decision that we could not afford to miss a month of time.
We are planning a bunch of field trips for this month, science museum, Cattle ranch that has a petting zoo with a buffalo & a fancy restaurant, Duck races...These sorts of things are much better when Dad is around to help with logistics, but otherwise we will continue as if he isn't there, or try to at least.
It has been beyond bizarre to teach with someone watching.
I imagine this must be how the PS teachers feel when the principal comes in to "observe". It becomes even more difficult since my husband was not too keen on the homeschooling thing to begin with, even less keen on the amounts of money I spend (and always have since they were babies) on learning stuff, so I was very nervous he would he harsh or critical or even nag me to send them back to school.
He isn't an education-savvy guy either, more Homer Simpson than Homer if you get my drift, even though he is a very intelligent man (I suspect public school dumbed him down quite a bit) and I wasn't sure how he would react to our kids following such a rigorous and, well, somewhat classical curriculum.
I was afraid he's think that memorizing poetry, diagramming sentences, or learning Latin was a waste of time.
I was afraid he would be upset at how much money I have put into our supplies, our curriculum.
I thought he might try to put me on a tighter budget and I had armored myself to argue, to plea, to persuade.
All for nothing.
After watching us quietly for three days he said, "When you first told me you were going to homeschool I didn't like it. I thought it was weird, that the kids would end up...I don't know, weird, I guess. But now that I have watched you do it, and I can actually SEE what the kids can do...well, they are already weird, and you're weird, so they would end up weird in any case. And the stuff you teach them, it's amazing and they really enjoy it! Well, I am damn impressed, you are doing a hell of a job. They sure as hell wouldn't be learning that in public school, and even if they were I know for a fact they wouldn't like it."
So instead of the principal trying to fire me or cut my payroll, he surprised me with a beautiful, brand new, shiny black Chrysler Town and Country minivan with a DVD player!
I had told myself that it didn't matter what he thought, that I knew I was doing the right thing, but it was so nice to have validation (oh yeah, and a new car) from him.
Hurray, I get to keep my job. Now if only I could get that sexy principal to harrass me.
-EH
Or, okay, I guess I should say we are trying to.
Ssgt eccentric, the airborne ranger /formerUS Marine is used to commandeering the attention of all and sundry when he comes to town, which all too seldom these last few years, thanks to Dubya. So he has had to make an adjustment now that the kids are busy at least until lunch. They're not babies anymore. Even if we weren't homeschooling they'd be off all day somewhere, not paying court to him. It's hard for me sometimes to acknowledge how much they've grown and I see them every day. He's been averaging a few times a year.
No, we are not divorced.
Yes, it is very, very hard.
The last few times he was home on leave we stopped lessons completely, we were already far ahead and the kids were so young still I didn't stress, but since he is home for almost a month this time I made the executive decision that we could not afford to miss a month of time.
We are planning a bunch of field trips for this month, science museum, Cattle ranch that has a petting zoo with a buffalo & a fancy restaurant, Duck races...These sorts of things are much better when Dad is around to help with logistics, but otherwise we will continue as if he isn't there, or try to at least.
It has been beyond bizarre to teach with someone watching.
I imagine this must be how the PS teachers feel when the principal comes in to "observe". It becomes even more difficult since my husband was not too keen on the homeschooling thing to begin with, even less keen on the amounts of money I spend (and always have since they were babies) on learning stuff, so I was very nervous he would he harsh or critical or even nag me to send them back to school.
He isn't an education-savvy guy either, more Homer Simpson than Homer if you get my drift, even though he is a very intelligent man (I suspect public school dumbed him down quite a bit) and I wasn't sure how he would react to our kids following such a rigorous and, well, somewhat classical curriculum.
I was afraid he's think that memorizing poetry, diagramming sentences, or learning Latin was a waste of time.
I was afraid he would be upset at how much money I have put into our supplies, our curriculum.
I thought he might try to put me on a tighter budget and I had armored myself to argue, to plea, to persuade.
All for nothing.
After watching us quietly for three days he said, "When you first told me you were going to homeschool I didn't like it. I thought it was weird, that the kids would end up...I don't know, weird, I guess. But now that I have watched you do it, and I can actually SEE what the kids can do...well, they are already weird, and you're weird, so they would end up weird in any case. And the stuff you teach them, it's amazing and they really enjoy it! Well, I am damn impressed, you are doing a hell of a job. They sure as hell wouldn't be learning that in public school, and even if they were I know for a fact they wouldn't like it."
So instead of the principal trying to fire me or cut my payroll, he surprised me with a beautiful, brand new, shiny black Chrysler Town and Country minivan with a DVD player!
I had told myself that it didn't matter what he thought, that I knew I was doing the right thing, but it was so nice to have validation (oh yeah, and a new car) from him.
Hurray, I get to keep my job. Now if only I could get that sexy principal to harrass me.
-EH
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Mr. Toad's wild escape
Our first week of school progressed smoothly, Dodo was pleased with some of the new additions (Challenge math) and especially the subtractions (I promised we would only need to make one polished final written writing assignment per month, instead of polishing all of our Writing Strands Assignments, as long as she practices proofreading and revising on all the roughs. She cheered this news and I felt a pang of remorse for pushing her a little too much last year on her writing.)
And then, disaster struck...
Mr Toad, our firebelly friend and companion to our newly morphed frogs dissapeared from our tank sometime on Thursday night. He was bigger than the other two, and there is no way he was eaten, so that means he must have found a way out of the tank. He is so small (2") that we had no hope of finding him, even though we spent a good hour and a half trying, and it is unlikely that he could survive long outside the aquarium, especially as we are in the desert and he needs a high level of humidity to breathe.
We only had him a short time, so the kids were upset but not too devastated, but it was a sad day for all.
On Saturday we had our bimonthly trip to PetSmart for crickets (And boy, oh boy do my kids love PetSmart day). Ughabugha ran directly over to the Firebelly tank, which had been empty the last few trips, and became very excitedto see a few swimming around in there.
She hopped around and squealed, "See, Belly toad! I tole you belly toad get out! Belly toad go crickets!"
Scote gave her a sad, lopsided smile and said, "Ugha, Belly toads can't drive, you know." and Dodo said, "Yeah and besides, even if they could I think they would get arrested."
~EH
And then, disaster struck...
Mr Toad, our firebelly friend and companion to our newly morphed frogs dissapeared from our tank sometime on Thursday night. He was bigger than the other two, and there is no way he was eaten, so that means he must have found a way out of the tank. He is so small (2") that we had no hope of finding him, even though we spent a good hour and a half trying, and it is unlikely that he could survive long outside the aquarium, especially as we are in the desert and he needs a high level of humidity to breathe.
We only had him a short time, so the kids were upset but not too devastated, but it was a sad day for all.
On Saturday we had our bimonthly trip to PetSmart for crickets (And boy, oh boy do my kids love PetSmart day). Ughabugha ran directly over to the Firebelly tank, which had been empty the last few trips, and became very excitedto see a few swimming around in there.
She hopped around and squealed, "See, Belly toad! I tole you belly toad get out! Belly toad go crickets!"
Scote gave her a sad, lopsided smile and said, "Ugha, Belly toads can't drive, you know." and Dodo said, "Yeah and besides, even if they could I think they would get arrested."
~EH
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Back to...home?
We officially began our new school year on Monday, insanely early when compared with the mid-September date I always went back to school, but that's how they do it around here so we go along. I can still remember mornings waiting for the bus, September air at 6 am was downright frosty in the near-dark, my breath already misting up through the air...or was that just a ribbon of smoke curling from my belligerent teenaged mouth? Difficult to know for sure. Could have been both.
My smoking days lie long behind me, and thankfully so do those years of busy work and angst, but its that time of year again. Back to school. Sure we "school" through the summer, and weekends pretty nearly meet unschooling criteria, even as babies we were a "learning all the time" family, but it is totally relaxed (as in "we are already ahead so I don't have to worry, we can do whatever we want, so lets sleep in and watch educational movies all day in our pajamas") but now it's the *real* thing. We only did about 5 months last year, so this will be our first full school year. I also know we are in for a major upheaval when we move to Lousiana in November, so I want to get a good start before we have to be packing and whatnot.
Sunday I posted our new "schedule" which more aptly would be called a book, since each page shows an overview of one subject for the week, I found this was easier to follow than trying to shove everything onto one page.
Here she is:
Math
Monday: Textbook work + Mental Math Kids can't resist
Tuesday: Problem Solving (Primarily Math gifted problem solving unit, then when we finish that book we start No Problem! more advanced problem solving strategies.
Wednesday: Text + Mental Math
Thursday: math games
Friday: Enrichment math (Primary Grade Challenge Math)
Scote's K-1
Tuesday: workbook
wednesday: games
Friday: Enrichment Math (G&T series for 1st grade)
Language Arts (reading first thing everyday but that isn't on here, its understood and happens before and while I make breakfast, when we are still in PJs, plus I read aloud 45min each night)
Monday: Spelltime, Writing Strands 3(I think she's made her peace with it, she especially liked her first new assignment since the beginning of the summer, which had to be about a person playing tricks and getting caught.)
Tuesday: Grammar (Rod and Staff 3)
Wednesday: Word Roots, analogies ( once we get something new since she says "Analogies for Beginners" is "Lame enough for UghaBug" and does them in five seconds while rolling her eyes), or Wordly Wise
Thursday: Grammar from Rod &Staff 3+ dictation
Friday:Spelling Test, Writing Strands
Scote
Phonics (mostly planned by me but some OPGTTR) Mondays and Fridays
Grammar from First Language Lessons For the Well-Trained Mind Wednesdays
Guided Reading Tues/Thurs
Between the Lions 1/2 hour daily
Social Studies
Monday: History (classical, see The Well-Trained Mind)
Tuesday:Geography
Wednesday: History
Thursday: History
Friday: Yep, more history. She really loves it, she bugged me all summer to do more history.
Scote
Tuesdays: America Journal
Thursdays: Maps and Geography
Sometimes he listens and participates in reg History Lessons too, if he wants
Sciences
Monday: Lentil Science
Tuesday:Biology
Wednesday:Lentil Science
Thursaday: Biology Video or DVD
Friday: Observations, experiments, or Journals
Scote
same
Computers
Monday: Free choice (of my preselected software)
Tuesday: Rosetta Stone Latin
Wednesday:Free choice
Thursday: Rosetta Stone Latin
Friday: Logical Journey of the Zoombinis
Scote
Free choice M,T,W
Between the Lions PBS kids website games on Thursaday
and Zoombinis with Dodo on Fridays
Handwriting
Monday:Free day (since we do writing strands)
Tuesday: HWT Cursive (about 5 pages left in the first book, then onto "cursive success"
Wednesday: Draw Write Now
Thursday: HWT cursive
Friday: free day (see above)
Scote
Monday: writing his full name (our last is a doozy) worksheets
Wednesday: Draw Write Now with Dodo
Friday: HWT print
Logic, critical thinking, and other enrichment
Monday: Mindbenders (finish last 1/4 of warm up and move onto A1)
Tuesday:CPS for Kids
Wednesday: Creativity (Mind in Motion, Primarily Creativity, or Scamper)
Thursday: Puzzles and games
Friday:Zoombinis
Scote
Puzzles and games
Friday: Zoombinis
Fine Arts
Monday:Music Appreciation:classical
Tuesday:Music Appreciation:fun
Wednesday: Drawing
Thursday: Music Appreciation :classical
Friday: Art Project
Seems like so much, but she seems to thrive on it. We do alot of enrichment-esque stuff because she swallows the regular curriculm whole and I have no desire to see her in college at 12. Twice a week on math skills and she's still three years ahead, not to mention reading. So we're doing deeper, more fun math. I tried to keep Scote's light. No matter how bright he is, he is still only 4 (until the 31st at least). He also makes up his own stuff to do and has appointed himself as Ugha's PreK teacher.
Dodo ran right over when I hung up the schedule on Sunday, read through it and exclaimed "Horray, a real schedule! I was wondering when we could do that again. Can we wake up early too so we'll have more time or are you going to waste the whole morning drinking coffee and reading email? Oh and can we go through the pages in order and make check marks?"
I hadn't even thought of that. I wanted to pretend to be "winging it", going through however we wanted as if the thought of doing those subjects had just miraculously occurred to us. Drat. Now she is all hyped about a different color check for each subject and is devising a sticker chart for her brother. I wouldn't be suprised if she wants to sleep with the thing tonight.
It must have been that 1/2 a year in pulic school that ruined her. Oh well, at least I didn't put page numbersor actual assignments on there or I'd have to accept the darned thing as my future son-in-law.
Viva la schedule, (sigh).
I warned you we were a family of freaks.
~EH
My smoking days lie long behind me, and thankfully so do those years of busy work and angst, but its that time of year again. Back to school. Sure we "school" through the summer, and weekends pretty nearly meet unschooling criteria, even as babies we were a "learning all the time" family, but it is totally relaxed (as in "we are already ahead so I don't have to worry, we can do whatever we want, so lets sleep in and watch educational movies all day in our pajamas") but now it's the *real* thing. We only did about 5 months last year, so this will be our first full school year. I also know we are in for a major upheaval when we move to Lousiana in November, so I want to get a good start before we have to be packing and whatnot.
Sunday I posted our new "schedule" which more aptly would be called a book, since each page shows an overview of one subject for the week, I found this was easier to follow than trying to shove everything onto one page.
Here she is:
Math
Monday: Textbook work + Mental Math Kids can't resist
Tuesday: Problem Solving (Primarily Math gifted problem solving unit, then when we finish that book we start No Problem! more advanced problem solving strategies.
Wednesday: Text + Mental Math
Thursday: math games
Friday: Enrichment math (Primary Grade Challenge Math)
Scote's K-1
Tuesday: workbook
wednesday: games
Friday: Enrichment Math (G&T series for 1st grade)
Language Arts (reading first thing everyday but that isn't on here, its understood and happens before and while I make breakfast, when we are still in PJs, plus I read aloud 45min each night)
Monday: Spelltime, Writing Strands 3(I think she's made her peace with it, she especially liked her first new assignment since the beginning of the summer, which had to be about a person playing tricks and getting caught.)
Tuesday: Grammar (Rod and Staff 3)
Wednesday: Word Roots, analogies ( once we get something new since she says "Analogies for Beginners" is "Lame enough for UghaBug" and does them in five seconds while rolling her eyes), or Wordly Wise
Thursday: Grammar from Rod &Staff 3+ dictation
Friday:Spelling Test, Writing Strands
Scote
Phonics (mostly planned by me but some OPGTTR) Mondays and Fridays
Grammar from First Language Lessons For the Well-Trained Mind Wednesdays
Guided Reading Tues/Thurs
Between the Lions 1/2 hour daily
Social Studies
Monday: History (classical, see The Well-Trained Mind)
Tuesday:Geography
Wednesday: History
Thursday: History
Friday: Yep, more history. She really loves it, she bugged me all summer to do more history.
Scote
Tuesdays: America Journal
Thursdays: Maps and Geography
Sometimes he listens and participates in reg History Lessons too, if he wants
Sciences
Monday: Lentil Science
Tuesday:Biology
Wednesday:Lentil Science
Thursaday: Biology Video or DVD
Friday: Observations, experiments, or Journals
Scote
same
Computers
Monday: Free choice (of my preselected software)
Tuesday: Rosetta Stone Latin
Wednesday:Free choice
Thursday: Rosetta Stone Latin
Friday: Logical Journey of the Zoombinis
Scote
Free choice M,T,W
Between the Lions PBS kids website games on Thursaday
and Zoombinis with Dodo on Fridays
Handwriting
Monday:Free day (since we do writing strands)
Tuesday: HWT Cursive (about 5 pages left in the first book, then onto "cursive success"
Wednesday: Draw Write Now
Thursday: HWT cursive
Friday: free day (see above)
Scote
Monday: writing his full name (our last is a doozy) worksheets
Wednesday: Draw Write Now with Dodo
Friday: HWT print
Logic, critical thinking, and other enrichment
Monday: Mindbenders (finish last 1/4 of warm up and move onto A1)
Tuesday:CPS for Kids
Wednesday: Creativity (Mind in Motion, Primarily Creativity, or Scamper)
Thursday: Puzzles and games
Friday:Zoombinis
Scote
Puzzles and games
Friday: Zoombinis
Fine Arts
Monday:Music Appreciation:classical
Tuesday:Music Appreciation:fun
Wednesday: Drawing
Thursday: Music Appreciation :classical
Friday: Art Project
Seems like so much, but she seems to thrive on it. We do alot of enrichment-esque stuff because she swallows the regular curriculm whole and I have no desire to see her in college at 12. Twice a week on math skills and she's still three years ahead, not to mention reading. So we're doing deeper, more fun math. I tried to keep Scote's light. No matter how bright he is, he is still only 4 (until the 31st at least). He also makes up his own stuff to do and has appointed himself as Ugha's PreK teacher.
Dodo ran right over when I hung up the schedule on Sunday, read through it and exclaimed "Horray, a real schedule! I was wondering when we could do that again. Can we wake up early too so we'll have more time or are you going to waste the whole morning drinking coffee and reading email? Oh and can we go through the pages in order and make check marks?"
I hadn't even thought of that. I wanted to pretend to be "winging it", going through however we wanted as if the thought of doing those subjects had just miraculously occurred to us. Drat. Now she is all hyped about a different color check for each subject and is devising a sticker chart for her brother. I wouldn't be suprised if she wants to sleep with the thing tonight.
It must have been that 1/2 a year in pulic school that ruined her. Oh well, at least I didn't put page numbersor actual assignments on there or I'd have to accept the darned thing as my future son-in-law.
Viva la schedule, (sigh).
I warned you we were a family of freaks.
~EH
Friday, August 05, 2005
Top Ten Signs Your Child's First-Grade Teacher just may be a Moron
10. She says things like "When they ask me a question and I don't know the answer to it, I just laugh. They are so darn little and CUTE, and besides everyone knows kids just ask questions to get attention. Why, Why, why. So cute. They don't really want the answers, they just get so excited and want to talk. Maybe I should give them a sticker for stumping me or something. Lot of stickers, though. They're expensive. Hahaha."
9. She thinks pedagogy is what Michael Jackson does with HIS kids.
8. When your first grader's home spelling-study list has the word "mitt" on it spelled like this, "MIT" and the teacher laughes uproariously when you tell her it's wrong...and still tests them on the incorrect spelling saying, "They won't remember it anyway."
7. Her glazed/vacant expression whenever you ask her about her "methods" .
6. "I hate math. I actually became a teacher so I wouldn't have to take advanced math." Shivers. "I force the kids to do it, of course! We work so hard in here, even when its boring and useless."
5. At Fall open house she says, "This group is way better than last year's. Most of them had no grasp of phonics even by the end of the year!"
4. You ask detailed questions about the school's new much-hyped reading program and she shrugs and says "Well, it's new." by way of answer.
3. You ask about a crypticly vague report card comment and she admits she copies them from a "terrific" book of sample comments she had in college.
2. She thinks "multiculturalism" means changing "sit indian style" to "Let's all sit like the proud native american braves do while they wear their cute feathers."
1. She gives advice like, "Work on reading skills! Practice Skipping!! These children really MUST master skipping before they can learn to read . Oh, and have them crawl through tunnels to practice focusing their eyes." Yeah, parents, WHATEVER you do don't actually read to them. Saint Legume forbid. That makes too much sense.
-EH
9. She thinks pedagogy is what Michael Jackson does with HIS kids.
8. When your first grader's home spelling-study list has the word "mitt" on it spelled like this, "MIT" and the teacher laughes uproariously when you tell her it's wrong...and still tests them on the incorrect spelling saying, "They won't remember it anyway."
7. Her glazed/vacant expression whenever you ask her about her "methods" .
6. "I hate math. I actually became a teacher so I wouldn't have to take advanced math." Shivers. "I force the kids to do it, of course! We work so hard in here, even when its boring and useless."
5. At Fall open house she says, "This group is way better than last year's. Most of them had no grasp of phonics even by the end of the year!"
4. You ask detailed questions about the school's new much-hyped reading program and she shrugs and says "Well, it's new." by way of answer.
3. You ask about a crypticly vague report card comment and she admits she copies them from a "terrific" book of sample comments she had in college.
2. She thinks "multiculturalism" means changing "sit indian style" to "Let's all sit like the proud native american braves do while they wear their cute feathers."
1. She gives advice like, "Work on reading skills! Practice Skipping!! These children really MUST master skipping before they can learn to read . Oh, and have them crawl through tunnels to practice focusing their eyes." Yeah, parents, WHATEVER you do don't actually read to them. Saint Legume forbid. That makes too much sense.
-EH
The results are in...
Mr. Potato Head
You have your ideal of how things
should look, but you're flexible enough to allow
for change. You are not bothered by changing
methods, mid-course if necessary. You use an
eclectic combination of curriculum sources.
Visit my blog:
http://www.GuiltFreeHomeschooling.blogspot.com
What Type of Homeschooler Are You?
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Thursday, August 04, 2005
Curriculum Fiend
Why is it that I feel compelled...nay, driven, to spend every last nickel on homeschool stuff?
We are not a wealthy family, not even close. We are a one-income military family, so that should make it clear that in no way can we afford an eighth of the crap that I buy. But I can't help it, it's a sickness, an addiction.
It started so innocently, preparing for my first baby, those eight long years ago. I discovered educational toys, books on child development and parenting, started amassing a collection of my favorite books. Within two years I had enough of that stuff to start a daycare (eventually I DID have a home daycare in Germany, mostly so I could justify my expenses to my husband and so I could network with other daycare providers who also got giddy about cheap montessori materials from Ebay. ) but I didn't stop there.
Oh no.
Homeschooling was the natural progression, even though we did try school for kinder and part of first for dd, and PK for ds. So now the obsession has taken over, the inmate is ruling the asylum, and educational materials have seriously taken over our home, which is rather small. I am looking forward to moving to Fort Polk in November so hopefully I will have room for more bookshelves, which of course will be full within minutes of being assembled, and then I will want a bigger house for more shelves...and on and on. Will it ever end?
Everyone collects something, I suppose.
So while I feel like the worlds biggest freak of nature for spending every possible cent on ant farms and workbooks, is it really that different than those ladies who collect crystal? Or fill their houses with beanie babies or turtle figurines? At least my collections are put to good use. Yes, I am beginning to feel better. I have now rationalized the following (impulse) curricular purchase from Books A Million (I love that store, I buy almost all my new books there, they have great prices and free shipping over 25 bucks),
Vocabulary Boosting Jokes and Riddles by Justin McCory (scholastic)
Writing Like Writers by Kay Johnson
Scamper ( imagination development from Prufrock Press, a favorite publisher of mine)
Poetry a la Carte (also from the above)
CPS for Kids (Creative Problem Solving)
Alphabet Soup (Language arts enrichment)
DRAW WRITE NOW 8 volume set (I got a terrific deal on this, 50 bucks for the set brand new)
Red Hot Root Words Part 1
No Problem! Taking the problem out of problem solving.
Beginning Writing Lab (another prufrock/dandylion book)
Primary Grade Challenge Math
All this is basically enrichment since we are continuing with the following which I bought mid last year when we pulled her out of PS,
GRAMMAR-Rod and Staff Building English, finish 3, I already have 4 waiting( great program if you can handle the Amishy-ness)
MATH-Mastering Mathematics (A complete 1-8 curriculum, we are currently finishing Mastering Multiplication( Bk3 , and will start Defeating Division in about a month or two)
**Primarily Math-problem solving unit for grades 2-4, we are about halfway through
** Scholastic's Mental Math Kids Can't Resist (Note: They can actually resist a little, but a valuable course anyway) about 1/4th left
And Can you Count in Greek? Plus we read alot of books about math and math games software, plus puzzles, Mathterpieces, Penrose the Mathematical Cat, etc. And SHELVES and SHELVES of math games, flash cards, and manipulatives. Some faves- SET game, Moneywise Kids game, Geoboards, Cuisinaire rods, and pegboards.
HISTORY- Story of the World , with Activity Guide (I love the guides, worth every penny)
***many. many library books and movies, Usborne book of World History, and Kingfisher History Encyclopopedia, Timeline (We make a History Scrap Book, it is a really nice for review and as a keepsake. We put photos in and make pop-ups and little interactive pockets and things for some of out activities, along with her narrations, maps, and worksheets from the Activity guide...it is really neat. I highly recommend this program!
SCIENCE-Ongoing observations-newly metamorphed frogs, baby fish (fry), bean shoots, plus finishing a unit on metamorphosis and beginning another unit on Human Anatomy, TOPS Lentil Science (see earlier post), and Dodo's Hogwarts "Potions" Assigments ( FUN Chemistry) and we read a ton of library science books, and videos
ART- Drawing with Children (I give the kids drawing lessons, I am a passable artist if I have something to draw in front of me), and Art is Elementary: Teaching Visual Thinking Through Art Concepts (interesting book, if you can find it) I want to put together a Great Masters art appreciation class but probably won't get it running until next year. I want to use some of the Dover art postcards for some sort of game or flashcards and some nice oversized art books and picture books about art from the library, and maybe that activity book they have (I forgot the name) where the kids make thier own version of famous masterpieces, and Art Fraud Detective...OK I am rambling on this one, moving on...
MUSIC-Music Appreciation (strictly listening and responding this year, I got a great deal on a set of classics, plus Peter and The Wolf)
LANGUAGES-Rosetta Stone Latin (I LOVE LOVE LOVE this for my kids and for me.)
WRITING- Writing Strands 3 (halfway, she doesn't like this one much, complains the whole time, actually, when she mostly loves everything I put together...but she writes a bunch independantly, so I don't push it too hard. Actually I am hoping she will like the Writing Like Writers or Beginning Writing Lab so we can drop this one, even though personally I like it and will be sad to see it go. Maybe next year.)
GEOGRAPHY-myriad magnetic maps, coloring books, games, maps, a globe etc. She's got all the continents and the states down so this year we are going to work on Capitals and Bodies of Water.
CITIZENSHIP-For Scote the Goat he is doing a Kinder America Unit I put together from some pages I found in an old workbook at the goodwill (One of those Comprehensive curriculum throwaways) and Library Books. He does alot of scrapbook projects similar to Dodo's History projects. Dodo herself did an Early America unit beginning of last year, so her citizenship this year is learning American Geography and Some Presidents. We have Kids Learn America and Smart about the Presidents and we collect state quarters.
READING- I would be here all night trying to cover what we do, but it is a LARGE, HUGE, ENORMOUS volume of reading of all kinds and levels, some silent, some guided, some aloud, some independant book projects from Junior Literature Companion and some quizzes a la Accellerated reader online at BookAdventure. We borrow so many books from the library each week that I am bowed over by the weight of the large mesh bag I carry them out in and I get funny looks. Its worth it. We also do a lot of Poetry reading and writing. I have some Junior Great Books collections and some Harcourt Brace third and fourth grade textbooks that she likes to zip through for fun. (good to read some easy stuff for fluency) all this in addition to my own personal library of about 300 picture books and nearly 100 chapter books (newberries, american girls, juvenile literature and faves like the HP series) Scote the Goat is going to start using the Ordinary Parent's Phonic's program, he is already reading some, but I'd like him to learn the phonics throughly. He loves Dick and Jane. He also watches Between the Lions everyday and we sometimes borrow the movies from the library. From time to time give them worksheets from the Gifted and Talented series of workbooks too.
LOGIC- The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis Software (LOVE IT), Mindbenders, Marvelous Mosaics game, tangrams, a set of wooden blocks and wooden marble tracks pieces with marbles, Montessori-esque manipulative puzzles and activities, Primarily analogies, Chess basics
SPELLING-We use a freeware program called Ray's Spelling and Wordgames, which I program with words from her writing or from the Reading Teacher's Book of Lists (Fantastic Resource!! It is FULL of good stuff) and we play alot of scrabble and upwords for fun
HANDWRITING-without tears, cursive for Dodo, beginner printing for Goat
There is actually alot more but this is the stuff we use frequently.
-EH
We are not a wealthy family, not even close. We are a one-income military family, so that should make it clear that in no way can we afford an eighth of the crap that I buy. But I can't help it, it's a sickness, an addiction.
It started so innocently, preparing for my first baby, those eight long years ago. I discovered educational toys, books on child development and parenting, started amassing a collection of my favorite books. Within two years I had enough of that stuff to start a daycare (eventually I DID have a home daycare in Germany, mostly so I could justify my expenses to my husband and so I could network with other daycare providers who also got giddy about cheap montessori materials from Ebay. ) but I didn't stop there.
Oh no.
Homeschooling was the natural progression, even though we did try school for kinder and part of first for dd, and PK for ds. So now the obsession has taken over, the inmate is ruling the asylum, and educational materials have seriously taken over our home, which is rather small. I am looking forward to moving to Fort Polk in November so hopefully I will have room for more bookshelves, which of course will be full within minutes of being assembled, and then I will want a bigger house for more shelves...and on and on. Will it ever end?
Everyone collects something, I suppose.
So while I feel like the worlds biggest freak of nature for spending every possible cent on ant farms and workbooks, is it really that different than those ladies who collect crystal? Or fill their houses with beanie babies or turtle figurines? At least my collections are put to good use. Yes, I am beginning to feel better. I have now rationalized the following (impulse) curricular purchase from Books A Million (I love that store, I buy almost all my new books there, they have great prices and free shipping over 25 bucks),
Vocabulary Boosting Jokes and Riddles by Justin McCory (scholastic)
Writing Like Writers by Kay Johnson
Scamper ( imagination development from Prufrock Press, a favorite publisher of mine)
Poetry a la Carte (also from the above)
CPS for Kids (Creative Problem Solving)
Alphabet Soup (Language arts enrichment)
DRAW WRITE NOW 8 volume set (I got a terrific deal on this, 50 bucks for the set brand new)
Red Hot Root Words Part 1
No Problem! Taking the problem out of problem solving.
Beginning Writing Lab (another prufrock/dandylion book)
Primary Grade Challenge Math
All this is basically enrichment since we are continuing with the following which I bought mid last year when we pulled her out of PS,
GRAMMAR-Rod and Staff Building English, finish 3, I already have 4 waiting( great program if you can handle the Amishy-ness)
MATH-Mastering Mathematics (A complete 1-8 curriculum, we are currently finishing Mastering Multiplication( Bk3 , and will start Defeating Division in about a month or two)
**Primarily Math-problem solving unit for grades 2-4, we are about halfway through
** Scholastic's Mental Math Kids Can't Resist (Note: They can actually resist a little, but a valuable course anyway) about 1/4th left
And Can you Count in Greek? Plus we read alot of books about math and math games software, plus puzzles, Mathterpieces, Penrose the Mathematical Cat, etc. And SHELVES and SHELVES of math games, flash cards, and manipulatives. Some faves- SET game, Moneywise Kids game, Geoboards, Cuisinaire rods, and pegboards.
HISTORY- Story of the World , with Activity Guide (I love the guides, worth every penny)
***many. many library books and movies, Usborne book of World History, and Kingfisher History Encyclopopedia, Timeline (We make a History Scrap Book, it is a really nice for review and as a keepsake. We put photos in and make pop-ups and little interactive pockets and things for some of out activities, along with her narrations, maps, and worksheets from the Activity guide...it is really neat. I highly recommend this program!
SCIENCE-Ongoing observations-newly metamorphed frogs, baby fish (fry), bean shoots, plus finishing a unit on metamorphosis and beginning another unit on Human Anatomy, TOPS Lentil Science (see earlier post), and Dodo's Hogwarts "Potions" Assigments ( FUN Chemistry) and we read a ton of library science books, and videos
ART- Drawing with Children (I give the kids drawing lessons, I am a passable artist if I have something to draw in front of me), and Art is Elementary: Teaching Visual Thinking Through Art Concepts (interesting book, if you can find it) I want to put together a Great Masters art appreciation class but probably won't get it running until next year. I want to use some of the Dover art postcards for some sort of game or flashcards and some nice oversized art books and picture books about art from the library, and maybe that activity book they have (I forgot the name) where the kids make thier own version of famous masterpieces, and Art Fraud Detective...OK I am rambling on this one, moving on...
MUSIC-Music Appreciation (strictly listening and responding this year, I got a great deal on a set of classics, plus Peter and The Wolf)
LANGUAGES-Rosetta Stone Latin (I LOVE LOVE LOVE this for my kids and for me.)
WRITING- Writing Strands 3 (halfway, she doesn't like this one much, complains the whole time, actually, when she mostly loves everything I put together...but she writes a bunch independantly, so I don't push it too hard. Actually I am hoping she will like the Writing Like Writers or Beginning Writing Lab so we can drop this one, even though personally I like it and will be sad to see it go. Maybe next year.)
GEOGRAPHY-myriad magnetic maps, coloring books, games, maps, a globe etc. She's got all the continents and the states down so this year we are going to work on Capitals and Bodies of Water.
CITIZENSHIP-For Scote the Goat he is doing a Kinder America Unit I put together from some pages I found in an old workbook at the goodwill (One of those Comprehensive curriculum throwaways) and Library Books. He does alot of scrapbook projects similar to Dodo's History projects. Dodo herself did an Early America unit beginning of last year, so her citizenship this year is learning American Geography and Some Presidents. We have Kids Learn America and Smart about the Presidents and we collect state quarters.
READING- I would be here all night trying to cover what we do, but it is a LARGE, HUGE, ENORMOUS volume of reading of all kinds and levels, some silent, some guided, some aloud, some independant book projects from Junior Literature Companion and some quizzes a la Accellerated reader online at BookAdventure. We borrow so many books from the library each week that I am bowed over by the weight of the large mesh bag I carry them out in and I get funny looks. Its worth it. We also do a lot of Poetry reading and writing. I have some Junior Great Books collections and some Harcourt Brace third and fourth grade textbooks that she likes to zip through for fun. (good to read some easy stuff for fluency) all this in addition to my own personal library of about 300 picture books and nearly 100 chapter books (newberries, american girls, juvenile literature and faves like the HP series) Scote the Goat is going to start using the Ordinary Parent's Phonic's program, he is already reading some, but I'd like him to learn the phonics throughly. He loves Dick and Jane. He also watches Between the Lions everyday and we sometimes borrow the movies from the library. From time to time give them worksheets from the Gifted and Talented series of workbooks too.
LOGIC- The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis Software (LOVE IT), Mindbenders, Marvelous Mosaics game, tangrams, a set of wooden blocks and wooden marble tracks pieces with marbles, Montessori-esque manipulative puzzles and activities, Primarily analogies, Chess basics
SPELLING-We use a freeware program called Ray's Spelling and Wordgames, which I program with words from her writing or from the Reading Teacher's Book of Lists (Fantastic Resource!! It is FULL of good stuff) and we play alot of scrabble and upwords for fun
HANDWRITING-without tears, cursive for Dodo, beginner printing for Goat
There is actually alot more but this is the stuff we use frequently.
-EH
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Early Enrichment, Eccentric Style
Why do people complain about twos? "Terrible Twos!" is one parenting lament I have never been able to comprehend. 16-18 months to three years is my very favorite age. Kids are so bright and absorbant and so many parents ignore it and it stagnates.
I watched it happen with my SIL's kids, watched the little lights go dim, watched them develop into vacant eyed-zombies. I love those kids, don't mistake me, they are good kids and their mothers meant well (we all do) but they were lacking that "nature to nurture" gene, the one that looks at a toddler and just knows he is only crying because he is frustrated trying to master a confusing world and gives him the tools to master it. The gene that causes uncontrollable impulses to teach your child things instead of watching 7 hours of daytime TV, or at least during the commercials.
If you're reading this blog, you're gene is probably turned on already.
Homeschoolers keep up that nurturing when the other ladies pass the buck onto a series of poorly paid strangers, I know that. But I have some ideas some of you might like to use with your little ones, things I have done with all three of my kids, starting young, and all three little spongy intellects have responded well to them. And just because we have the urge doesn't mean we know what to do with it.
Reading the hundred or so books and articles on the subject as I have helps but nobody trying to homeschool has that kind of luxury. I still read voraciously but most of the bulk of that stuff I read back when I was pregnant with the Dodo, and I had long, luxurious days of laying on the couch and eating bonbons (when I wasn't throwing them up that is.) Anyway, you can benefit from my reading.
Ladies, Do not forget your little toddler while you're homeschooling your older one!! It's hard, I know, but try. Never again in their lives will their minds be quite so receptive, look at how quick they grasp language! Nurture their minds now, stretch them ever so gently and in a few years when you are trying to teach them decimals or Latin conjugations they will have developed the neurons to absorb it more efficiently and it will all be easier for you! GROW a "gifted" child. Whatever that means.
TEN BRAIN BOOSTING THINGS THAT SHOULD BE IN EVERY HOME WITH A TODDLER
~BLOCKS- old fashioned wooden blocks, LEGOs, tinkertoys, bristleblocks...
~BOOKS-Board Books with clear illustrations of everyday things as well as classic children's literature.
~SENSORY EXPERIENCES-Don't have a sandbox? Try a rubbermaid under the bed bin filled with dry rice and measuring cups. Mud too dirty? Make "Clean Mud" in a dishpan or plastic bin shred a few rolls of toilet paper and use a cheese grater to shread a bar of Ivory Soap, add warm water and Voila! Clean mud. It feels and smells heavenly. Let them help wash dishes. Fingerpaint with a few drops of food coloring and cool whip on a cookie sheet, make paper prints to keep. The idea here is to FEEL and experience something besides primary colored plastic things. Play and experience with REAL things in a controlled environment. Playdough, clay...you get the idea. No they won't eat it if you show them what else they can do with it. Its nontoxic anyhow.
~SOMETHING WITH THE ALPHABET ON IT-so when you sing (you do sing it don't you?) you point to the letter. Why do we do this as two separate steps? It's silly. My kids learned the letters and the song together, not as "schoolwork" but as baby play.
~SHAPES-If you can point to a turtle and say turtle and your baby gets it, why not the letter X or an octagon? An octagon is not any more difficult or abstract than learning the names of Sesame Street Charactors, we think it is because we learned it later, too much later. It will be harder then. Show them the shapes of things just like you say "cup" or "dog" both of those things are generically abstract catagories anyhow, think of just how many bizarrely divergent things we call by those labels and not many kids have trouble identifying a mug or a glass or a sippy as a cup or a rottweiler, chijuajua, or Clifford the Anthropomorhic Red Giant as dogs despite that. Why? Two reasons, First because the human brain is MADE to make connections and identify patterns, its what humans DO, and second, because we take the time to tell them those words, many times in many contexts. There is no sane reason to avoid these things until kids are older. I don't advocate force-feeding it, but you do it naturally. "What's this? A cup. What's that? An X. What's that? A trapezoid." Its all the same mumbo-jumbo when you are two, but they learn to decode it!
CRAYONS ETC You homescool so you've got that stuff, just be sure it is available for the little ones as well. A lot is learned from this scribbling.
MUSIC-you've heard of the Mozart affect, but what about the Barney effect? Whatever you choose music enhances brain development. Singing, chanting, rhyming are all brain boosters for helping them make sense of language.
SOMETHING TO SORT collections of buttons, seashells, attribute blocks. Model how to do it and let them play, they will catch on faster than you think. Don't wait until Kinder! Have this stuff around for the little ones where they can see it, once in awhile take it out and play with it yourself and they will want to try it, guaranteed. My kids love this sort of activity at 2. A Jar of buttons, a tray and some ice cube trays and you are on your way to advanced math concepts.
MANIPULATIVES-try different bottles with caps, strings and something to lace (cheerios, beads, noodles) for very small ones let them lace bigger things on one of those big pipe cleaners. You can get macreme beads from an art store for WAY cheaper than educational stores sell wooden beads and they are the same thing, but with less glaring colors. Don't you get tired just looking at a room full of competing primary and pastel colors? So do your kids. Yes, they like color. Yes, they respond to it. No way should every last thing be those colors. Overkill, no? (Think ADD, have you SEEN some of those public school classrooms kids are supposed to learn in? It's overstimulation-city!) Twos should spend at least some of their time everyday "doing things" maybe just small chiunks of time at first, but real tasks. You can see when they are learning, their breathing changes, they get very focused. You want to encourage this, promote it, stretch it a few seconds longer when they start to lose interest. You are building neurons.
TIME WITH AN ADULT- a lot of time. A lot of talking. A lot of playing, not just with siblings but with you, the richest brain-boosting resource of all, YOU! Think about a lot of the educational toys on the market today. Most of them try to mimic a knowledgeable adult, endlessly patient, chirping "CAT" or "DOG" or "AUSTRALIA" with every push of a button. The toy developers know this. The best thing you can do to boost your child's brainpower is to spend time interacting with her. Really interacting.
Boy I'm overly didantic tonight, sorry for that.
-EH
I watched it happen with my SIL's kids, watched the little lights go dim, watched them develop into vacant eyed-zombies. I love those kids, don't mistake me, they are good kids and their mothers meant well (we all do) but they were lacking that "nature to nurture" gene, the one that looks at a toddler and just knows he is only crying because he is frustrated trying to master a confusing world and gives him the tools to master it. The gene that causes uncontrollable impulses to teach your child things instead of watching 7 hours of daytime TV, or at least during the commercials.
If you're reading this blog, you're gene is probably turned on already.
Homeschoolers keep up that nurturing when the other ladies pass the buck onto a series of poorly paid strangers, I know that. But I have some ideas some of you might like to use with your little ones, things I have done with all three of my kids, starting young, and all three little spongy intellects have responded well to them. And just because we have the urge doesn't mean we know what to do with it.
Reading the hundred or so books and articles on the subject as I have helps but nobody trying to homeschool has that kind of luxury. I still read voraciously but most of the bulk of that stuff I read back when I was pregnant with the Dodo, and I had long, luxurious days of laying on the couch and eating bonbons (when I wasn't throwing them up that is.) Anyway, you can benefit from my reading.
Ladies, Do not forget your little toddler while you're homeschooling your older one!! It's hard, I know, but try. Never again in their lives will their minds be quite so receptive, look at how quick they grasp language! Nurture their minds now, stretch them ever so gently and in a few years when you are trying to teach them decimals or Latin conjugations they will have developed the neurons to absorb it more efficiently and it will all be easier for you! GROW a "gifted" child. Whatever that means.
TEN BRAIN BOOSTING THINGS THAT SHOULD BE IN EVERY HOME WITH A TODDLER
~BLOCKS- old fashioned wooden blocks, LEGOs, tinkertoys, bristleblocks...
~BOOKS-Board Books with clear illustrations of everyday things as well as classic children's literature.
~SENSORY EXPERIENCES-Don't have a sandbox? Try a rubbermaid under the bed bin filled with dry rice and measuring cups. Mud too dirty? Make "Clean Mud" in a dishpan or plastic bin shred a few rolls of toilet paper and use a cheese grater to shread a bar of Ivory Soap, add warm water and Voila! Clean mud. It feels and smells heavenly. Let them help wash dishes. Fingerpaint with a few drops of food coloring and cool whip on a cookie sheet, make paper prints to keep. The idea here is to FEEL and experience something besides primary colored plastic things. Play and experience with REAL things in a controlled environment. Playdough, clay...you get the idea. No they won't eat it if you show them what else they can do with it. Its nontoxic anyhow.
~SOMETHING WITH THE ALPHABET ON IT-so when you sing (you do sing it don't you?) you point to the letter. Why do we do this as two separate steps? It's silly. My kids learned the letters and the song together, not as "schoolwork" but as baby play.
~SHAPES-If you can point to a turtle and say turtle and your baby gets it, why not the letter X or an octagon? An octagon is not any more difficult or abstract than learning the names of Sesame Street Charactors, we think it is because we learned it later, too much later. It will be harder then. Show them the shapes of things just like you say "cup" or "dog" both of those things are generically abstract catagories anyhow, think of just how many bizarrely divergent things we call by those labels and not many kids have trouble identifying a mug or a glass or a sippy as a cup or a rottweiler, chijuajua, or Clifford the Anthropomorhic Red Giant as dogs despite that. Why? Two reasons, First because the human brain is MADE to make connections and identify patterns, its what humans DO, and second, because we take the time to tell them those words, many times in many contexts. There is no sane reason to avoid these things until kids are older. I don't advocate force-feeding it, but you do it naturally. "What's this? A cup. What's that? An X. What's that? A trapezoid." Its all the same mumbo-jumbo when you are two, but they learn to decode it!
CRAYONS ETC You homescool so you've got that stuff, just be sure it is available for the little ones as well. A lot is learned from this scribbling.
MUSIC-you've heard of the Mozart affect, but what about the Barney effect? Whatever you choose music enhances brain development. Singing, chanting, rhyming are all brain boosters for helping them make sense of language.
SOMETHING TO SORT collections of buttons, seashells, attribute blocks. Model how to do it and let them play, they will catch on faster than you think. Don't wait until Kinder! Have this stuff around for the little ones where they can see it, once in awhile take it out and play with it yourself and they will want to try it, guaranteed. My kids love this sort of activity at 2. A Jar of buttons, a tray and some ice cube trays and you are on your way to advanced math concepts.
MANIPULATIVES-try different bottles with caps, strings and something to lace (cheerios, beads, noodles) for very small ones let them lace bigger things on one of those big pipe cleaners. You can get macreme beads from an art store for WAY cheaper than educational stores sell wooden beads and they are the same thing, but with less glaring colors. Don't you get tired just looking at a room full of competing primary and pastel colors? So do your kids. Yes, they like color. Yes, they respond to it. No way should every last thing be those colors. Overkill, no? (Think ADD, have you SEEN some of those public school classrooms kids are supposed to learn in? It's overstimulation-city!) Twos should spend at least some of their time everyday "doing things" maybe just small chiunks of time at first, but real tasks. You can see when they are learning, their breathing changes, they get very focused. You want to encourage this, promote it, stretch it a few seconds longer when they start to lose interest. You are building neurons.
TIME WITH AN ADULT- a lot of time. A lot of talking. A lot of playing, not just with siblings but with you, the richest brain-boosting resource of all, YOU! Think about a lot of the educational toys on the market today. Most of them try to mimic a knowledgeable adult, endlessly patient, chirping "CAT" or "DOG" or "AUSTRALIA" with every push of a button. The toy developers know this. The best thing you can do to boost your child's brainpower is to spend time interacting with her. Really interacting.
Boy I'm overly didantic tonight, sorry for that.
-EH
Saturday, July 30, 2005
A stolen idea, Eccentricized
I was on the WTM message boards and came across a short post about doing a Hogwarts Owl Post summer correspondence course, which looked like something Dodo would flip over, so I ripped off the idea and tried it out.
On Friday night a mysterious knocking sound was heard from outside her bedroom window, upon further investigation a scroll bearing the Hogwarts crest was revealed. She opened it and learned she had been chosen to participate in a Summer Owl Post Program for underage witches and wizards who were living in the muggle world. She was very excited. A list of courses was included, and she selected Muggle Potions 101, and the next morning another scroll arrived with her first assignment, "EFFERVESSENCE". She had to look up the word and write the definition in her journal and then make her first potion as outlined, copying her steps and supplies into her journal. (Butterbeer (soda)+ Salinius Muggalugus (muggle salt), say the magic word perfectly= "effervessence") She wrote almost a whole page outlining her results, and drew and labelled before and after diagrams. She was very careful, and the usual problems I have with sloppy handwriting and rushed spelling dissapeared because she was worried Professor McGonnagal (temporarily filling in until a new potions master is found) would fail her. (Should be Snape, you say? Ah but then you must not have read...)
Just an idea,
EH
On Friday night a mysterious knocking sound was heard from outside her bedroom window, upon further investigation a scroll bearing the Hogwarts crest was revealed. She opened it and learned she had been chosen to participate in a Summer Owl Post Program for underage witches and wizards who were living in the muggle world. She was very excited. A list of courses was included, and she selected Muggle Potions 101, and the next morning another scroll arrived with her first assignment, "EFFERVESSENCE". She had to look up the word and write the definition in her journal and then make her first potion as outlined, copying her steps and supplies into her journal. (Butterbeer (soda)+ Salinius Muggalugus (muggle salt), say the magic word perfectly= "effervessence") She wrote almost a whole page outlining her results, and drew and labelled before and after diagrams. She was very careful, and the usual problems I have with sloppy handwriting and rushed spelling dissapeared because she was worried Professor McGonnagal (temporarily filling in until a new potions master is found) would fail her. (Should be Snape, you say? Ah but then you must not have read...)
Just an idea,
EH
Friday, July 29, 2005
Typical Day-Summer
Ok, here is a typical summer-school day, we do library visits every Weds afternoon, swimming at the Y on Thurs and when it is not 110 degrees we go to the park on Friday. The traditional school year is a little more pre-planned but similar, except Scote has football on Saturday. Also, my husband is perpetually on one deployment or another (this year Iraq, next year Afghanistan) We don't see him much but when we do we usually stop everything but reading when he is home, which is only a few weeks to a month, thats why we do summer-school.
9:00 am Kids start waking up and usually check on their ongoing science observations and pets first thing. (Right now those consist of 2 newly metamorphed leopard frogs, a firebelly toad who may or may not eat them, newly hatched baby fish (fry) in the big tank with their parents, our rabbit, Rosey, and their seedlings (mostly different kinds of beans). I usually supervise this from the couch and if something exciting has happened I tell them to write it in their journals and make a diagram.) while I guzzle caffeine until someone screams that one of the frogs got eaten so I get up and find him behind the filter or under a rock.
9:15 I change Ugha's pull-up, do the potty talk, and bug other kids to dress. Dodo comes out in Scote's Quidditch Shirt and a tutu, Scote naked with a pair of spiderman undies on his head. They giggle insanely. Scote streaks through the house screaming "I'm Freeeeee." I tell Dodo to start reading and I manually rearrange Scote and tell him to get a book. Dodo reads about three to ten picture books a day out of choice (think Caldecott, not easy reader), day and evening, plus at least chapter or two from a chapter book ( Classics, my favorites from when I was a girl, and new favorites like Harry Potter or A Series of Unfortunate Events.)
I ask Ugha what she wants to do, she says, "No Ugha, Poffer Dutdoo." Professor Dutdoo is what she calls herself when she plays at the rice table ( a rubbermaid container with a hinged lid, like for sweaters under the bed, on a low table with dry rice and measuring stuff, spoons etc), and Saint Legume of the Beans help anyone who doesn't refer to her as Professor Dutdoo when she is there. (Shiver) I set her up over there and check the others. Ugha immediately starts mumbling to herself about teletubbies and cheese. Others are reading on the couch.
9:30 I make eggs, Scote gets up from reading and bugs to make toast. I give in.
9:45 We eat. Scote takes his eggs over to sit in front of the frog tank, Professor Dutdoo eats two bites and goes back to work. I eat in front of the computer, checking email or playing literati.
10:00 Dodo asks to take a test on her book online at Reading Adventure (its like accelerated reader, but free). The tests aren't always well written, and at least once she has gotten points off for the correct answer, but when she gets enough points she will get free 6 month subscription of Highlights Magazine, so we grin and bear it.
I sit and listen to Scote read from the Dick and Jane Treasury.
10:15 Scote and I play reading legos (see earlier post), Professor Dutdoo is still enthralled at the rice table, making a "burrbay cake". Dodo finsihes her test, and goes off to find another book.
10:30 I tell Scote to do "projects" (child directed learning: he picks from the stuff on our shelves, or plays tinkertoys or trains in his room) and Dodo and I do math. I do a short lesson about whatever it is we are learning ( we are using Mastering Mathematics program because it is a complete curriculum for math from 1st to 8th, and is set up very nicely for acceleration and compacting. After we finish (at this rate about two years) I plan to try her in Saxon one year just to be sure she's got it, before we start Algebra. ) and she does the work, we check it together. She is a natural at math, so she tends to enjoy it. I remember loathing learning the times tables but she couldn't wait! We are also going through Dandylion's Primarily Math (problem solving unit). Some days we do math games like multiplication checkers or use manipulatives.
11:00 Kids flip flop and I do a lesson with Scote, math is his favorite, but we don't do it everyday, I sometimes do handwriting, phonics or Kindergarten American citizenship during this time.) Ugha has become Ugha again, and I get her involved in something else if she doesn't pick something on her own. Today I give her a small box of clothespins and show her how to open and close them and stick them around the top of the box.
11:30 I make canned chicken soup with fishie crackers and cheddar cheese. Ugha wants Yumsters yogurt and a banana instead. I say, "Soup." She screeches, "No, Woop. Hay Woop!" I tell her she does not hate soup and threaten to put her in her baby cage (crib). She says, "Oh yeah, Woop! No hay woop." in a conversational voice, and toddles to the table.
Dodo does some Rosetta Stone Latin, Logic with the Zoombinis, or Writing Blaster on the computer. Scote plays with wooden blocks for a few minutes, then does handstands while howling, "Look, Mom! Watch Mom! Look at me!!" every second. He is extremely proud of this skill since it is one of few things he can do that Dodo can't. She is spastically uncoordinated and hates sports (like me, unfortunately)
12:00 Kids eat soup, I make myself a ham and swiss on french bread with ice cold pickles.
12:30 I say, "Go outside."
They say, "There are ants! And besides it's HOT!"
"We want to stay with you!!"
"Play a game with us! Teach us Chinese! Explain how the car engine works!"
"Hay ands! Poo-Poo Ands!"
I eye my own stack of library books, shiny dustjackets glinting in a shaft of sunlight. Drastic measures are needed.
"You can fill the baby pool and make mudpies."
"Horray!"
I get a peaceful hour curled up with Nietzsche.
1:30 Kids get hosed off, redressed and sent back to "school" Scote does TOPS Lentil Science (see previous post) and Dodo does cursive from Handwriting without Tears, which she loves. Ugha colors, accidentally rips a page from her Elmo coloring book and wants to "Goo it! Goo Elmo Buh!" I offer tape, she says, "No tay! Hay tay. Ugha goo!" So I let her have a tiny bottle of glue and she spends the next twenty minutes happily covering the entire book and part of the table with it.
1:50 Dodo does Lentils and Scote and Ugha let the rabbit out and chase him around. He loves the attention and shows off by kicking up his legs and playing hide and seek. Dodo abandons the lentils and joins the chase.
2:00 Bun back in cage, Dodo back to lentils. She is comparing volume measurements using inequalities, (<>). She finishes up, cleans up the lentil box and we do another lesson, either History (SOTW 1, kingfisher and Usborne, library books, standard TWTM), grammar from Rod and Staff 3(OK, but very Amishy), or maybe a science experiment or book and discussion. Little ones are supposed to be cleaning the blocks from earlier but instead have gotten out the marble track blocks too and are building marble tracks. I consider forcing them to clean but they are very absorbed so I let it go until later.
2:45 I catch the little ones playing dollhouse, I make them go back and clean the blocks and then I sit Scote in front of Between the Lions (PBS KIDS, reading show) and Ugha back in her cage for a nap. I ask Dodo what she wants to do and she says she wants to write a poem about Scote wearing underwear on his head. We talk about kinds of poetry and I pull out the Poetry book and explain different rhyming schemes, iambic pentameter etc. Her eyes glaze over. She is on the verge of saying nevermind. I back off and just I tell her she has to use nice handwriting and spelling. "Aww man." She says. "You can always do Writing Strands, " I say. She hates it right now, so I don't force it. She does alot of writing on her own for fun, plus some of her own narrations (the rest I type while she dictates). Her writing is very creative and elaborate but on she rushes through with very sloppy writing and careless spelling mistakes, but I don't want to turn her off to writing by pushing too hard. I still have hopes for the WS program, maybe next year, I really like it.
3:10 I try to sneak in another game of literati but Ugha escapes the cage and plops on my lap with a book. "Read me, Mama!" So I go through Usborne's first 1000 Words with her three times, me getting progressively more bored each time, her more interested, repeating whatever I say. I sigh and continue, wishing for kids with normal attention spans.
3:45 I peel Ugha off my lap with promises of bananas. She gets a change.
3:50 Kids eat fruit.
4:00 Scote and Dodo play chess, which erupts into a full scale war when Dodo wins. Goat can't bear to not be perfect at everything. I pry them apart and he becomes reduced to a blubbering mess so I put him in his room, explain that Dodo is almost 3 years older and most 4 year olds can't even play chess at all but he isn't buying it. I take out the Marvelous Mosaics Puzzle Game (by Learning Resources) and he perks up and sits on the floor to play. Dodo has pulled her books from her dollhouse bookshelf (at least 100 picture books and about 50 chapter books) and strewn them across the floor.
"What's happening in here?"
"I want to alphabetize them by title, so I can find them."
I explain about libraries doing it by author but she shrugs and says, "My way is better, sometimes you can't remember the author. Don't you know how hard it is to find a good book there? You have to pull out every one!"
"Ok," I say, "But no way can they can't stay on the floor like this."
"Yeah, Mom. I know that."
4:15 Ugha and Scote are playing marching band with Ugha's drum and Scote's recorder. They are not natural musicians, sorry to say. I chug a few Cokes in the hopes of staving off a migraine.
Dodo shrieks,"Go away! Get out of my room! Stupid books! Arrghhh! This is too hard, why are there so many? Stop buying me so many stupid books!"
"Ok, if you don't like them give them to Scote."
"Arrghhhhhhhhhhh!!! You know I do, Mom!"
4:20 Screeching sounds of frustration.
4:25 "Do you want help?"
"No!"
4:30 More screeching, this time accompanied by heavy breathing and bangs.
"It fell over, I had it almost done and then the stupid stack fell and now I have to START OVER!!! Arghhh.."
4:31 "You don't have to."
"Yes, I do!"
4:32 "You can just put them back and try again another time."
"No I can't. I can't, I can't!"
4:35 Sounds of crying. "Come have a cookie."
"No."
"Want help?"
"No!"
4:45 Dodo finally scraggles out, looking like she went through a war. "It's done." She collapses on the couch, panting. "Remind me never to do that again. Ever. Can I listen to The Wizard of Oz?"
5:00 I start dinner.
6:00 Dinner's finished, Kids can watch movies, but not regular TV unless I say.
7:00 We lay out the library books and vote with secret ballots under the covers. I read the winning books, tonight they picked a biography of Albert Einstein's childhood and Take Me Out Of the Bathtub (funny poems). I read them, then we talk about what's happening with Mrs Frisby, Dodo looks up some words from the night before and writes them down on a worksheet, and I read another chapter.
7-10:00 Scote watches movies, Dodo usually wants to read instead, except on Wednesday when she has new movies from the library). Ugha and Scote fall asleep, but Sonia keeps reading. She never needed much sleep, even as a baby. (Boy was that a pain!)
-EH
9:00 am Kids start waking up and usually check on their ongoing science observations and pets first thing. (Right now those consist of 2 newly metamorphed leopard frogs, a firebelly toad who may or may not eat them, newly hatched baby fish (fry) in the big tank with their parents, our rabbit, Rosey, and their seedlings (mostly different kinds of beans). I usually supervise this from the couch and if something exciting has happened I tell them to write it in their journals and make a diagram.) while I guzzle caffeine until someone screams that one of the frogs got eaten so I get up and find him behind the filter or under a rock.
9:15 I change Ugha's pull-up, do the potty talk, and bug other kids to dress. Dodo comes out in Scote's Quidditch Shirt and a tutu, Scote naked with a pair of spiderman undies on his head. They giggle insanely. Scote streaks through the house screaming "I'm Freeeeee." I tell Dodo to start reading and I manually rearrange Scote and tell him to get a book. Dodo reads about three to ten picture books a day out of choice (think Caldecott, not easy reader), day and evening, plus at least chapter or two from a chapter book ( Classics, my favorites from when I was a girl, and new favorites like Harry Potter or A Series of Unfortunate Events.)
I ask Ugha what she wants to do, she says, "No Ugha, Poffer Dutdoo." Professor Dutdoo is what she calls herself when she plays at the rice table ( a rubbermaid container with a hinged lid, like for sweaters under the bed, on a low table with dry rice and measuring stuff, spoons etc), and Saint Legume of the Beans help anyone who doesn't refer to her as Professor Dutdoo when she is there. (Shiver) I set her up over there and check the others. Ugha immediately starts mumbling to herself about teletubbies and cheese. Others are reading on the couch.
9:30 I make eggs, Scote gets up from reading and bugs to make toast. I give in.
9:45 We eat. Scote takes his eggs over to sit in front of the frog tank, Professor Dutdoo eats two bites and goes back to work. I eat in front of the computer, checking email or playing literati.
10:00 Dodo asks to take a test on her book online at Reading Adventure (its like accelerated reader, but free). The tests aren't always well written, and at least once she has gotten points off for the correct answer, but when she gets enough points she will get free 6 month subscription of Highlights Magazine, so we grin and bear it.
I sit and listen to Scote read from the Dick and Jane Treasury.
10:15 Scote and I play reading legos (see earlier post), Professor Dutdoo is still enthralled at the rice table, making a "burrbay cake". Dodo finsihes her test, and goes off to find another book.
10:30 I tell Scote to do "projects" (child directed learning: he picks from the stuff on our shelves, or plays tinkertoys or trains in his room) and Dodo and I do math. I do a short lesson about whatever it is we are learning ( we are using Mastering Mathematics program because it is a complete curriculum for math from 1st to 8th, and is set up very nicely for acceleration and compacting. After we finish (at this rate about two years) I plan to try her in Saxon one year just to be sure she's got it, before we start Algebra. ) and she does the work, we check it together. She is a natural at math, so she tends to enjoy it. I remember loathing learning the times tables but she couldn't wait! We are also going through Dandylion's Primarily Math (problem solving unit). Some days we do math games like multiplication checkers or use manipulatives.
11:00 Kids flip flop and I do a lesson with Scote, math is his favorite, but we don't do it everyday, I sometimes do handwriting, phonics or Kindergarten American citizenship during this time.) Ugha has become Ugha again, and I get her involved in something else if she doesn't pick something on her own. Today I give her a small box of clothespins and show her how to open and close them and stick them around the top of the box.
11:30 I make canned chicken soup with fishie crackers and cheddar cheese. Ugha wants Yumsters yogurt and a banana instead. I say, "Soup." She screeches, "No, Woop. Hay Woop!" I tell her she does not hate soup and threaten to put her in her baby cage (crib). She says, "Oh yeah, Woop! No hay woop." in a conversational voice, and toddles to the table.
Dodo does some Rosetta Stone Latin, Logic with the Zoombinis, or Writing Blaster on the computer. Scote plays with wooden blocks for a few minutes, then does handstands while howling, "Look, Mom! Watch Mom! Look at me!!" every second. He is extremely proud of this skill since it is one of few things he can do that Dodo can't. She is spastically uncoordinated and hates sports (like me, unfortunately)
12:00 Kids eat soup, I make myself a ham and swiss on french bread with ice cold pickles.
12:30 I say, "Go outside."
They say, "There are ants! And besides it's HOT!"
"We want to stay with you!!"
"Play a game with us! Teach us Chinese! Explain how the car engine works!"
"Hay ands! Poo-Poo Ands!"
I eye my own stack of library books, shiny dustjackets glinting in a shaft of sunlight. Drastic measures are needed.
"You can fill the baby pool and make mudpies."
"Horray!"
I get a peaceful hour curled up with Nietzsche.
1:30 Kids get hosed off, redressed and sent back to "school" Scote does TOPS Lentil Science (see previous post) and Dodo does cursive from Handwriting without Tears, which she loves. Ugha colors, accidentally rips a page from her Elmo coloring book and wants to "Goo it! Goo Elmo Buh!" I offer tape, she says, "No tay! Hay tay. Ugha goo!" So I let her have a tiny bottle of glue and she spends the next twenty minutes happily covering the entire book and part of the table with it.
1:50 Dodo does Lentils and Scote and Ugha let the rabbit out and chase him around. He loves the attention and shows off by kicking up his legs and playing hide and seek. Dodo abandons the lentils and joins the chase.
2:00 Bun back in cage, Dodo back to lentils. She is comparing volume measurements using inequalities, (<>). She finishes up, cleans up the lentil box and we do another lesson, either History (SOTW 1, kingfisher and Usborne, library books, standard TWTM), grammar from Rod and Staff 3(OK, but very Amishy), or maybe a science experiment or book and discussion. Little ones are supposed to be cleaning the blocks from earlier but instead have gotten out the marble track blocks too and are building marble tracks. I consider forcing them to clean but they are very absorbed so I let it go until later.
2:45 I catch the little ones playing dollhouse, I make them go back and clean the blocks and then I sit Scote in front of Between the Lions (PBS KIDS, reading show) and Ugha back in her cage for a nap. I ask Dodo what she wants to do and she says she wants to write a poem about Scote wearing underwear on his head. We talk about kinds of poetry and I pull out the Poetry book and explain different rhyming schemes, iambic pentameter etc. Her eyes glaze over. She is on the verge of saying nevermind. I back off and just I tell her she has to use nice handwriting and spelling. "Aww man." She says. "You can always do Writing Strands, " I say. She hates it right now, so I don't force it. She does alot of writing on her own for fun, plus some of her own narrations (the rest I type while she dictates). Her writing is very creative and elaborate but on she rushes through with very sloppy writing and careless spelling mistakes, but I don't want to turn her off to writing by pushing too hard. I still have hopes for the WS program, maybe next year, I really like it.
3:10 I try to sneak in another game of literati but Ugha escapes the cage and plops on my lap with a book. "Read me, Mama!" So I go through Usborne's first 1000 Words with her three times, me getting progressively more bored each time, her more interested, repeating whatever I say. I sigh and continue, wishing for kids with normal attention spans.
3:45 I peel Ugha off my lap with promises of bananas. She gets a change.
3:50 Kids eat fruit.
4:00 Scote and Dodo play chess, which erupts into a full scale war when Dodo wins. Goat can't bear to not be perfect at everything. I pry them apart and he becomes reduced to a blubbering mess so I put him in his room, explain that Dodo is almost 3 years older and most 4 year olds can't even play chess at all but he isn't buying it. I take out the Marvelous Mosaics Puzzle Game (by Learning Resources) and he perks up and sits on the floor to play. Dodo has pulled her books from her dollhouse bookshelf (at least 100 picture books and about 50 chapter books) and strewn them across the floor.
"What's happening in here?"
"I want to alphabetize them by title, so I can find them."
I explain about libraries doing it by author but she shrugs and says, "My way is better, sometimes you can't remember the author. Don't you know how hard it is to find a good book there? You have to pull out every one!"
"Ok," I say, "But no way can they can't stay on the floor like this."
"Yeah, Mom. I know that."
4:15 Ugha and Scote are playing marching band with Ugha's drum and Scote's recorder. They are not natural musicians, sorry to say. I chug a few Cokes in the hopes of staving off a migraine.
Dodo shrieks,"Go away! Get out of my room! Stupid books! Arrghhh! This is too hard, why are there so many? Stop buying me so many stupid books!"
"Ok, if you don't like them give them to Scote."
"Arrghhhhhhhhhhh!!! You know I do, Mom!"
4:20 Screeching sounds of frustration.
4:25 "Do you want help?"
"No!"
4:30 More screeching, this time accompanied by heavy breathing and bangs.
"It fell over, I had it almost done and then the stupid stack fell and now I have to START OVER!!! Arghhh.."
4:31 "You don't have to."
"Yes, I do!"
4:32 "You can just put them back and try again another time."
"No I can't. I can't, I can't!"
4:35 Sounds of crying. "Come have a cookie."
"No."
"Want help?"
"No!"
4:45 Dodo finally scraggles out, looking like she went through a war. "It's done." She collapses on the couch, panting. "Remind me never to do that again. Ever. Can I listen to The Wizard of Oz?"
5:00 I start dinner.
6:00 Dinner's finished, Kids can watch movies, but not regular TV unless I say.
7:00 We lay out the library books and vote with secret ballots under the covers. I read the winning books, tonight they picked a biography of Albert Einstein's childhood and Take Me Out Of the Bathtub (funny poems). I read them, then we talk about what's happening with Mrs Frisby, Dodo looks up some words from the night before and writes them down on a worksheet, and I read another chapter.
7-10:00 Scote watches movies, Dodo usually wants to read instead, except on Wednesday when she has new movies from the library). Ugha and Scote fall asleep, but Sonia keeps reading. She never needed much sleep, even as a baby. (Boy was that a pain!)
-EH
Lego reading games
Scote the goat is a new reader, he's great at learning sight words, but hasn't made that leap to sounding it out. He has been hovering in that foggy netherland between dick and jane and go dog go for almost a year now, so i wanted to give him a nudge without bogging down his little mind with structured lessons.
Well, I saw those reading rods things, which were calling to me seductively from several catalogues, but overpriced imho. So I decided to steal the idea, combine it with two things he loves, the Gawains word game from Between the Lions (PBS KIDS, check it out for new readers- it's excellent) and legos.
All I did was take the square legos from his box (the mid size ones, not tiny) and using a sharpie, cut paper, and packaging tape I wrote small phonetic chunks on each one, and taped it to one side of the lego so they connected together left to right. (Think- C---AT, DR---OP) Then I sat and played with him for about a half an hour (important strategy to develop interest, kids will automatically enjoy something more if you are involved, its hardwired into them, I suspect.)
Now he loves this game and plays everyday, and he is finally getting the idea of blending. He especially likes to make action words (pop, stop, rip, fix) and make them heros or villians who perform the action on the other words.
Can't beat the price!
-EC
Well, I saw those reading rods things, which were calling to me seductively from several catalogues, but overpriced imho. So I decided to steal the idea, combine it with two things he loves, the Gawains word game from Between the Lions (PBS KIDS, check it out for new readers- it's excellent) and legos.
All I did was take the square legos from his box (the mid size ones, not tiny) and using a sharpie, cut paper, and packaging tape I wrote small phonetic chunks on each one, and taped it to one side of the lego so they connected together left to right. (Think- C---AT, DR---OP) Then I sat and played with him for about a half an hour (important strategy to develop interest, kids will automatically enjoy something more if you are involved, its hardwired into them, I suspect.)
Now he loves this game and plays everyday, and he is finally getting the idea of blending. He especially likes to make action words (pop, stop, rip, fix) and make them heros or villians who perform the action on the other words.
Can't beat the price!
-EC
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Poo-Poo Bandits
A strange phenomenon is sweeping the Eccentic family.
My youngest Eccentric, Ughabugha, who is barely two but apparantly a natural entertainer, has taken to singing loudly whenever we are in public in her screechy, barely-coherent baby falsetto--
"I a poo-poo bandit, yea. Mama poo-poo bandit, yea. Dada poo-poo bandit, yea."
This is usually accompanied by elder Eccentric children cackling with glee and/or rolling on the floor like bugs high on RAID, blocking up cart traffic and causing me to get the old "can't you control your kids or pull your hair up with something other than a pencil" look, although the innocent little angels deny teaching her the song and insist that she "made it up all by herself".
I much prefer to move anonymously through the aisles of Walmart etc, fooling everyone into thinking that we are all dull-normal and sedately well-behaved, but I can't help but be amused, her screechy little baby voice is just so funny. Now I just need to figure out what a poo-poo bandit is.
~EH
My youngest Eccentric, Ughabugha, who is barely two but apparantly a natural entertainer, has taken to singing loudly whenever we are in public in her screechy, barely-coherent baby falsetto--
"I a poo-poo bandit, yea. Mama poo-poo bandit, yea. Dada poo-poo bandit, yea."
This is usually accompanied by elder Eccentric children cackling with glee and/or rolling on the floor like bugs high on RAID, blocking up cart traffic and causing me to get the old "can't you control your kids or pull your hair up with something other than a pencil" look, although the innocent little angels deny teaching her the song and insist that she "made it up all by herself".
I much prefer to move anonymously through the aisles of Walmart etc, fooling everyone into thinking that we are all dull-normal and sedately well-behaved, but I can't help but be amused, her screechy little baby voice is just so funny. Now I just need to figure out what a poo-poo bandit is.
~EH
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Loony for Lentils
I am a fiend for offbeat curriculum supplements, a avid collector of owl pellets, tinkertoys, archeology digs, and giant inflatable solar system models. We broke our own geodes. I have a three foot foam velocoraptor on top of my entertainment armoire. My kids color giant historical maps and I actually hang them up. My shower curtain has the water cycle printed on it (well, ok it's in the kid's bathroom, but my bathroom has the bean sprouts and venus flytraps.) As I type this a hideous (Don't tell Dodo) paper-mache bust of King Sargon of Mesopotamia is inches away, glaring malevolently at me. I actually like it.
I'm a freak. I'll admit it.
There are few things in life I enjoy more ( reading and occasionally my husband) than disovering new edutainment with my kids. Fruit bowl-algebra for six year olds made me positively giddy, and I can't even speak without gushing about Schoolhouse Rock or The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis. In my house learning is fun about 90 percent of the time, and the other ten percent is usually only un-fun because I didn't find quite the right resource, or presented it at the wrong time.
Now, I can hear you scoffing out there. Oh her kids are little, you think. Of course ABCs can be fun. Not to brag, but Dodo's levels range from late third to sixth so if I can do it so can you. "But, fun?!" You say. Multiplication, handwriting, Latin for crying out loud...interesting, perhaps, but fun??!!
Scoff not. Rosetta Stone is fun for any language and I am retaining way more than I did after two years of scrounging B's in high school, this program teaches you to think in the foriegn language which is amazing to me, and if my little DoDo can scare people at Walmart by speaking Latin ala The Sixth Sense so could yours. And Rosetta Stone is a high-school level program used by the peace-corps to train recruits! And it' s still fun! Expensive, but well worth it.
I could go on all day, but I did have a point...no, not the one on top of my head you mean, mean people...
Where was I? Ah, ok.
So anyway, caught up in my orgiastic frenzy of summer preparation I happened upon a review of TOPS lentil science. The review was not complimentary, but did that stop me? Did the fact that the reviewer did not even go through with the program because it was an absurdly complicated amount of preparation deter me?
Are you kidding? Lentil Science??!! Lentils? Science? Recyclables? True Scientific process, question based experiments heavy on concrete math concepts in a convienient box and jobcard format, using LENTILS of all things? Have you ever heard anything so divine?
I bought both books (primary and intermediate, grades K-6), with the kit.
I spent no less than ten hours doing prep. And by ten hours I mean TEN WORKING HOURS. Copying, folding, taping, labeling, scavenging, calibrating...on and on. Quite literally, my hands were sore from the scissors. I thought I would never finish, but I was determined to prove that reviewer wrong, so with tremendous courage and commitment (I am a former marine, advanced discipline training came in handy during this ordeal. Yes, I am saying this just to impress you. No, I'm not lying. What do you mean they don't let nerdy midgets...) by day two I was knee-deep in recyclables and photocopies, not to mention three pounds of lentils.
I wanted to cry, but I made it through. Somehow. Saint Legume, the patron saint of Lentils, must have come to my aid.
After all that buildup you expect me to say the kids hated it, right? Or that it didn't make sense, or was missing something. Murphy's law and all that. Sorry to dissapoint you, but sometimes you get lucky and hard work really does pay off. I am even more in love with the stupid lentils than ever! Ha!
If you can stomach the headache of prep, this is a very intelligent program for elementary-age . Strong, concrete math, scientific process, high interest. I mean, my kids were frothing at the mouth to get into that program after watching me tear my hair out for two days and not letting them near anything, and to a kid a box full of lentils is intrinsically interesting in itself, even without all the cool cups, magnets, funnels, screens, and other doohickies.
They have already done about seven of the job cards,(some are way easier than others) and my son, Scote the Goat, begged to use it today (Saturday) and was absorbed for about forty minutes. Forty minutes. Begged.
And when you really think about it, isn't that priceless? Some things really are worth working for.
Then again, I have to go vaccum lentils out of the carpet again instead of finishing the last chapter of Harry Potter 6. Stupid lentils.
-E.H.
I'm a freak. I'll admit it.
There are few things in life I enjoy more ( reading and occasionally my husband) than disovering new edutainment with my kids. Fruit bowl-algebra for six year olds made me positively giddy, and I can't even speak without gushing about Schoolhouse Rock or The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis. In my house learning is fun about 90 percent of the time, and the other ten percent is usually only un-fun because I didn't find quite the right resource, or presented it at the wrong time.
Now, I can hear you scoffing out there. Oh her kids are little, you think. Of course ABCs can be fun. Not to brag, but Dodo's levels range from late third to sixth so if I can do it so can you. "But, fun?!" You say. Multiplication, handwriting, Latin for crying out loud...interesting, perhaps, but fun??!!
Scoff not. Rosetta Stone is fun for any language and I am retaining way more than I did after two years of scrounging B's in high school, this program teaches you to think in the foriegn language which is amazing to me, and if my little DoDo can scare people at Walmart by speaking Latin ala The Sixth Sense so could yours. And Rosetta Stone is a high-school level program used by the peace-corps to train recruits! And it' s still fun! Expensive, but well worth it.
I could go on all day, but I did have a point...no, not the one on top of my head you mean, mean people...
Where was I? Ah, ok.
So anyway, caught up in my orgiastic frenzy of summer preparation I happened upon a review of TOPS lentil science. The review was not complimentary, but did that stop me? Did the fact that the reviewer did not even go through with the program because it was an absurdly complicated amount of preparation deter me?
Are you kidding? Lentil Science??!! Lentils? Science? Recyclables? True Scientific process, question based experiments heavy on concrete math concepts in a convienient box and jobcard format, using LENTILS of all things? Have you ever heard anything so divine?
I bought both books (primary and intermediate, grades K-6), with the kit.
I spent no less than ten hours doing prep. And by ten hours I mean TEN WORKING HOURS. Copying, folding, taping, labeling, scavenging, calibrating...on and on. Quite literally, my hands were sore from the scissors. I thought I would never finish, but I was determined to prove that reviewer wrong, so with tremendous courage and commitment (I am a former marine, advanced discipline training came in handy during this ordeal. Yes, I am saying this just to impress you. No, I'm not lying. What do you mean they don't let nerdy midgets...) by day two I was knee-deep in recyclables and photocopies, not to mention three pounds of lentils.
I wanted to cry, but I made it through. Somehow. Saint Legume, the patron saint of Lentils, must have come to my aid.
After all that buildup you expect me to say the kids hated it, right? Or that it didn't make sense, or was missing something. Murphy's law and all that. Sorry to dissapoint you, but sometimes you get lucky and hard work really does pay off. I am even more in love with the stupid lentils than ever! Ha!
If you can stomach the headache of prep, this is a very intelligent program for elementary-age . Strong, concrete math, scientific process, high interest. I mean, my kids were frothing at the mouth to get into that program after watching me tear my hair out for two days and not letting them near anything, and to a kid a box full of lentils is intrinsically interesting in itself, even without all the cool cups, magnets, funnels, screens, and other doohickies.
They have already done about seven of the job cards,(some are way easier than others) and my son, Scote the Goat, begged to use it today (Saturday) and was absorbed for about forty minutes. Forty minutes. Begged.
And when you really think about it, isn't that priceless? Some things really are worth working for.
Then again, I have to go vaccum lentils out of the carpet again instead of finishing the last chapter of Harry Potter 6. Stupid lentils.
-E.H.
Friday, July 22, 2005
yet another blog is born...
Welcome to the new home of my quasi-insane ramblings on the theory and practice of eclectic homeschooling, (the former home being cramped inside my skull with the rest of my personalities and clutter).
I have no idea if anyone will ever read this, but if you are out there, oh creatures brave and bored enough to spelunk into these uncharted depths, I welcome you!
If you are curious about homeschooling in general, looking for sane and rational advice from a sane and serious person, there are plenty of other resources available. I do not plan to spend my time repeating what everyone else has already said so well, and I lack the necessary attributes. But if you are interested in how it *really* works for my family and I-and despite the whole insanity thing it really works quite well-the curriculum and resources we love or hate using, the sucessful and not-so sucessful activities, the and fascinating and unexpected things we suck up into our vaccum cleaner...then you have come to the right place. Read on...
I have no idea if anyone will ever read this, but if you are out there, oh creatures brave and bored enough to spelunk into these uncharted depths, I welcome you!
If you are curious about homeschooling in general, looking for sane and rational advice from a sane and serious person, there are plenty of other resources available. I do not plan to spend my time repeating what everyone else has already said so well, and I lack the necessary attributes. But if you are interested in how it *really* works for my family and I-and despite the whole insanity thing it really works quite well-the curriculum and resources we love or hate using, the sucessful and not-so sucessful activities, the and fascinating and unexpected things we suck up into our vaccum cleaner...then you have come to the right place. Read on...
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