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
Saturday, July 30, 2005
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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