Homeschool Journal~WildIris

Moved Blog

2011-05-14T18:44:00.000-07:00

Hi~
I merged this blog with my homeschool review and resources blog. One topic all in one place is so much easier for me to keep going. Please join me at WildIris.

WildIris

Homeschool Week in Review 4/15/11~WildIris

2011-04-15T17:20:00.000-07:00

Read about homeschool topics...

Carnival Of Homeschooling @ home grown mommy

My contribution: The True Confessions of a Home School Mom
This is the time of year when most homeschool families re-evaluate homeschool plans.Underwhelmed vs Overwhelmed is a terrific post by The Homeschool Coach's Weblog
If you missed it, free books for kids. Link to Learn and Earn from Scholastic and Kumon.
Spiral vs Mastery Debate

Get your eleven year-old reading 50 books a year. 50 books recommended by The Independent

Happenings on the home front...

DD~7 Celebrated her 8th birthday last week when we celebrated our spring break. Yah! DD~8 had her day planned. We went ice skating with her one and only homeschool friend, went to the park, ate cake and blew out candles with her big brother and his girl friend, and best of all opened presents. Her big present was to get her ears pierced.

Learning to read has not come easy to DD~8--Too many distractions from techno gadgets--but she has learned to read in earnest since January. To encourage and celebrate this huge jump into reading, I made DD~8 a book bag to tote her library books. DD~8 has made good use of this little bag. I watched her yesterday at the library as she proudly put her books on the check-out counter and placed her library card on top of the stack of books, then put everything into her new little tote. When I looked through her book selection I was pleasantly surprised to find she did a great job choosing books to read that were right at her level.

DD~8 and I are currently reading together:

Homeschooling highlights ~ a week at a glance...

It has been a sleep-suit kind of week where everyone wants to get up late and snuggle under the blankets while doing school work. Dad,who works from home, put an end to these shenanigans. DD~13 is reading To Kill a Mockingbird, and now that we are at the end of the school year, she is going to drop the science textbook and read Science Matters, Achieving Scientific Literacy.

Our history reading places us at the end of the Civil War. Did you know that the Gettysburg Address is less than 500 words long? What an amazing piece of writing. The girls will be going to Washington D.C. at the beginning of June with their grandparents and may see this document as well as the Constitution at the Archives. The girls are most interested in visiting the Spy Museum.

DD~8 plunged into taking notes for science via Singapore Science. She drew a diagram showing the characteristics of living things. We also spent time on geography learning how to read road maps. This worktext was written before Google Maps.

The best thing that happened this week...

My new glasses came in. They are oh-so European looking and trendy, but the rest of me has some catching up to do.

Good news, bad new, and new in between...

Good news: DS~18 has finally decided to become serious about school. He took the ACT last weekend and realized where being laid-back about school has put him academically.

Bad news: Teenage girls and the hormonal roller coaster

In between news: DH drove off leaving his wallet and cell phone on top of the car. I found both a fair ways up the road unharmed.

Movie of the week...

We've been watching German movies recently, and this movie really speaks to the generation gap between the baby boomers and their progeny. Plus the title appeals to the idealistic person DH and I once were when he wore a T-shirt that said, "Eat the Rich," and I wore a patched jean jacked with a peace sign encircled by the words, "Anarchy Now!" On our car we had a large, ubiquitous decal of Che Guevara.

The Edukators

~A good weekend to all~

"If you don't like the news, go out and make your own"

~Scoop Nisker

Homeschool Week in Review 4/1/11

2011-04-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

Read about homeschooling topics...

Carnival Of Homeschooling - The Homeschool Journey Edition

@ Consent of The Governed

An interesting article...

From the NY Times "A Classical Education: Back to the Future" by Stanley Fish

Some helpful...

Homeschool Writing Tips - Animal Farm Study Helps with Links and Lesson Plans

Happenings on the home front...

An all day affair~A goat mysteriously died at the beginning of the week. Rather than eat her, since why she died remains a mystery, we buried her. Our one goat is lonely. We are searching for more goats, but goats are popular and expensive these days.

After three weeks of stormy weather and all of us suffering from a sever case of cabin fever, spring came quick with record breaking 83 degree heat for the last days of March. DD~7 and I spent time during the week planting seeds for summer flowers.

Homeschooling highlights ~ a week at a glance...

It was our week to meet with our independent study teacher, so I spent time at the beginning of the week crafting what we did the month before, collected work samples and crossed my fingers that we did enough to show progress forward. There are times when it seems we make no progress during a month. Then there are day like this past Thursday when the girls got up and started school by 9:30 in the morning. By noon both girls completed math, English, and reading. After lunch which was a scant one hour, we read history together and each girl did their science lesson for the day. I wish everyday were as accomplished.

The best thing that happened this week..

We have a rural broadband service which has far too many users for the amount of broadband available, so our Internet service took a vacation for a day. Not good for our online business, but great for the body and soul. Without the internet the girls and I sat down and listened to old-time radio Johnny Dollar, Insurance Investigator while each of us worked on an embroidery project that we should have finished two months ago if we (me) had not been distracted by surfing the internet for who knows what tid-bit of extraneous piece of information that couldn't wait to be found.

Good news, bad news, and news in between...

The good news~Spring is here. The bad news~Rain clouds are gathering on the horizon. The news in between~I am looking forward to Spring Break next week. usually I don't take a spring break since I feel we miss so many days of school during the year to unexpected interruptions, but this year I am taking the week off to replant my strawberries, sew, and celebrate DD~7's birthday.

Have a good weekend!

Homeschool Week in Review 3/25/11

2011-03-25T17:20:00.000-07:00

Pondering home school topics...

I came across this blog post written by a person who was homeschooled. I thought it was interesting since most of the homeschooling posts I read are written by moms or dads homeschooling their kids. It is an interesting peek at the other side of the homeschool equation. The College Test: Does Homeschooling Work?

I also posted this on TWTM board, but it got very little response, so I thought I'd re-post the link here. This is a syndicated editorial I came across in my local newspaper: "Teaching to the Text Message."

Happenings on the home front...

Rain, more rain, a third week of rain with more rain in the forecast. We can't find a rain gauge big enough for the amount of rain we can receive in a single storm or afternoon. Not quite on par with the Olympic Peninsula, our region is one of the wettest in Northern California. We are on track for than 90-100 inches of rain this year. In the twenty years I've live here we once had a year of 127 inches of rain, but the average rainfall this region is 50-60 inches.

Homeschooling highlights - a week at a glance...

We continued reading K12's The Human Odyssey vol.2, covering the consequences of the Industrial Revolution to London's poor, the timelessness of Karl Marx and Fredric Engels 's Communist Manifesto, and Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and the beginnings of evolutionary biology. The new Alex Rider book arrived in the mail and DD~13 disappeared for 12 hours to devour the book. DD~7 and I did several Brain Pop modules on tsunamis and earthquakes. I wasn't overly impressed with Brain Pop ,and as DD~7 and I worked through Singapore Science gr.3-4, I felt equally unimpressed. DD~7 and I did look at some cool bacteria and viruses microscope pictures on the internet, but the rest was just ho-hum.

The best thing that happened this week...

Doing well on her music exam lit a fire in DD~7, or maybe because her birthday is in a few weeks, but she is moving forward on all fronts and excelling. We played dominoes a few months ago and I dropped it because she didn't seem ready. Well, now she's ready. It is fun to watch her play. I can see her math skills kick in and hear the wheels of her thinking as she plays. She moved on the more advanced chapter books in her reading. She reads everything and spells out loud. These are jewel-like moments.

I tried to get a photo of the wheel spinning off and hitting the ceiling, but it was too fast for my little camera.

Good news, bad news, and news in between...

Bad news- Living with an unmotivated teen is giving me gray hair.
Good news- The Dear Loved One, the dog, and I went for walks between rain storms.
In between- Sometimes I feel so uninspired to make dinner. To take-out is over an hour away.

Home school photographer at large...

Movie of the week…

Intimate Strangers

An adult movie where nothing happens but lives change.

In French with subtitles.

Homeschool Week in Review 3/18/11

2011-03-18T17:18:00.000-07:00

Happenings on the home front...

The house is a wreck from too many days spent inside. The rain is still coming down. Bulletin: A rainbow has been sighted off the back deck. Joy! I guess all the rain isn’t so bad after all.

I watched the movie The Road (much too monotone and depressing) only to wake the next morning to photographs of people in Japan walking down a road buckled from the earthquake trailing carts of belongings behind them. The price at the gas pump has me thinking Road Warrior.

Movie of the week...
In July--This was a sweet romantic comedy about finding love. In German with English subtitles. Read the Amazon reviews.

Homeschooling highlights - a week at a glance...

Little girl:

DD~7 discovered that we did not kill the frog spawn. In fact, there are a few little tadpoles swimming around in our frog bowl. When we pulled the frog spawn from the mud puddle last week we wondered if we’d killed some of the spawn because the spawn did not look good, kind of scummy and shriveled looking but not smelling bad.

DD~7 is reading more and more book independently. This week she is reading Star Wars Jedi Quest Series. No girly books for this reader.

Big girl:

While not rising any earlier than 9:30 am, DD~13 took more initiative in her school work this week. She completed what she would call some “Boring assignments,” did some Brain Pop modules and quizzes to satisfy our charter school, and read through “Up Front” magazine, a magazine put out by NYT for students. We’ve been getting this magazine since the beginning of the school year, but she remained decidedly uninterested in reading the periodical until this week. She adores reading “The Week” if only for the absurdities reported in tabloid like fashion and of the dream homes found in the real estate section. For some reason I read the obituaries. My father called them the Irish Overnights. He read them daily in three different newspapers.

The best thing that happened this week...

Both girls passed their music exams last weekend with excellent remarks. DD~13 will play in the MTA branch honors recital this weekend. One of the evaluators wrote on DD~13’s report, “You will no doubt be able to accomplish most anything you choose to do in life--you prepare well.” Comments like this keep DD~13 moving forward with a desire to play music beyond just a something to put on a college application.

DD~7 received, “Good Work!” For DD~7 taking this test was a major accomplishment. This was her first big test. She felt confident and prepared, and she learned to read the test questions. A few months ago I worried if she would even be able to take the test independently because her reading skills seemed too low, but she did it.

Home school photographer at large...

Give a seven-year-old a camera on a rainy day.

Recommended Reading:
Hake Grammar and Writing - Review

My Home Business - The Eye Shop at Soul2Shade

Home School Week in Review 3/7-3/11/11

2011-03-11T08:02:00.000-08:00

Pondering home school topics...

If you have an 8th grade home school student like me, perhaps you are thinking about the next step into high school. The idea of high school, the SAT, and life after high school occupied my thoughts this week. Meanderings around the internet, I stumbled upon the posts of Joanne Calderwood at a site called Crosswalk. I'll put several links to this sight. Her writings about "Great Expectations: A Winning Combo for the Perfect SAT Score" were insightful, and her post "The Ownership Principle" are well worth reading. I encourage you to take the time to read these articles. I particularly took extra time to read slowly Calderwoods words on motivation and "The Ownership Principle." Bring more self-learning and mastery into this home school would be a welcome improvement.

Happenings on the home front...
Rain happened all week. Trees fell and the fire blazed all week. Everyone wanted to sit on the couch wrapped in a blanket and plod through their work on school. Some days the house felt too small for so many bodies.

Homeschooling - Highlights of a week at a glance...

The past week was mixed. DD~13 and DD~7 are in the final week of preparation for their yearly music exam on Sunday, so the beginning of our week was spent reviewing practice tests and polishing performance pieces.

DD~13
We discussed revolutions in France and Latin America at the end of the 18th century. We read about Romanticism and its revolt against neo-classicism and Enlightenment thinkers.
She continued reading and we continued discussing Animal Farm. She practiced piano.

DD~7

Wonder that she is, DD~7 convinced me to walk down to Hog Wallow ( Just big puddles the wild boar splash around in during the spring.) to collect frog spawn. Between showers of rain we tromped through the woods, so that now once again we have a jar of tadpoles waiting to become frogs. DD~7 finally caught onto reading. I am thrilled to put away the Calvert readers and let her read from our book shelves and the library.

The best thing that happened this week...
Son #2 is still leading the county as a pitcher for strike outs in high school baseball. Gosh, I can Google his name and find all kinds of baseball statistics on him. Strange.

Good news, bad news, and news in between...
The good news is that our eye wear and sunglasses business continues to grow in spite of Google's algorithm change, and Dear Loved One, being the bargain hunter that he is, found me a pair of Chanel ballet flats. The bad news is the ballet flat don't fit my fat feet. As a consolation, he bought me some new glasses since that is his business.

Home school photographer at large...

Girl astronaut- Our trip to NASA's AMES research center in San Jose.

Girl on the moon.

Happy Weekend to all!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-03-09T09:00:00.000-08:00

Via Augustmoon

Home School Week in Review 2/14/11~2/18/11

2011-02-19T10:36:00.000-08:00


Via Huffington Post

If you are not aware of the new sections on the Well Trained Mind (WTM) Forum Boards, I wanted to bring to your attention the new sub-forums on the Parents' Forum K-8 Curriculum Board K-8 Writing Workshop & High School Writing Workshop on the Parents' Forum High School and Self-Education Board. This is a place to post student writing to either get another pair of eyes on your student's writing and ask for comments or a place to share your student's writing with others. Reading through the student samples and reading the comments can be an education in itself.

What we did this week:

Between rainbows, hail storms, and sunny weather we did school.

DD~13 We read through the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment thinkers such as Locke and Montaigne in History. DD~13 also wrote a compare and contrast essay on two short stories, "To Build a Fire" and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty". She is also read just for fun The Long Walk. Our next novel is Animal Farm.

DD~13 is one chapter away from completing Chalk Dust Algebra I. It has been a long journey, and DD's love of math now comes second to reading and writing.

DD~7 Zipped through graphs in Calvert Math and began Story of The World vol.2. She also likes listening in when I read history to her big sister.

DD~7 also wrote her second two point paragraph for Shurley English Level 2. It is very formulaic, but I think the Shurley formula helps her organize her thoughts. After reading through an essay submitted by Kimber on the new K-8 Writing Workshop forum, I am seriously considering the addition of dictation to DD~7s routine. I've resisted adding dictation because it seemed like too much for her. I recently added narration to our history readings in vol.2 of SOTW. All of this writing, plus penmanship might do more harm than good for this DD. My weekend job: How to find a balance of just the right amount of writing for DD~7

Happy Weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-02-16T08:30:00.000-08:00

Henri Carter Bresson, NY

HomeSchool Week in Review 2/7/11~2/11/11

2011-02-10T18:46:00.000-08:00

Part I

Preparing for state standardized tests.
Some home school parents have issues with standardized tests and are wholly oppose to testing of this type. However, I do not take issue with standardized test. I view taking tests as a part of life, and knowing how to take a test can be as important as what is on the test. Last week at our monthly meeting with our Independent Study Teacher (IST), the teacher handed me a fat packet of test prep papers to get the girls ready for CA STAR test in April. I'd already looked at the release questions online and drew in a long steady breath. Oh no, did I miss something?

The 2nd grader must identify vowel patterns in words of similar sound and know how to recognize syllable patterns. Not that the 2nd grader doesn't know this, but she's not familiar with the new format. But I'm baffled. I have my 2nd grader doing Calvert Math 3rd grade, and it is right on target for the CA STAR 2nd grade math test. UUUMMMM......Should she have done Calvert Math 4th grade? This would not be a likely scenario. DD's love of math is not so strong. She rolls her eyes and complains why, "Why do I have to do math first?"

The 8th grader, an old hand at such tests, clearly needs more American History. The test spans world history from prehistory to the present with an emphasis on US history. Algebra is wonder. She mistakenly took the Algebra 1 test last year in 7th grade and did well enough to achieve a basic score when she was only half way through her Algebra text, but I'm not sure she will do that well again. There is some serious pruning going on inside her teen brain. I think Algebra was pruned to the quick--No signs of intelligent life.

I know these tests don't mean a thing for the kids. The idea of basic or advanced does not advance the kids in school in any way, but these tests mean everything for the charter school they attend. Without enough participation and quantitative growth in learning the school runs the risk of losing its charter. I read about home school parents lamenting their child's anxiety over taking tests in a controlled setting, so I think the experience of taking standardized tests will come in hand when they need to take the PSAT, LSAT or GRE.

Part II

History
K12's Human Odyssey vol.1-3 are my favorite history books, but the student pages are a bit overwhelming. Don't get me wrong, I like the student pages( Look on eBay for good deals on student and teacher pages), but the amount of work to complete them and read the text slowed our history plan down to less than a chapter a week. Now I'm reading vol.2, 1400-1914, aloud and selecting a minimum number of student pages for DD~13 to work through. DD~7 loves to listen.

This is probably not a perfect solution. DD~13 should be reading and learning study skills along the way; yet, I was faced with the dilemma of DD~13 reading to the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign by the end of the school year, or stepping in and taking up some of the slack. Reading history to the present would be ideal. We're reading four chapters a week and maintaining the continuity of the story within history. Excited by this, I bought the final 3rd volume of the history series which arrived in the mail today. When I opened the box and lifted the book out the pages fell open to the assassination of Anwar Sadat.


vol.2                                   vol.3

Other intriguing reading:

Lord of the Flies                    The Daydreamer
     DD~13 DD~7

What we did: Piano recital 1/30/11

Gurlitt~Allegro Non Troppo---DD~7

Chopin Waltz in C Sharp Minor---DD~13

Wordless Wednesday

2010-12-15T05:39:00.000-08:00


By Camilla Skogmo

From Recave Blog

Home School Week in Review 11/29-12/3/2010

2010-12-03T12:30:00.000-08:00

Interesting finds for the week:

Countdown to College Radio Show
This site has a wide range of audio shows to listen to. Your student doesn't need to be in high school for you to benefit from these audio files.

Some interesting responses on the WTM board about writing in the middle grades. Karen Anne's response (3rd from the top) shouldn't be missed.

I am still struggling with my "Should DD~13 go to high school" dilemma, and I found this must read article:

Stanford Magazine on Homeschooling (Dated article. Read the rest of the conversation on the WTM high school forum ). Gosh, if you read this article and you get to the section about where Butler was home schooled you have the perfect picture of where I live, only high school is 1.25 hrs. away.

Further down in the article Bob Reich, not a strong supporter of home schooling says,"One of the fundamental purposes of education should be to engage kids with ideas that are different from the ideas they encounter at home." What do you think?

Our Week

DD~13 over-shot her NaNoWriMo goal by several thousand words. I am amazed at her enthusiasm for writing. She has built an online community of like-minded girls who share a passion for reading and writing fantasy. They write fan-fiction and edit each others writing.

This past week we've used the character sketch exercises from LL8, A Christmas Carol, to shape some of her writing from the NaNoWriMo. The past few LL8 student workbook pages for the reading assignments require pages of writing, but not an essay, just writing such as describing a character or writing dialogue that describes another character.

It seems we muddled our way through gravity in Conceptual Science, concluding that the math is simple, but it is how the questions are worded that stymie DD~13's progress. Nonetheless,we moved ahead into heat. She told me, as she sat wrapped in a blanket with a cat on each side of her, that what makes one cold is the loss of heat, but that the kitties transferred their heat to her--applied science?

The highlight of DD~13's week

Last weekend DD's recital went well, but she does need more social interaction. We signed her up for social dancing lessons. This class is really about social dancing and etiquette and is a formal dress, white glove, and suit affair. Dress code is strict. Girls and boys sit when they come dressed inappropriately. To watch 400 kids move to music en-mass is an awesome sight.

We decided to do this last weekend only to realized we were six weeks late to sign up. The instructor let her into the class on Monday evening. With no time on our side, DD~13 and I drove to town on Tuesday afternoon, the day of the class, to shop for a dress. We scurried through department stores, dress shops, thrift stores, and discount stores looking for a dress. Who would have thought that finding a decent dress that went below the knee without too much cleavage on top for a petite young woman would be so darn difficult to find. Of course, there was the foundation wear, the nylons, and shoes to consider too. Thanks to my wonderful credit cards, we found a dress and arrived at the dance hall on time, a bit over dress, but DD~13 looked stunningly beautiful. There will be a social dance mid-Dec. DD~13 has never been to a dance before. What fun!

DD~7
We had our monthly meeting this week with our independent study teacher. As I gathered up DD~7's paperwork I realized how much she accomplished in three short months. It is huge. She is learning to read, and by learning to read she has greater autonomy.

We are working our way through George's Secret key to the Universe. I had to laugh when in the opening chapters the description of George's austere life at home with his parents sounded like my life before kids. Kids changed everything. Anyway, this is a neat book and reads well aloud.

We are also working our way through some Let's Read and Find Out Science.

Have a Happy Weekend!

French Suite #5, J.S.Bach

2010-11-23T22:57:00.000-08:00

Wordless Wednesday

2010-11-17T08:21:00.000-08:00

My Etsy Treasures

Home School Week in Review 11/08-11/12/2010

2010-11-13T10:01:00.000-08:00

We spent our short home school week catching up on all of our projects and assignments that got sidelined for the past few weeks.

Highlights from our week in no particular order

DD~13 is now past 10,000 words for her NaWrMo project. She scrapped her first story idea and rewrote it into a new more exciting story.

DD~7 is now able to read more directions and work independently. It use to take 30 min. sitting with DD~7 and reading the direction for her music theory or Adventures in Phonic, but now she can read and complete an assignment independently in half the time.

We watched another episode of America The Story of US. According to this version of American history, while they are a scrappy bunch of fighters, Americans are not known for playing by the rules when out number by employing guerrilla fighting tactics. DD~7 wanted to know it they always wore those wigs.

DD~13 checked out Lord of the Flies from the library.

I am thinking of having DD~13 watch The Last Lecture. This is the short version from the Oprah show, but indeed well worth watching because it hits the high points of his longer lecture given at Carnegie Mellon University.

What are you? A Tigger or an Eeyor?

There has to be a reason why Winnie the Pooh is suggested reading for in coming students to UC Berkeley.

Alfred Stieglitz

Wordless Wednesday

2010-11-09T23:31:00.000-08:00

Home School Week in Review 11/1-11/5/2010

2010-11-06T15:39:00.000-07:00

Friday: THE BEST PART OF OUR WEEK A Field trip to Safari West.

The girls took turns with the camera.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-11-02T10:41:00.000-07:00

MY HALLOWEENIES

Home School Week in Review 10/25-10/29/2010

2010-10-30T01:40:00.000-07:00

~S C H O O L~

School was just an ordinary week. The rains are here to stay, so a morning was spent doing firewood and cleaning the wood stove and chimney. We collected all the big rocks from last winter and put them back up on the stove. The girls take the heated rocks and kitties to bed to stay warm. Last week we got 10" of rain in one storm and it looks as though the World Series and Halloween might get rained out. OK, the Giants won!

DD~13 did not dig right into a new school week, we still had a good amount of catching up to in all subjects before adding new topics. She did manage to download a software program for MACs to use during the National Writing month challenge~ Scrivener. This is only good for a 30 day free trial. After that one must pay, but they do offer student discounts. I downloaded another free software ywriter, but it is not for MACs. DD~13 is genuinely thrilled to be doing this project.

She decided that she wants to compete in a Chopin competition in San Francisco next spring. She needs 20 mins. of Chopin and four memorized pieces. She has two pieces already.

We discussed Renaissance art. We talked about how illogical physics can be but so totally cool at the same time. We finished a chapter on energy and motion. Yawn, we did more Hake Grammar and Writing. I scaled it back to just the tests and vocabulary until she scores less than 100% on a quiz.

She is going to be the Mad Hatter for Halloween. Her little sister is going to be the White Rabbit. I'm still sewing.

DD~7 moves forward every week at a steady pace. Not a wunderkind-kid-genius type, but a normal easy going 2nd grader. At the library she started checking out chapter books. They are challenging, and she stumbles on many of the harder words. She'll get there.

In case you've ever wondered what other 8th graders might be doing, below is a first draft sample of writing from DD~13. The assignment was to find a news story with few details and write a story similar to Hawthorne 's short story "Wakefield."

"Jersey Shore star Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi signed a book deal to “write” a novel, A Shore Thing. Snooki has admitted to only reading two books in her life.

Snooki smiled as she signed the book deal. She was finally going to write a novel. She had heard so many things about famous authors and she was happy to become one of them. Snooki could see it now.... signing somebody’s copy of her book, being interviewed and asked what inspired her to write this book. “I wanted people to see what my life really was like,” she would say. She had to start writing immediately!

When Snooki got to her penthouse suite at the hotel she was staying at, she immediately sat down in a comfy chair and got out her laptop. Finding Microsoft word however took several minutes seeing as she rarely used it. Once she found it though, she opened up a document and placed her hands on the keys, waiting for inspiration to hit her. She waited, and waited, and waited, but she still had no idea where to start. Maybe she should start with what her childhood was like. That was in autobiographies, right? What did autobiographies have in them besides the story of the author’s life?" ...... (There is more but......)

H A P P Y H A L L O W E E N

Objective Grading

2010-10-30T01:34:00.000-07:00

Objective Grading and All That Jazz

I am going to make a generalization and say that objective grading is not how many home school families measure if learning takes place. After following a thread on the WTM board this past week, I wonder if home school families should emulate this kind of grading. Are we under-preparing our children if we do not include some type of objective grading in the homeschool environment? What do you think?

I went to UC Santa Cruz when narrative evaluations were given instead of grades. These evaluations gave me the feeling that my studies, my papers, my thoughts were considered and commented upon in greater depth than an A or a B in a class would reflect. At the time, this school was the smallest in the UC system, so the professors were not some tiny figure on a stage with a microphone. Instead professors lectured in person among a class of 25 or less. It seemed to me real learning took place. I guess I've carried that ideal of real learning without grades with me into homeschooling. UC Santa Cruz has long since returned to traditional grades. Translating evaluations into a GPA for graduate school applications is challenging and subjective.

One of the discussions I had with my daughter upon her return from LA to look at high schools was how students were graded. Her observation about the private school is very telling about the difference between public school, private school and home school. At the private school efforts were made to ensure students who struggled got the assistance they
needed with one-on-one help from the instructor. Very similar to home school. The focus is on learning. At public school there just did not seem to be the time to focus on learning so much as focusing on "doing school." I have not taught my kids to "do school."

What do you think? Do home school families need to include more objective grading? Does it matter later on in college or in life?

Some Interesting Thoughts on Writing, Blogging & Montaigne

2010-10-30T00:25:00.000-07:00

"To blog is therefore to let go of your writing in a way, to hold it at arm’s length, open it to scrutiny, allow it to float in the ether for a while, and to let others, as Montaigne did, pivot you toward relative truth. A blogger will notice this almost immediately upon starting. Some e-mailers, unsurprisingly, know more about a subject than the blogger does. They will send links, stories, and facts, challenging the blogger’s view of the world, sometimes outright refuting it, but more frequently adding context and nuance and complexity to an idea. The role of a blogger is not to defend against this but to embrace it. He is similar in this way to the host of a dinner party. He can provoke discussion or take a position, even passionately, but he also must create an atmosphere in which others want to participate."

"Honest art is selfishly conceived almost by necessity; you need to be on a bit of a head-trip to convince yourself that other people have any interest in what you're saying or painting or composing. People who can embrace that are, I suspect, ultimately better artists for it. And consumers who resent that are missing the point."

"It was an effort not to write just about what was going on in my head, but to be a small part of the larger human effort to pin down what's happening in all of our heads. That's what I (more or less) try to do on the blog, too. There's stuff that I would never write about, no matter how much it fascinates me, because, dude: Nobody cares."

Absent an audience, I wouldn't write.

Source: The Atlantic

While reading through this dialog about "Why I Blog" I came across this writer Emily L. Hauser. Her blog is worth reading.

A Not So Wordless Wednesday

2010-10-26T17:31:00.000-07:00

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”

- Albert Einstein

Home School Week in Review 10/18-10/22/2010

2010-10-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

A Week Without The Big Girl-Checking Out Public High School In LA

The Private School
Mid way through the week DD~13 called to tell me about her adventures in "real" school. Her first tour was of a non-denominational private school. She shadowed another 8th grader, so she did not attend the high school classes. "Lovely," she said. The classes were small at 15 students. She felt the one-on-one attention was great. If a student had trouble with a math concept the class would be interrupted briefly as the teacher or another student demonstrated the problem on the board. The students were friendly; the campus was clean. Unfortunately, it is probably the financial bridge too far for our family since this school is no longer offering scholarships to new students. At $2000 a month tuition, it is a bit steep for my pocketbook. DD did not find about the cut in scholarship funding until after her tour.

Dad's High School
OK, this high school is almost on the beach, so it must be good. Dad went there, he surfed his way through high school and could go to any UC of his choosing. This school could not be all that bad...This school was DD~13's least favorite. Block scheduling seemed like too much of one class. Even if you were excited and interested, 2hrs is too much to long to sit for a single class. The students also had an enormous sense of entitlement that DD~13 found off-putting.

The Competitive High School
This public high school was the winner. Not to be construe as a racist comment, so please do not take it as such, but this school is predominantly Asian. The level of academic achievement is high. The public school is rated in the top 100 high schools in the country. DD~13 like it because it offered music theory, Latin and the studio art. She understands the competitive nature of this school from years of piano competition against other Asian piano students. You must perform at a very high level. I think DD~13 could thrive in this type of environment since it is familiar.

End Thoughts
What I discovered through DD~13's descriptions was that she was right up to speed academically. What surprised me the most was DD~13's lack of trepidation going into an unknown situation. Her confidence reassured me that no matter what choice she makes it will be the right choice for her.

S C H O O L

DD~7 and I began our week with another art project from Art Ideas.

Keeping it simple, I gathered up some pre-cut heavy weight paper, regular white glue, some photo frame cards I bought years ago, tissue paper and scissors, India ink pens, and tempera paint.

Our Supplies

Taping our pre-cut paper


The sample project from the book-our guide

After gluing down torn or cut pieces of tissue paper and painting over them with a thin solution of glue and water, DD~7 became frustrated with the process. She then took random pieces of tissue paper and glued them down. When the glue dried, DD~7 took the India ink pen and drew butterflies and ladybugs over the tissue paper mosaic.


After the glue dried we slid the paper into the photo frames and sent a card off to DD~13

We read about the Romans in history, continued to work on alphabetizing in Shurley English, Studied spelling words and began working through the HOTS (higher level thinking skills) workbook in My Pals are Here.

F I E L D T R I P S

On Friday we went on a field trip to Tolay Lake Regional Park, Sonoma County, CA. This park not only had a pumpkin patch, but a barn full of snakes and scorpions to view. Yikes! One case had over 100 rattle snakes of all sizes. Also on view were a live Kestrel and a Big Horned Owl. Beautiful birds.We went on a hay ride. We made corn husk dolls and spun wool for their hair and felted wool for their clothes. We also made an Earth flag and a candle, pet the donkeys and horses, and looked at the would have been an Indian encampment with a tulle boat.

In Los Angeles DD~13 went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to their current show of Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915.

I wish I could have gone along. The show looks wonderful.

May next week be a good school week for all!

Having an Issue

2010-10-19T19:31:00.000-07:00

Via: EVERYTHING YOU LOVE TO HATE

Home School Week in Review 10/11-10/5/2010

2010-10-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

via: theSteward

O U R W E E K

We spent the week on the phone making plans for DD~13 to fly down to Los Angeles and visit high schools in the more affluent neighborhood where Grandma lives. No one is overly enthusiastic, but we are curious about what these schools may offer that we cannot make happen at home. We assume that with a larger tax base these public high schools will be better than our local high school and better than home school.

What to do for high school is a huge quandary
Our experience with the local public high school has been horrible, and I do not wish to repeat the experience with my third child. Two was bad enough. Why stop home schooling and send the kids to high school? Beyond academics, which I believe we could match public school or best it at home, there are some less tangible things like opportunities that are difficult to recreate at home when you live in a remote rural location. I am not sure if sending DD~13 to live with Grandma will be a high school solution, but I think it is one we need to investigate before we come to a conclusion about our quandary.

The dollhouse people I made to sell on Esty, but I haven't listed them yet.

S C H O O L

DD~13, 8th Grade
Hewitt History of US Book 1 test had an optional essay which I decided would not be optional. I am glad I required this essay. DD~13's response made it clear that while she can write well, she is reluctant to voice an opinion and supply reasons for her opinion. To paraphrase the prompt: Given what you know about Columbus after reading Book 1, should Columbus Day be celebrated? Why or why not? Looking further ahead in the Hewitt syllabus, there will be more essays of this type on future tests and more chances to work on this skill.

DD~13 continued to work her way though Adventures in Fantasy. She drew an elaborate map, but my camera does not photograph pencil well. Color is coming she says.

We read through some Latin translations together in Cambridge Latin. Some of the little vignettes are amusing causing DD~13 to erupt into peals of laughter. We read more about ad Fontem arguments (arguments against the source) in The Art of Argument. She even picked up Sophie's World for a moment and toyed with reading it instead of a Utopian novel, The Fifth Sacred Thing.

In world history we looked at works of art, specifically the Sistine Chapel and the School of Athens. We also continued our discussion about the printing press and the blooming of the arts during the Renaissance. This discussion had us wondering about other trends in history. We were curious, since the printing press and the internet have been compared because both revolutionized access to information and ideas, if we will see another renaissance in the arts 20-40 years from now similar to the Renaissance in the 14th-17th centuries.

DD~7, 2nd Grade

A R T P R O J E C T

C A T F R A M E

J.J. the Wonderful Cat

It is amazing what one can do with cardboard, glue and paint.

Our best school experience of the week was getting started on My Pals Are Here . I used this program with DD~13 when she was younger, but at that time there were no teacher's guides. Now Singapore has issued a Teacher's guide which is helpful, but expensive. I pulled from this guide a site on classification--Classifying Critters. In addition to the slim grade 3/4 text on Diversity, we also use the Activity Book, homework Book, and Higher Order Thinking book. I know, it sounds like over-kill on the workbooks, but each book explores the concepts differently. Best of all, DD~7 loves the books. After we finished learning about how information on classified items can be presented either in a chart or diagram, DD~7 took off to her bookshelf and reorganized and classify her books.

One of DD~7's numerous pets


The Lizard Mom Forgot

A Very Cool Critter Cage a Neighbor Gave Us.

Thanks for the comments

H A P P Y W E E K E N D !

How Are You Going to Do It?

2010-10-13T00:13:00.000-07:00

Hand Made at Etsy

2010-10-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

My neighbor and I opened an Etsy store Filo Dea. This is my one item up for sale. I am not sure about how well handmade goods sell on Etsy, but we're going to give it a try. Tell me what you think. Do you think the item is reasonably priced? My other unlisted items are doll house dolls and hanging fairy and Christmas ornaments.

Thanks for looking.

Home School Week in Review 10/4-10/8/2010

2010-10-08T00:27:00.000-07:00

OUR WEEK REVIEWED

We had our first meeting for the year with our Independent Study Teacher (IST) on Tuesday. Before our meeting, I fill out the paper work that states what we cover for the month in four core areas of learning: Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies and Science. Our teacher reviews our monthly progress and rewrites it a bit so it doesn't send up a red flag to state auditors. We turn in our attendance sheets with brief daily accountings of what we did that day in one of the four cores of learning. The best part of these meetings are the conversation. DD~13 tells our IST about her troubles or triumphs in math, shares her six page ballad she wrote on the Hobbit, or they just talk about books. As compared to other homeschool families on our IST's list, we are an easy, organized, independent group requiring little work. Some families make the claim to homeschool, but they dump the work on the IST to facilitate and organize an individual learning plan weekly for the student. Imagine doing that times twenty-two students. Yikes! Two is enough for me.

Dali

NEW BOOKS

Last week we received our final order of books for the year. DD~7 dug into Shurley English. She set goals, printed out a calendar to keep herself organized, and wrote in the journal we bought at the Waldorf store in town. I like the Waldorf lesson books. These are slim bound journals with bright covers. Some have lined pages interspersed with blank pages for drawing, and some of these lesson books are meant for Waldorf form drawing with interleaves for protecting the drawings. The pages are sturdy.

DD~7's biggest accomplishment, besides falling off the rope swing, was checking of five pieces of piano music she struggled with the week before. No way was she going to practice. She fussed, complained and stomped when the pieces eluded her. But come lesson day she was ready. She made a huge jump in reading skills this past month and that jump spread through everything. Her ability to sight read music blossomed.

DD~13 did not get many books in this order, but what we did get thrilled her.
I think Daisy mentioned this last year-

Since DD~13 wants to sign up for the Na No WriMo Young Writers Program, this book will help her put some ground work in before November. She is working on a map of where her adventure fantasy will take place.

OK today is officially Friday only it is early in the morning, so I guess I can post this.

ENJOY THE FALL WEEKEND

SOME DAYS I FEEL LIKE THIS

2010-10-05T19:47:00.000-07:00

(Source: Geof Kern)

Home School Week in Review 9/27-10/1/2010

2010-10-02T00:37:00.000-07:00

OUR WEEK

Summer waited until the first week of fall. Tomatoes finally turned red. Watermelons slipped from their vines, and Dad did a great dad thing. Dad put up a 50' rope swing for the girls, adding a welcome distraction to our week. The boys had THE ROPE SWING when they were little and now the girls get their rope swing to sail into sky on.

With the help of Minx, DD~13 is slowly gaining a firm hold on independent learning. We discussed her reading from A History of US covering the brutality of the conquistadors and her reading from K12's The Human Odyssey and the blooming of Renaissance art. Not quite in sync historically, but we do need to move forward.

I think I'd be lost without the pronunciation CD that comes with the Cambridge Latin course. DD~13, of course, understands how to pronounce the words with ease.

Essays for Lightning Literature are being written, and projects on momentum for science are in fact being done and not just shuffled to another undermine time in the future. Algebra 1 from Chalk Dust is now at the half way point, and for The Art of Argument, DD~13 is looking for examples of propaganda techniques used in the media. This last should be easy to find.

The major weekend project: Write a letter for a music scholarship. Due-Wednesday.

Art supplies arrived and DD~7 and I began our last two days of the week "Doing Art."

This book was very helpful.

Anyone can draw using the steps in this book--even me.

Doing art first was a great way to start our day. Then there were the many breaks to jump on the rope swing for "Just one more swing, please?!"

DD~7 finished Calvert Math 2 and now we will do several weeks of review before Calvert Math 3 adds any new concepts.

We read five chapters from

DD~7 could not understand how the Greeks could do their Olympic games in the buff or that women were not allowed to participate. This is a nice book that defines terms as it uses them so kids are not looking at you with a look of blank understanding as you read. It is as though the author anticipates the questions as they arise and answers them in turn.

Like her sister, our weekend project is to write a letter for a music scholarship.

I hope your week was as good as mine.

Cheers!

Some Days I Feel Like This

2010-09-29T21:14:00.000-07:00

Home School Week in Review 9/20-9/24/10

2010-09-24T17:28:00.000-07:00


Via EVERYTHING YOU LOVE TO HATE

It is French Press sort of afternoon, and I just had to share this amazing, odd photo. Someone, I am not sure who, obviously perfected these collage images in photoshop. (Warning! I would not follow up the Heaven 666.org. This sites has many pornographic images that may offend.)

Dear Loved One wants me to put together a photo blog to help our boost our sunglasses sales at ebay. (As though I really have the free time to do this little project!) Nonetheless, you can follow this photo blog at Ø Soul2Shade ™. My site is a clean site with re-blogged photos gleaned from the web. These are not snapshots but photographs as art.
Ah, so this is what we were supposed to do with degrees in American Studies and Studio Art.

OUR WEEK

I am still waiting for our science and vocabulary books to arrive from Rainbow via our charter school. Geez! It has been five weeks since the order was placed. I just received notice that the school hung on to those orders for a couple of weeks??? The goods should be here next week I've been informed.

Meanwhile we found our groove somewhere between waking up late, phone calls, and canning. The stack of papers as documentation that school is getting done is seriously getting thick. I am not pushing back too many lessons because we didn't get them done, and DD~13 is doing a good job of trying to manage her time with the assignment list from Homeschool Tracker and her student plan book.

We bought DD~13 a Mac for her birthday and the software to go with it. Not that we've gone completely paperless, but she does email me her work.We're still working the kinks out of the process.

Having her own computer has given her a social outlet of sorts. She likes the book forums she's found online line via the Eragon fan website. She feels like she is part of something. Facebook is another matter. I monitor her actions on that site closely.

I wish I could figure out how to include a sample from DD~13's weekly project she completed from Hewitt Homeschooling History of US Syllabus for Jr. High, but I've already spent too much time trying to figure out how to post it here. It is a newsletter on Columbus and the discovery of the new world.

DD~13 finished A Day of Pleasure. This was not her favorite read. The lesson for A Day of Pleasure focuses on culture and how a writer communicates culture through their writing, as well as the process of rewriting ones work. For this lesson DD~13 chose to write about culture in Fahrenheit 451. Hawthorne is next on the LL8 list, so she picked up The House of the Seven Gables. Our local library does not have a copy of the Scarlet Letter. Perhaps we will download a copy to her Kindle.

We also continued on in science, world history, math, Latin and the Art of Argument.

Teaching multiplication to DD~7 turned the chore of doing math, "Do I have to?" into a favorite subject. Not that I am hoarder, but I do have several large binders of papers I've collected from my years of home schooling. Among those papers was Michele's Math Multiplication Tips. I printed this out almost ten years ago and have used it with three kids. Rather than memorizing multiplication facts we focus on the repeated addition of factors. The beauty of this approach is the kids painlessly memorize their multiplication facts and know how to solve a multiplication problem if the fact escapes their memory.

We identified our caterpillar from last week. Our knowledgeable neighbor confirmed that the caterpillar will become a swallowtail butterfly and will most likely over-winter. We are watching, waiting for it to pupate.

To break up our week we took a field trip to the local ice skating rink.

A good weekend to all!

Home School Week in Review 9/13-9/17/10

2010-09-17T18:27:00.000-07:00

Raspberries and Rain


The view from where I sit.

In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.

Robert Heinlein

We had such productive week that I will be busy over the weekend correcting papers for several hours.

8th Grade


Girl Wonder

DD~13 started reading A Day of Pleasure, which is not her preferred genre, so when she answered the review questions she needed to skim back through the book to jog her memory.

More to her liking is Fahrenheit 451, which she is reading independently and discussing with me on our drives to town.

Our history studies bring us into the Renaissance. I am glad bought K12's student pages for their text, The Human Odyssey vol. 2. The student pages require a different kind of recall than writing the outline and summary we did last year for The Human Odyssey vol. 1. In time I will evaluate how much DD~13 gained from this approach. For right now though,DD~13 and I will enjoy the independence this approach gives her.

This week we started The Art of Argument. DD~13 immediately recognized the benefit of learning to argue well and without resorting to letting emotion drive her reasoning. I wonder why public school does not teach argument? It seems to me an excellent course for teens totake. Learning to argue well could lead to less conflict on campus.

2nd Grade

What DD~7 found on the dill plants in the garden.

Our week began with learning the basics of multiplication. DD~7 relaxed with the idea of multiplication once she learned it was nothing more than repeated addition and shared the commutative property of addition. She whizzed through two lessons a day . I expect division will slow her down the way subtraction slowed her down, but for now she enjoys the breeziness of math.


Greek Myths

We completed this family tree of the Greek Gods and Goddesses. DD~7 wanted to dress the women up as warriors with swards. We are a third of the way through reading D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, a book given to us when one of my sons was born. DD~7 giggles when she hears her brother's name in a different context. A funny thing, he has grown into his name so that his character reflects the myth.


Dog wonder: Protector of goats, chickens, cats and kids.

Good weekend to all! May next week be excellent!

If you sew and are looking for inspiration check out this blog~
Tea Rose Home

Home School Week in Review 9/6-9/10

2010-09-10T09:46:00.000-07:00


OMG

Day 1: All was swell until I accidentally hit delete when cleaning up my document files. Out went hours of work on the Homeschool Tracker. In fact, gone was my entire plan for the school year. Oh NO! I some how managed in my frustration to delete the file from the trash bin too. So here I sit, anxious with insomnia, at 3am rewriting, re-remembering what I'd been thinking and planning for the school year. My skill at using Homeschool Tracker has improved greatly.

DD~12

She spent most of the week reviewing where we left off at the end of last year.

We began our Lightning Literature selections with the poetry of Walt Whitman~"There Was a Child Went Forth" and ballads. DD much prefers rhyming poetry to free verse.

Cambridge Latin is a big hit so far.

And of course typing. Wow! She is already up to 40wpm.

DD~7

We've been craft for the last weeks of summer vacation, and

DD~7 is still working on her pot holder.

Math skills which lay dormant over the summer came back after a few days of focused work, and reading is still very much at the decoding stages but improving.

We are reading aloud On My Honor.

We've been talking a lot about when in a group of kids how to remember to do what is right even if it makes you unpopular. Silence is not golden.

DD~7 is working on a family tree of the Greek and Roman Gods and Goddesses

for Ch.23 in SOTW.

The creation of a bored 7-year-old

The creation of a mom wanting to remember

what it is like to have the time to be bored

Happy Weekend!

2010-08-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

Thinking Out Loud

With so much being said about Loop scheduling and following the long, long thread about breadth vs.depth question on the Well Trained Mind Forum, I am wondering how I define home school these days. After fifteen years home schooling or schooling at home, my definition of homeschooling has evolved and become something different than when I began my journey.

When my children were/are little I am very involved in their daily school activities be it reading, math, or science. Yet I find there is only so much of me to go around. I wonder at how much I should be involved with directing the daily activities of my 8th grader. Specifically, I am wondering how much time do I spend teaching or discussing a subject and how much schooling do place in the hands of my 8th grader, making her responsible for reading and completing projects where I have little involvement. My intuition says to move my daughter toward responsibility and independence, but where does teaching come into this equation. What is my role as a teacher/facilitator? What does that role look like?

I watched the two TED videos below of Sir Ken Robinson. I encourage you to watch these videos if you have the time. Not only is Mr. Robinson funny, but I found myself wondering if how I structured my home school days just recreated a school environment at home, and in creating this structured environment, have I slowly killed the creativity in what should otherwise be a highly creative environment?

Schools Kill Creativity (2006, 18min.)

Bring On the Learning Revolution (2010, 18min.)

(It is possible the above video links do not work. If so, please make the effort to Google the titles and listen to these two dynamic talks.)

I keep circling back to the idea that art, the act of creating something, is the ideal training ground for making mistakes, a place where mistakes don't matter because they lead you onto a world you did not imagine. Mistakes are how we learn. It is our Mindset ( The New Psychology of Success) that makes the difference. So as I type my plans for next year I will keep the space open in our lives to invite the creative into what ever we are doing and let go of the plan. To take the time to dance in the rain, draw, or watch a butterfly emerge, I know my plan will still be there waiting for us when we return from our adventure.

I would quote so much of this article that you should take the time to read it.
Ken Robinson on Learning and Creativity

Words from Woody Allen

2010-08-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

I found this quote while sifting through boxes of old papers.

"We are all face through out our lives with certain decisions--Moral Choices. Some are on a grand scale, most of these choices are on lesser points. But we define ourselves by the choice we have made. We are in fact the sum total of our choices.

Events unfold so unpredictably, so unfairly, human happiness does not seem to be included in the design of creation. It is only we, with out capacity to love that gives meaning to the indifferent universe, and yet most human beings seem to have the ability to keep trying and to even find joy from simple thins like...their family, their work and the hope that future generations might find more. "

from Woody Allen's
Crimes and Misdemeanors

Invictus

2010-08-09T00:24:00.000-07:00

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley (1849–1903)

Home School Week in Review 5/31-6/4

2010-06-05T09:34:00.000-07:00

A slow week of rain punctuated by days of sunny weather . No one, including myself feels much like doing school, but school we must until June 11th.

The tadpoles became frogs and are ready for release.

A tree frog ready for the world

What's out there?

Still a froglet

An unexpected visitor arrived on our concrete deck. DD~7 kept it in a cooler for a day before walking it down to the creek for release.

A Box Turtle

With only one week until the end of our school year, it feels like we're already on vacation. Everyone is sleeping-in and finishing up projects.

We are listening to Henty's Wulf the Saxon: A Story of the Norman Conquest. I doubt I could have convinced DD~12 to read this book on her own, but both the girls and I enjoy listening to the story. I am going to find some more of these through the library.

DD~7, ready to be done with school, has projects to make and horses to dream about. Our first project is a decoupage treasure box for all the teeth she is loosing.

DD~12 would rather sleep until mid-afternoon, but she has the most to complete this last week. I've been looking around at grammar programs to replace Hake Grammar and Writing. The Magic Lens looks interesting. After looking through the samples, she would be in the last level of the series.

In case you missed this conversation on the WTM board about online art resources, I encourage you to follow up on these links. I am looking at these projects as a way to keep DD~7 engaged and interested in art over the summer. maybe I get DD~12 up and motivated too.

Happy Weekend!
Iris

Homeschool Week in Review 5/24-5/28

2010-05-29T10:17:00.000-07:00

Our week began with a birthday. Dad get one year older, and for a brief few months he and I will be the same age. Strawberries were the birthday theme since our strawberry beds are in high production right now.

The next morning, going over Newton's law of acceleration, DD~12 said, "Mom! what's wrong with your eye?" I didn't know anything was a matter. I went to look at my eye in the bathroom mirror. The white of my left eye looked bloody beyond bloodshot on the side closest to the tear duct. After I calmed down, I looked it up what the condition could be and found in the process that a burst blood vessel in the eye is common and the causes could be something as benign as stress from being tired or sneezing too hard. It should heal in a week to ten days. It looks far worse than it feels.

Diogenes Lantern

The girls and I can taste the end of school. Pages to complete are few, so few we can count them and know the end is near.

DD~12:

We stopped Chalk Dust Algebra at the beginning of chapter 6 and switched over to The Art of Problem Solving, Introduction to Counting and Probability. The first few pages of counting and Probability are mind bending Venn diagram problems which challenge DD and I both. Today we spent 30-40 min. on one problem. I enjoy seeing her rise to the challenge trying to figure out a problem. I can see the wheels spinning in her head. She says this book reminds her of Singapore's Challenging Word Problems Primary Math Challenging Word Problems 6 U.S. Edition.
DD finished reading Treasure Island and we discussed the book and she is now working her way through the last Lightning Literature assignment for the year.
I received the vol.2 of K12's Human Odyssey. We are a few short chapters away from finishing vol.1. I think were are behind in history and I am wondering how to fit in American history and government next year.
The most important thing to happen to DD~12: DD won a scholarship to attend a pipe organ camp this summer in Los Angeles. Probably one of the younger students to attend, she will have an opportunity to play and perform for the organ director at USC. She will also perform at the church her grandparents attend, Grandpa is the pastor, in Los Angeles as well. The organ at this church is beautiful. It takes up the back wall of the sanctuary. Musicians from around the world come to play at this church because of the organ. DD is thrilled.

DD~7:

DD~7 has only two chapters to go in the Calvert Math grade 2. She is working on adding and subtracting three digit numbers, estimating, and rounding numbers. As much as she complains about school these days, she'd rather be outside, she does a remarkable job with her math.
DD's biggest accomplishment this year was learning to read. One day it felt like she would never get reading and this week it clicked. She can read. It is already opening new doors to her. She feels great about herself. I love it!
Not technically this week but lat week DD~7 played in a duet recital at her piano teacher's home. DD played three duets. Practice is not DD's favorite past time. When the duets were practiced with the partners the week before there was doubt all around if DD~7 would be able to get through the pieces. She worked hard, and on the night of the performance she played very well. She was a big fish in a little pond for the night, and she glowed in the attention given her to performance.

I created another blog ( I am not sure this was a good idea) to share reviews and resources that other home school parents might find useful. I want my Homeschool Journal blog to be separate from my new reviews and resources because my home school journal is a personal place where I can write about our weekly lives as a home schooling family.
If you are interested, this is my new blog in its beginning stages:
Homeschool Reviews and Resources .

As part of my ongoing writing projects, I also wrote about a "tradition" in Afghanistan called Bacha Bazi. ~Bacha Bazi: Child Trafficking and Exploitation in Afghanistan.

Happy weekend,
Iris

Home School Week in Review 5/10-5/15

2010-05-14T23:20:00.000-07:00

The Tunnel of Love

A beautiful week...
What a lovely week to do our school work outside in the warm spring weather.

DD~12 finished her Photos Story and displayed it at the school history fair. She did a great job! She finished the project even though she moaned and groaned about it the entire time. Curiously, hers was only one of two projects requiring a computer. The other projects were displayed on large, tri-fold cardboard displays. I tried to imagine DD's project pasted onto a cardboard display. In my mind, I thought it looked good with the numerous photos, maps and clear writing. However I am a critic. I look at what my kids produce with a critical eye, and for better or worse I compare them to their peers. It is one of the ways I can gauge if we are on track with school or piano. This sounds lame and others will admonish don't compare your child to others, but it is true I do compare, and I suspect other parents do this too.

With my critical eye I surveyed the room full of history and science projects presented by students in grades 1-12. When I came back to DD's project I realized it was the only one of its kind. Besides being presented on a computer, the subject was unusual. DD treated the topic with more depth and breadth than the other projects I viewed, even if the projects contained a similar amount of writing. The other projects were more cursory presentations. Either my expectations are out of line, most likely the case, or the average is lower than I realized. In eight years with this charter school, this is the second school activity we've elected to attend.

The newest additions to our growing number of pets. Two young female Boer goats.


Rosa our talkative goat

Tulip who is quiet and healing from a hurt hoof

DD~7 spent the better part of her week with the goats, jetting off after learning how to write numbers in the hundreds for her math, or after completing a page in her phonics workbook. Animals adore DD~7. By the end of the first day, the goats followed her and cried when she left their pen.

Our accomplishments for the week:
DD~12 is reading Treasure Island for Lightning Literature 8, we read about Vikings for history, and polynomials for math. She has requested a new grammar program, Hake is too repetitive, and she avoids doing the review sets.

DD~7 moved into reading and writing numbers to 1,000, and decided she likes history and could I read it every night for a bed-time story, and she is beginning to understand the idea of working hard to reach a goal. She glows when she knows she'd done a thing well and to the best of her ability.

Dear son 17 is off to the senior prom with his girl friend tomorrow night. Gosh! Young men look handsome in a tux.

HAPPY WEEKEND!

Home School Week in Review 5/2-5/7

2010-05-07T07:58:00.000-07:00

Reflections on Our Home School Year Part 1~Time

DD~12 and I made a startling discovery this past week about time, specifically about our lack of time and why we struggled so much trying to reach our school goals this year. We printed off a weekly schedule from Hold That Thought and blocked out all of our weekly obligations to outside activities (We only have two extracurricular activities-ballet & piano.). We then blocked out sleeping in on the weekend. We agreed it was reasonable to expect her to complete five to six hours of school a day. Those five to six hours include the total amount of time spent doing school work during any time of the day, plus at least 30 min. of physical activity outside and a one hour lunch break. Next we figured she should practice piano in two 1.5 hour blocks of time. (She wants to do this.)

6 hrs. of school=30hrs. a week
3 hrs. of piano=21 hrs. a week
Total=51 hrs.

Traveling to ballet twice a week takes 10.5 hrs.
Traveling to piano once a week takes 4hrs.
Total=14.5 hrs.

What We Discovered

When DD~12 blocked out on the weekly schedule her time to sleep-in, ballet and piano she discovered the time left in the week to practice piano and do school equaled 61 hrs. If you glance above we calculated those two activities to take a total of 51 hrs. a week. Yikes! This gave her a whopping 10 hrs. of free time. Just eating breakfast and dinner together as a family puts her over her 10 hour maximum of free time.

I wish we would have looked at our time a bit more seriously at the beginning of the school year. In an effort to make the schedule work, we knocked off an hour from school; unfortunately, this is not a solution. If we lived in town we would gain at best an extra 3 hrs. a week.

At issue here is free time to daydream, read, make things, play around on the computer, walk down to the creek, and be a kid. This little exercise in time gave me insight into why our school year did not come close to meeting my goals. DD~12 and I discussed solutions to our time problem. Either piano or ballet must be dropped. There is not enough time in DD's week to do both well. I am stepping as far back as I possibly can so she she can make this choice on her own. From my perspective, this is a first in a long line of personal decisions she will make in her lifetime.

On The School Front for the Week:
DD~12 is in the final stages of her Photo Story project on the rise and spread of ancient Islam. She motored along in math and is ready to start the next lesson in Lightening Literature 8, Treasure Island. She surprises me. She is looking forward to rereading this book. She began chapter 3 in her physical science text-mechanics.

DD~7 We worked on customary and metric measurement in math, and she read aloud to me from books she chose from the library. Her reading is getting better all the time. We are working on a lapbook about fish. We are also picking up the pace in history, but we're just now on chapter 20 of SOTW vol.1. I think this drags along because there is too much information for some young kids that the continuity of history is lost. I am finding that DD's retention is much better if we eliminate all of the activities, just do the maps, do an oral narration, and follow up using the separate test book.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

11th Annual National Women's Health Week Starts on Mother's Day May 9th-May 15th

Home School Week in Review 4/26-4/30

2010-04-30T21:33:00.000-07:00

What happened to the week? We had Monday to recover from the scholarship application, then back into gathering school work for our monthly meeting with our independent study teacher and off the CA STAR testing. DD~12's comment on the English portion, "It is getting easier. It isn't like CM (her yearly music exam). CM get harder each year." I wasn't sure what to say. Maybe she is smart, or maybe the test is being dumbed down. The proctor gave her the wrong math test, so we have still another day of testing. Dear Dad does not support the testing or the school. He grumbles about all the driving and time away from home.

DD~7 doesn't do STAR testing. She and I went to the big library downtown and worked on her reading while we waited for DD~12.

I've come across a few things to share:

Time Life's Lost Civilizations (4 DVD set)
DD~7 loved this find. We'd just finished reading about the Aegean civilizations and she was thrilled to know so much of what she saw on the DVD she watched.

Collage with Color: Create Unique, Expressive Collages
DD~7 and I found this book and had to get it. This book covers a large number of materials needed to create collages with clear photos on how to achieve different techniques. Most of the book covers techniques to create paper textures, the most I've seen in a single book, leaving the last quarter of the book to collage projects a person can create. This book is a gold mine of information. A reviewer on Amazon called it more of a paper decorating book than a collage book, which is a good description. I am looking forward to using this book during the summer.

The last thing I found that some of you might find useful is free fiction writing software. I wanted DD~12 to write some stories, and I know she feels comfortable writing on the computer, so I searched for some free software to help her along with a story project. I watched an amusing YouTube video on the various types of software available, both free and for sale, and yWriter 5 received a thumbs up. I also read a few more reviews giving it praise before I downloaded it from CNET. Check it out--yWriter 5

A list of Shakespeare Movies

After a piano recital this weekend, I hope next week will be more normal. At least the road will be clear. Wouldn't you know it, the grader came and it rained for two days straight. The car looks like a real off road vehicle now with mud sprayed up both sides. 10 miles of mud! We still have six weeks left and many projects to finish. I hope you all get sunny days to enjoy this weekend.

Home School Week in Review 4/19-4/23

2010-04-23T22:46:00.000-07:00

This week DD~12 and I made the final big push to submit her scholarship application to the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Young Scholars Program. If you are unfamiliar with this program I'll give you a brief description. The scholarship award for the Young Scholars Program is open only to 7th grade students to apply in the spring before entering 8th grade. This foundation offers numerous other scholarships to students in the arts, college students, and graduate students; however the Young Scholars Program scholarship is open only to middle school age students. This is a needs based scholarship focusing on helping low income students that show exceptional talent and academic achievement. The application itself is 32 pages long, and the process of filling out the application takes time. A teacher recommendation from a math or language arts teacher, and a personal recommendation are necessary. The foundation does accept an impartial recommendation from home school parent/teachers. Home school students must submit a detailed course of study which outlines a rigorous home study course. The student portion of the scholarship application requires six short essays on various prompts concerning academic goals and achievements, and one 500 word typed essay selected by the student focusing on one of three given prompts. I think these prompts change from year to year as do the prompts for the shorter essays. There is also a financial statement by the parents/guardian and the submission of recent tax forms. This is a very competitive scholarship with over 1,000 applications for 50-75 recipients slots.

Even if we do not receive the award, it is very clear from DD~12's answers that playing the piano, above all other abilities she may possess, will be her main focus in life for a while.

The rest of our week:
DD~12 continued with the first chapter of Lightning Literature 8. We discussed several short stories and most important, we discussed a writers purpose when writing fiction or non fiction. DD~12 responses were more mature than I'd expected.

DD~12 continued working on her Photo Story, but she has no passion for the project. She'd rather read, outline and summarize the text than do something more creative. I suspect this project is moving her out of her comfort zone of her formula to succeed; therefore, I going to be the cheerleader and encourage her to stretch her imagination.

Conceptual Physical Science continues to be a hit.

DD~7 worked on a butterfly lap book. I guess we're going for things that go through metamorphosis--What next? She also read aloud, worked on math, maps and history. She counts the days on the calendar until the weekend. She wants to be outside in the sun playing.

Chadwick garden UCSC

Both the girls and I planted seeds in the greenhouse and out in the garden. DD~7 was amazed that the sweet pea flower seeds she save from her flowers last year sprouted. She though a person always bought from the seed catalog. I was such the enthusiastic gardener that I wrote a small article about gardening with links~Vegetable Gardening Tips for Beginning Gardeners Having a greenhouse made a big difference in germination rates. But these rates can be deceptive. DD~7 and I planted some snow pea seeds that must have been 10 years old. These old seeds germinated in the cold soil outside. Unfortunately, the sow bugs and earwigs discovered DD~7's carrots.

Happy Weekend to All!

Iris

Basher Science Books

2010-04-10T16:35:00.000-07:00

Follow this link to a mini review of Basher Science Books. I'd never heard of them before, but they look interesting.

Home School Week in Review 4/5-4/9 Spring Break

2010-04-09T21:29:00.000-07:00

The Triple Chocolate Birthday Cake for DD~who celebrated her 7th birthday this past week. This is an awesome cake worth the subscription to Cook's Illustrated Magazine. Months ago I picked up this magazine just for the cake recipe on the cover. DD saw the cake and said that was the cake for her. The cake is a flourless chocolate cake for the bottom layer, chocolate mousse for the middle, a white chocolate mousse for the top layer, and dark chocolate curls as decoration. Yummy, Yummy, good!! There were no dissatisfied cake eaters this birthday.

The recipe comes from The best of America's Test Kitchen, Best Recipes and Review 2010.

We are also the proud owners of a 55 gallon fish aquarium we got for DD's birthday. Wow! It's big. So far we have a little school of 9 starter fish. The tadpoles and Sea Monkeys live right next to the fish. The fresh water aquarium plants look so much better than plastic plants, but one step at a time.

Just when I thought I could not possibly take care of another animal Dear Loved One announced that we must get Billy-goats to eat the brush around the house. We do have a cleared perimeter around our house, but he was walking in the forest the other day and was alarmed at the debris in the forest. Sudden Oak Death, which effects tan oak trees, has made our area a climax community ripe for a raging forest fire. The last time our area burned (30 years ago), that fire was the biggest fire on California record.

In town today I bought 7 Habits of Effective Teens. I didn't get the workbook. Paging through the book I like the style. It spoke directly to the reader in language an adolescent could relate to. DD~12 read parts of it on the car ride home. I am not sure what I am expecting here, but something needs to change.

We are back into the thick of it next week. Have a great weekend!

Mental multivitamin: "I read novels in order to indulge in a concentrated and directed sort of inner activity that is not available in most of my daily transactions."

2010-03-30T14:25:00.000-07:00

If you've not read the musing of Mental multivitamin, you should!

Home School Week in Review 3/22-3/26

2010-03-26T12:37:00.000-07:00

OUR WEEK IN REVIEW

Inspired by Daisy's amazing kids and her outrageously awesome posts, DD~6 and I made a lapbook/pocket on the life cycle of frogs. Coloring, cutting and pasting were a welcome addition to DD~6's routine. We are also working on a book for history on Ancient Egypt.

DD~ 6 also watched Amphibians

After killing a whole bowl of tadpoles by feeding them spirulina blue-green algae, which can be sourced from both salt and fresh water, I figured we'd should do some reading about frogs.

I collected the books below at our local library, and this is what we discovered about tadpole eating habits: At the young stage our tadpoles are at (less than four weeks) they need fresh water algae. So we're off to the creek to collect algae. When they get older and grow legs they can eat insects and worms.

DD~12
OMG I've spent hours and days trying to get this girls to be motivated. This tween/teen thing is driving me nuts! I know, this too shall pass, but when???? She is forbidden to go to her room during school hours. OK, I'm done whining.

We moved sloooowwwwly through writing a paper on Shakespeare and music. We moved slooooowwwwwly through the planning process for her Photo Story for history. She chose as a topic the rise and spread of Islam. If you do not know about this resource, you should check it out. The Joy of Discovery, How to Teach with Unit Studies. There is also a FAQ page. I've had this binder collecting dust on my bookshelf since September, but now it has come in handy particularly for outlining and directing the Photo Story project. What I most appreciate are the time management tools to help keep the project on track. We have a plan and a calendar to guide us. I hope it works!

Overall I'd say we had a good week. Not everything got done, not even close, but we're moving forward.

Happy Weekend!

Wordless Wednesday & Camera Play

2010-03-24T08:33:00.000-07:00

Home School Week in Review 3/15-3/19

2010-03-19T21:47:00.001-07:00

Snake Season is upon us! The weather is warm, and it seems a bit early to start worrying about rattlesnakes, but I saw one making its way across the road today when I was on my way to town. This is a picture of a California Timber Rattlesnake.

New to our routine:

Conceptual Physical Science: Explorations

Both DD~12 and are glad we found this text. Carbon Chemistry was an improvement over The Elements, but neither of the binders seemed to provide enough material to make it a single source for a 7^th or 8^th grade science course. I’ve been looking a long time for a secular science text that would be engaging. This text is what we've been looking for. It will challenge DD~12 to read a traditional text, and she will have the opportunity to apply some of her math skills. A great find for me, I got the teacher’s guide to Conceptual Physical Science: Explorations. The teacher’s guide sets out the following:

· Learning objectives

· Possible misconceptions to correct

· Suggested presentation and demonstration notes

· Answers and solutions to chapter questions, exercises, and problems.

The girls and I watched Super Size Me. I do not think the girls will ever eat fast food. The saddest part of the documentary was the segment where three women stood before the camera and could not recite the pledge of allegiance, but these women could recite the song to the McDonalds commercial. No one interviewed on the street could define the word calorie. This documentary was not just a lesson on the effects of eating at McDonalds for every meal, but it was also a lesson on the effects of propaganda and how it directs the choices we make. Getting kids young and reeling them in, McDonalds sabotaged the eating habits of generations. This documentary is rated PG-13, but it may offend some. There were several parts I wish I had ear plugs for DD~6.

DD~6 started Critical Thinking Activities, Imagery Logic, a fun book for finding visual pattern. DD~6 completed another reader, started a section of math about money, we started using the test papers for Story of the World, and she passed her Certificate of Merit music exam with an A+.

The tadpoles are still alive. DD~6 and her Dad went down to the muddle puddle, really a place where wild boar wallow in the mud, and caught some more tadpoles. On my kitchen table I have two globes of tadpoles, a small plastic square of sea monkeys, and bees in a jar for observation that DD catches daily at the rosemary bush.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-03-17T08:10:00.000-07:00

Homes School Week in Review 3/8/10-3/11/10

2010-03-12T21:29:00.000-08:00

Out of the gray and into the green.

                               Nectarine blooming just before the rains. Fruit?


                                    Highlights from our week:

DD~6 and I caught tadpoles from two different locations this week. We were lucky enough to find tadpoles still forming in their eggs. DD~6 wanted to find tadpoles in various stages of metamorphosis, so we have some tadpoles still in their eggs, and some with legs just beginning to form and others somewhere in between.
What do we feed these tadpoles???

Summer bliss~ Cut flowers for every room.

Several weeks ago the girls and I bought flower bulbs. When the rains stopped for a day and the sun shone we needed to get outside, so the girls planted 36 gladiolus, 6 fragrant lily bulbs and a rose DD~12 got as a birthday present.

School

DD~6 struggled with the idea of telling time.

She still lives in a world where time is not relative.

I used It's About Time with DD's brothers and sister and they understood time,

so I figure it will work for her too.

I also started reading to DD~6 another book I bought for DD~12 called

Go Figure: A Totally Cool Book About Numbers.

Piano

DD~12 went to a masters piano class for the piano performance class at the local junior college for 2.5 hours today.

She did not play but listened to the comments by a concert pianist. I came in on the last performance. Wow!

A young woman from the performance class played a piece by Chopin well, but when the concert pianist played the same piece it sound as if they were playing two completely different pieces.

What I most appreciated about the little amount of critique I heard was the emphasis on creating art, the story the player creates and tells with the music,

how the pianist relates to the piano, at times caressing a sound so soft and lovely that a magic bond is created with the audience.

DD~12 received honors again on her music evaluation.

She will play Chopin at the JC this weekend

Baseball Boy

Boy Wonder finally got to play baseball between the rains. He pitched awesome! A one run ERA. Best in the county so far.

Week 23

2010-03-05T10:52:00.000-08:00

Newsworthy Events:
A scathing editorial on the state of California public schools. California missed out on Race to the Top federal reform grant money it sorely needed.

If you missed this on the WTM boards, a link to a recent NYT article on teaching, Building a Better Teacher. In my most humble opinion, I think home school teachers might gain some insight into teaching well by reading this article and looking for Lemov's up coming book Teach Like a Champion.

Below this blog entry you will find my review of Thinking in Threes.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Our Week~
We had a Rainbow week =not much school and a lot of play.
The recital last Sunday went well for both girls.
We worked on music theory on Monday.

DD~12 took the written portion of the CA STAR exam on Tuesday. What a lucky draw for her, the prompt was to write a summary, a type of writing she practiced all fall for history. Now comes the hard work of learning to write a response to literature and a persuasive essay.

We went to the library and piano lessons on Wednesday. I read in the local newspaper that our area is now up to 60" of rain. Last year we had much less rain with a yearly total of 34". The ground is saturated and waterfalls are everywhere.

On Thursday, a sunny day, we went down to the creek, made snicker-doodles and continued our nightly ritual of playing Sorry.

Country Cat Goes For Walk

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Several weeks past I wrote about a project using Microsoft Movie Maker. Our charter school is sponsoring a history fair, and I thought it would be a good opportunity for DD~12 to try out something new for history. Since September DD~12 has outlined every chapter of K12's History Odyssey. When I proposed a project to her she of course said she would rather do the outline since it seemed to her the easier thing to do. Me, being the enthusiastic parent/teacher, said she would do the project. Movie Maker intimidates me, so I searched for an easier technology to use. I stumble on Microsoft's Photo Story 3 for windows. This is a free download from Microsoft. I had a little trouble with the download since my operating system in Windows 7, but I figured it out and gave it a test drive with some photos I had. This has audio too. Unfortunately, the updated blogger editor does not support video, so this video box doesn't show up well on this blogger background. Just press the arrow and it works.

Once I figured out the installation, making this short Photo Story took less than five minutes to get up and running. As you can hear, I am having some difficulty stopping the recording, but DD~6 loved the process. I hope some of you will find this a useful addition to your home school routine.

A pleasant weekend to all!

Week 22

2010-02-25T21:12:00.000-08:00

DD~12 practicing

Our week began with DD~12 and I going to see the most extraordinary piano recital of Valentina Lisitsa. If you click on the name the link will take you to a YouTube video of Lisitsa playing Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata part 1. We did not have the pleasure of seeing her play this piece, but she did play Beethoven's Appassionata which was exciting to watch and hear. If you watch the video above you can see how expressive Lisitsa's hands and body are when she plays. I've not had the opportunity to see a person of this caliber play piano. I think I enjoyed it more than DD~12. WOW!

On Monday Great Grandma died, so the rest of our week was somber. We did school, went to the library, and practiced piano in preparation for a contemporary piano recital this weekend. DD~12 is playing Bela Bartok's Bagpipes Sonatina (The first piece is Bagpipes, but it isn't DD~12 playing.) DD~6 will also get up on stage to play the big concert grand in the local junior college auditorium. I am amazed the kids do no get stage fright. On the other hand, I experience leaping heart and fidgeting fingers when they walk down the steps, bow and begin to play.

Enjoy the weekend!

We Will Miss You

2010-02-24T08:58:00.000-08:00

Nettie B.
9/1/1913~2/21/2010

Week 21

2010-02-19T22:12:00.000-08:00

                                             DD~6 Made this on her own while waiting
                                             for me to finish working with her
                                             sister.

It was one of those feel -good parent weeks where chaos filled our days while at the same time the kids managed to succeed and do well in their endeavors.

DD~12
Writing:
We've spent the past two weeks writing timed essays every other day (5 essays) in preparation for the CA state STAR test. I have mixed opinions about standardized tests, but preparing for these tests always surprise me, and I was surprised again. DD~12 wrote four types of essays: narrative, persuasive, response to literature, and summary. Her summary and narrative writing demonstrated a firm grasp on what these two types of writing demanded from a writer; however, both her persuasive essays and response to literature essay did not reflect the same level of understanding. As I researched new prompts and looked deeper into these types of writing, I realized that these two types of writing are similar. Both of these types of writing require the writer to express an opinion and support that opinion. I wonder if it is her self-perception, the fact that she is a girl and somehow picked up on the subtle social cues for a girl to refrain from being too opinionated or a phase of puberty. The reason I follow this line of thinking is when I ask her a question, any question even non-school related, she cannot bring herself to feel comfortable with having an opinion of her own. "What do you think?" is always met with a glazed stare and no words. If I ask again, she say, "I don't know." It is a one way conversation. My sons were not quite so reticent. We still have time to work on articulating an opinion in writing. Had I not been preparing for this test, I might have overlooked this aspect of her writing.

Literature:
We watched Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Contrary to the Lightning Literature guide's review of Helena Bonham Carter's production, the girls laughed throughout the film.
I am looking forward to this guide since it appears to be written for more in depth reading than the grade 7 guide we just completed. Next we read the play.

History:
This week DD read about Mohamed and the rise of Islam.

Science:
DD began Carbon Chemistry An Introduction to organic Chemistry and Biochemistry. This small text seems to be a better fit than the previous text Elements. She spent her time trying to build carbon's allotropes. She built graphite and a Buckie dome. She was supposed to build a Buckyball, but since we used our Zome kit and not gummy bears and toothpicks we made a Bucky dome.

DD~6
Math: We continued to work our way through subtraction with and without regrouping. This section feels like progress slowed to a crawl, but it still moves forward.

Reading: last time I wrote I was reading Hank the Cowdog aloud to DD. I refuse to read anymore of Hank or Junie B. Why do writers for young children write in a vernacular that promotes learning English wrong. Chapter after chapter of reading aloud incorrect grammar for the effect of making Hank sound like a "good o'l boy" started to bother me. I started correcting the grammar. I just could not pretend to DD that speaking this way was acceptable. I am returning to The Boxcar Children as a read aloud. DD's own reading continues to improve.

Music: Being the youngest of four means you do everything last and everyone else has a niche in the family long before you arrived. Like her older sister, DD~6 will play in a recital at the end of the month at the local junior college on their huge Steinway concert grand. DD~6 played her piece for her piano teacher this past week. The glowing compliments from her piano teacher gave her a place of her own. Not only did DD~6 have her piece memorized note perfect, but she played with delightful musicality, the kind of musicality that transports the listener and makes listening to music moving. All that hard work and DD~6 beamed with accomplishment.It makes all that driving worthwhile.

Some Useful Links:

Regent's Testing Program~ many writing prompts.

Cool Math~an online graphing calculator

Art History~A World History of Art

A visual History of the World

Tips from organic farmers~Peaceful Valley Freshman Farmer

More persuasive writing prompts

Have a great week!

Week 20

2010-02-05T17:17:00.000-08:00

It Was a Quiet Week

Our week began with the monthly scramble of pulling together all the school work the girls did for the month and present it to our Independent Study Teacher (IST) along with a detailed accounting of what we did. I guess it is just my hyper responsibility and tendency toward over production that makes these meeting go smoothly. Nonetheless, I was some what surprised to hear our IST say that the girls were far ahead of the other students she meets with and that she trust I am doing a great job. Our school year did not begin with such faith, so it was nice to hear.

Monday: It was time~too many roosters, the hens look bedraggled, and too many chickens eat too much food.

This is not the girls' favorite chore.

Plucking feathers is not what the girls would like to be doing.

Compared to Cornish X Rocks, these Buff Orpingtons were downright scrawny.

Dinner

Academic Highlights From Our Week

DD~12 began writing timed essays this week. I picked a prompt (narrative, descriptive persuasive, or a response to literature) and away she went. After the first few essays it became evident that the months of belabored outline and summary work did provide the necessary foundation to write under timed conditions.

Pressure from preparing for the annual music exam increased this week. DD has taken several practice test of the written portion of the exam and noticed that as the exams progressed through the years, she practices with test from previous years, the amount of knowledge that a student needs to know increases from year to year so that a practice test from 1996 is not as difficult as a test from 2008. Most students taking this exam are three to four years older and hence more mature. The exam takes place the beginning of March and she must have memorized to the point of artistic interpretation four pieces of music from four different time periods, sightread, ear training, and technique that includes scales, arpeggios and other technical requirements. The written theory part of this exam is clearly at college level which excites DD and worries me.

Have any of you read this post by Susan Wise Bauer?~The Gap Year

Both the girls got out the Zome kit and played.

DD~6 continued to keep close watch on her Sea Monkeys. So far she counted five.

In math DD reentered subtraction. I thought this chapter might slow her down since she would begin to barrow and regroup, but she charged right ahead.

She checked out Hank the Cow Dog from the library, and after helping her read a few sentences, I read the rest of the chapter aloud to her. I now know the attraction for this book. The story's setting is a place not to unlike where she lives. We've pull porcupine quills from our dog's nose with pliers before. A few weeks ago our dogs even tried to eat a porcupine. I was thrilled that DD started to pick out her own books from the library and try to read them to herself. This is progress

The Last Thing I Wanted to Share:

I had a conversation on the WTM boards with a poster who told me about a project, a movie commercial, her daughter made. This wonderful postr shared this project. I've tried to incorporate project based learning into our school program in the past, but I was unsuccessful. This poster's project gives me inspiration to try again. (you might have to read through a bit of the post. The information is in the 4th post.)

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK !

Week 19

2010-01-30T11:33:00.000-08:00

Happy 17th Birthday Dear Young Son! 1/27/2003

Thank you for all the good words of concern about Dear Young Son's illness. He is healing, eating and drinking and getting ready for the spring baseball season.

Blog makeover~ As you can see I've made over this blog with a new template. I searched many places, but came back to templates used by other WTM bloggers. There are many beautiful Blogger templates out there in cyber space but few of them actually work to download. I put a link to the place I found this template on the right sidebar.

Our week at a glance:

DD~12 The highlight of our week was finishing Thinking in Threes.

I hope to write a review of this book for next week's post. For now, my thoughts on the last section of this book, which covered conclusions and their importance to the reader by leaving a strong last impression,was that this was the book's weakest chapter. DD did the single exercise of writing a conclusion for a given introduction; however, she could use some more practice writing conclusions. Next week we will begin writing timed in-class essays with a writing prompt. I hope that the strategies learned in this slim text will be employed by DD~12.

We began our study of Shakespeare this week using Lightening Literature's Shakespeare's Comedies guide (scroll down to the Shakespeare Comedies guide and click on the samples to get an idea of the quality and content of the guide.) We read through most of the introduction this past week, and both DD~12 and I felt the quality of this guide was much higher than the grade 7 literature guide we just completed. This is a high school level guide,yet DD~12's reading level should be high enough to handle the more demanding reading. We will begin with Twelfth Night. The introduction does a good job of introducing the student to Shakespeare and summarizing the different types of interpretations and ways to read the plays and sonnets. I will continue writing about our experiences with this guide as I think others may find it helpful.(What do you think?)

DD~6 The highlight of our week was discovering the Sea Monkeys hatched!!!! DD~6 is the proud attendant to three Sea Monkeys. My pessimism almost got the best of me. I was ready to give up on this kit and call it a dud. I am glade I didn't. DD~6 is thrilled. I read about the Grow-a-Frog kit on the WTM board. This sounds like an amazing adventure, but after some research I am not sure I want to be a frog owner for ten years, nor do I feel our cool home environment would be healthy for a frog as evidenced by the prolonged hatching period of the Sea Monkeys. I was also concerned about introducing a non-native frog into our forest habitat. It is possible the frog could get loose in the yard and hop away. I think we will try to catch some local tadpoles and grow our own local tree frog. Does anyone have any experience with this? My older sons and I did this project years ago and suffered huge attrition and never manged to grow more than one or two frogs out of the hundreds of tadpoles we captured. I'd like to try this project again in the spring, so any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.

Wishing you all a wonderful week.

Iris

Week 18

2010-01-23T21:07:00.000-08:00

A Better Week~
What ended last week carried over into the beginning of a new week. Dear Young Son returned to the hospital on Monday morning unable to eat or drink without excruciating pain. It is hard to gauge another person's pain even when you ask how it rates on a scale of 1-10. We tried to ply the boy with food and drink over the weekend, but his pain was incomprehensible to us. At the hospital stomach aches do not get too much attention since little can be done to alleviate them other than time and rest. So getting the doctors to address the level of pain the boy experienced when eating or drinking water meant Dad had to push for tests beyond the typical blood test. Once they got the endoscope down his esophagus and saw the mass of ulcers, the doctor scratched his head. The boy’s esophagus looked like it belonged to an 80-year-old man. After four days in the hospital and a battery of tests, results came back negative for an infection, a virus or a fungus. No cause for the boy's ailment was found. He is home and improving, though he lost 30 pounds.

I have continued to keep track of time spent doing school to assess how much school the girls do each day. After collecting papers and projects for the past two weeks, I can see that our output increased to a more acceptable level. The difference an hour or two a day of school left undone each day, stretched across a week adds up to our being chapters and lessons behind.

Our Week at a Glance:

DD~12
Math: DD puttered forward on linear equations. It was a week where I wondered what I would have done was it not for Uncle Buck on the DVD.

LA: I am excited, DD completed Lightning Literature 7. She is working on the last assignment of rewriting the story of The Ransom of Red Chief. The character sketches I look forward to were not especially wonderful, but she got the hang of the idea of writing a character sketch which will be useful when rewriting the Red Chief story.

I assigned writing 11 different types of introductions from Thinking in Threes. The introductions can be as simple as starting with a conflict, using a quote or using a statistic to beginning a piece of writing with a more complex anecdote or mysterious beginning. We continually find examples of thinking in threes. DD~6 chimed in with three wishes granted by a genie, and DD~12 thought that almost every story she read had three main characters. Really, think about it. A lot of things are constructed around the idea of three…The Three Muses….

Again, both grammar and spelling move forward without fanfare.

History: Strolling through the pages of the history text will not keep us on track nor maintain a degree of continuity, so I read several chapters of history aloud to DD and we discussed our reading, then jumped to Google earth and took a tour of Rome. We also returned to physical geography, undertaking the huge task of breaking down the countries by region and memorizing the Asian continent.

Science: Readings from The World of Chemistry.

DD went to the bookstore and bought six new books with her Christmas money, practiced piano for 1.5hrs. a day, and studied for Certificate of Merit, her annual music exam.

DD~6
Math: A continuation of double digit addition with and without regrouping and i-Excel Math.

LA: OK, I know I should like Writing with Ease (WWE), but I don’t. I felt as though my DD was not learning the very basics of English languages skill or the beginnings of writing. Pulling out of my stash of unused, and for some reason on sale-able books, I started using English for the Thoughtful Child. I used this book with one of my sons and my older daughter with good success. Even DD felt adrift with WWE. It seems no matter where I am on the home school spectrum as a parent teacher with 14 years of experience, I am constantly readjusting what I do and use to meet a particular child’s needs.

History: We continued History Pockets ~ Mesopotamia. DD likes to color the pictures and make the projects with cutting and gluing. We also worked on Map skills, recognizing some basic geographic features such as valley, river, lake and mountain—more coloring.

Science: The Sea Monkeys are fast becoming a failure. Nothing has hatched after 10 days. DD is hopeful but enthusiasm wanes with the passing days. We read and completed a chapter on recycling. DD discovered just how much trash our family produces, mostly plastic and paper.

All things considered, we had a more productive week.

Saturday

I spent the morning reading magazines in the library while waiting for the girl's take their piano lessons. I skimmed through the most recent U.S. News and World Report, an entire issue devoted to President Obama's education policy. More interesting, I read The Atlantic Monthly (Jan./Feb.) article "What Makes a Great Teacher?"

Homeschool Journal~WildIris

Moved Blog

Homeschool Week in Review 4/15/11~WildIris

Carnival Of Homeschooling @ home grown mommy

My contribution: The True Confessions of a Home School Mom

This is the time of year when most homeschool families re-evaluate homeschool plans.Underwhelmed vs Overwhelmed is a terrific post by The Homeschool Coach's Weblog

If you missed it, free books for kids. Link to Learn and Earn from Scholastic and Kumon.

Spiral vs Mastery Debate

Get your eleven year-old reading 50 books a year. 50 books recommended by The Independent

DD~8 and I are currently reading together:

Homeschooling highlights ~ a week at a glance...

DD~8 plunged into taking notes for science via Singapore Science. She drew a diagram showing the characteristics of living things. We also spent time on geography learning how to read road maps. This worktext was written before Google Maps.

The best thing that happened this week...

My new glasses came in. They are oh-so European looking and trendy, but the rest of me has some catching up to do.

Good news, bad new, and new in between...

Good news: DS~18 has finally decided to become serious about school. He took the ACT last weekend and realized where being laid-back about school has put him academically.

Bad news: Teenage girls and the hormonal roller coaster

In between news: DH drove off leaving his wallet and cell phone on top of the car. I found both a fair ways up the road unharmed.

Movie of the week...

The Edukators

~A good weekend to all~

"If you don't like the news, go out and make your own"

~Scoop Nisker

Homeschool Week in Review 4/1/11

Carnival Of Homeschooling - The Homeschool Journey Edition

Homeschool Writing Tips - Animal Farm Study Helps with Links and Lesson Plans

Happenings on the home front...

An all day affair~A goat mysteriously died at the beginning of the week. Rather than eat her, since why she died remains a mystery, we buried her. Our one goat is lonely. We are searching for more goats, but goats are popular and expensive these days.

After three weeks of stormy weather and all of us suffering from a sever case of cabin fever, spring came quick with record breaking 83 degree heat for the last days of March. DD~7 and I spent time during the week planting seeds for summer flowers.

Homeschooling highlights ~ a week at a glance...

Have a good weekend!

Homeschool Week in Review 3/25/11

Homeschool Week in Review 3/18/11

Home School Week in Review 3/7-3/11/11

Wordless Wednesday

Home School Week in Review 2/14/11~2/18/11

Wordless Wednesday

HomeSchool Week in Review 2/7/11~2/11/11

Wordless Wednesday

Home School Week in Review 11/29-12/3/2010

French Suite #5, J.S.Bach

Wordless Wednesday

Home School Week in Review 11/08-11/12/2010

Wordless Wednesday

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Wordless Wednesday

Home School Week in Review 10/25-10/29/2010

Objective Grading

Some Interesting Thoughts on Writing, Blogging & Montaigne

A Not So Wordless Wednesday

Home School Week in Review 10/18-10/22/2010

Having an Issue

Home School Week in Review 10/11-10/5/2010

How Are You Going to Do It?

Hand Made at Etsy

Home School Week in Review 10/4-10/8/2010

SOME DAYS I FEEL LIKE THIS

Home School Week in Review 9/27-10/1/2010

Some Days I Feel Like This

Home School Week in Review 9/20-9/24/10

Home School Week in Review 9/13-9/17/10

Home School Week in Review 9/6-9/10

Words from Woody Allen

Invictus

Home School Week in Review 5/31-6/4

Homeschool Week in Review 5/24-5/28

Home School Week in Review 5/10-5/15

Home School Week in Review 5/2-5/7

11th Annual National Women's Health Week Starts on Mother's Day May 9th-May 15th

Home School Week in Review 4/26-4/30

Home School Week in Review 4/19-4/23

Basher Science Books

Home School Week in Review 4/5-4/9 Spring Break

Mental multivitamin: "I read novels in order to indulge in a concentrated and directed sort of inner activity that is not available in most of my daily transactions."

Home School Week in Review 3/22-3/26

Wordless Wednesday & Camera Play

Home School Week in Review 3/15-3/19

Wordless Wednesday

Homes School Week in Review 3/8/10-3/11/10

Week 23